Speak Out August 2017

Branch News

Tasmania

TAS 121 members as at July 2017

In Launceston in June the Tasmanian Speech Pathology Australia Branch welcomed Dr Julie Cichero to present her workshop Cervical Auscultation for Infants, Children and Adults with Dysphagia. This workshop was well supported. Around 36 speech pathologists and speech pathology students from all over Australia attended. There were participants from regional and rural locations including the Torres Strait and Western Australia who added diversity of experience to the group. Throughout the day, Julie introduced the participants to cervical auscultation (CA) of swallowing sounds and swallow-related respiratory sounds for infants, children and adults. At the conclusion, the buzz of new knowledge was evident in the room. Feedback from participants indicated they were keen to bring increased confidence to their clinical practice in use of CA when completing a dysphagia assessment. I would like to thank Sharon Crane for her support in organising the event and for always encouraging such inspiring speakers to present. Thank you also to Kate Bridgman for her support as an additional Continuing Professional Development Representative on the day. Nicole Hatch CPD Leader Tasmanian Speech Pathology Australia Branch Workshop provides new knowledge

Decodable texts and LINC Some members of the Tasmanian Branch have been working with the Tasmanian Library service (LINC) to develop a list of decodable readers and novels that are available for families to borrow from libraries across the state. Decodable readers are those that have carefully controlled vocabulary where the majority of words can be “sounded out” as they have phonetically regular spelling. As speech pathologists we know that the research tells us children should be taught to read using a phonological approach. Most classrooms however rely heavily on levelled readers that focus on predictability or context for children to work out unknown words. If any Tasmanian speech pathologist would like a copy of the list of LINC’s decodable readers please email the branch and we can send it to you. A special thank you to speech pathologist Kate Day who originally approached the branch with this idea and to Jane McCulloch in LINC for all her efforts collating the information.

Speech Pathology Week Speech Pathology Week is fast approaching (20–27 August) and so there are a few save the dates for your diary! In Hobart, the Salamanca Market stall event is booked for Saturday, 19 August. Calls for volunteers to help run the stall will be coming out shortly. We will also be having a breakfast during that week in each region so keep an eye out for details through your workplace and e-news. There will hopefully be some media coverage in the newspapers and local radio too. We do have some promotional materials that we can send out of you would like to do a workplace display so please email the branch for details. Speech Pathology Week is a wonderful time to celebrate all the things we love about our profession and to connect with your colleagues so we hope to see you at a local event soon!

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August 2017 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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