Podcasts about language therapist

In this episode of the HSE Talking Health and Wellbeing podcast, host Fergal Fox and guests Melissa Vindigni (Senior Occupational Therapist), Muireann Treacy (Clinical Psychologist) and Rosemary Kavanagh (Speech and Language Therapist) discuss the emotional experiences of young children under the theme "Little People, Big Feelings." They explore the normalcy of intense emotions in children, the developmental stages of emotional regulation, and the critical role of co-regulation, where parents help children manage their emotions. The episode emphasises the importance of parental calmness, understanding sensory triggers, and using simple communication to support children's emotional growth. The speakers also highlight the challenges parents face and the need for self-compassion and realistic expectations.   To access more support and information on parenting, see: https://www2.hse.ie/babies-children/parenting-advice/services-supports/getting-support/   To get in touch with the podcast, email Healthandwellbeing.communications@hse.ie   Produced by GKMedia.ie

In this episode of the SEND Network Podcast, guest host Georgie Green is joined by Speech and Language Therapist, Kate Freeman. They discuss the importance of early intervention to support children with speech, language and communication needs. The key areas covered are: Signs to look out for to identify SLCNWhat does 'early' really mean? What intervention might look like in the classroomKey tips to ensure successful interventionsAbout KateKate is a highly experienced and driven speech and language therapist, author and consultant working with Speech & Language Link and other organisations.About Speech & Language LinkThis episode is sponsored by Speech & Language Link. Speech & Language Link work with schools, MATs, LAs and NHS speech and language therapy teams to help support children with speech, language and communication needs in school, whether that's through screening tools, intervention materials, guidance, training and support from a therapist-backed help desk. Check out their SEND Network profile, including all their content, here.You can find Speech & Language Link intervention tools and packages here.The SEND NetworkFor more information and resources, access the  Podcast Discussion Room here: https://send-network.co.uk/rooms/the-send-network-podcastNew to the network? Register here: SEND Network | An online community for SEND professionals (send-network.co.uk)

In this podcast episode, host Fergal Fox leads a heartfelt discussion on cultural diversity within the Health Service Executive (HSE) from a staffing perspective. Joined by Christopher Ibanga, a Public Health Protection Nurse, and Abbie Alcorn, a Senior Speech and Language Therapist, the conversation delves into personal experiences of bias and the importance of the HSE Cultural Diversity Network. Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Manager Maria Barry, also shares insights on the Network's role in fostering a supportive community. The episode highlights the need for open dialogue, cultural sensitivity, and embracing diversity to enhance healthcare delivery and create an inclusive workplace. The author of 'Anatomy of an Ally', which was quoted by Abbie, is Danielle Coke Balfour.   For further information on the HSE Cultural Diversity Network go to: https://healthservice.hse.ie/staff/procedures-guidelines/diversity-equality-and-inclusion/   Produced by GKMedia.ie

In this episode of the HSE Talking Health and Wellbeing Podcast, host Fergal Fox speaks with experts Rosemary Kavanagh (Speech and Language Therapist), Niamh Garavin (Occupational Therapist), and Muireann Treacy (Clinical Psychologist) about the intricacies of adolescent development, with a particular focus on anxiety. Their discussion addresses the swift changes teenagers experience, the effects of anxiety, and the crucial role of clear communication. Niamh emphasises the value of a supportive atmosphere, while Muireann underscores the importance of active listening and nonverbal cues. The episode also explores co-regulation, the role of social media, and the importance of self-care for parents. Listeners are encouraged to foster open, compassionate relationships with their teenagers and to seek professional help when needed.   Produced by GKMedia.ie

Tom qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist from the University of Galway in 2012. His SLT journey has seen him venture from London to the English Lake District, to Edinburgh, and back to Ireland in 2020. He is currently a Little Voices Programme Coordinator with ABC Start Right in Limerick, supporting schools, crèches and community organisations to implement universal and targeted SLT strategies and interventions. He has an Msc in Digital Healthcare Transformation from the University of Limerick.

I just finished listening to this thought-provoking podcast episode featuring Dr Jamie Galpin and Clare Ward! They join Dale to discuss ‘Universal Approaches to Support in Education', at a time when we're seeing rising levels of emotion-based school avoidance, teachers struggling with mental health challenges or leaving the profession altogether, and increasingly scarce resources are being channelled into identifying difference. Their conversation raises important questions: Have we gone too far focusing on difference? Shouldn't autistic, dyslexic, and ADHD children be considered a part of the "normal" spectrum of human diversity? After all, neurodiversity reflects the inherent variability of being human. Jamie and Claire emphasise the need to move beyond isolated interventions and toward comprehensive systems that ensure every child feels a sense of belonging. With a universal approach to support, everyone benefits! By making resources available to all students, we can create flexible learning environments that cater to diverse needs. View all podcasts available or visit our SENDcast sessions shop!   B Squared Website – www.bsquared.co.uk  Meeting with Dale to find out about B Squared - https://calendly.com/b-squared-team/overview-of-b-squared-sendcast  Email Dale – dale@bsquared.co.uk  Subscribe to the SENDcast - https://www.thesendcast.com/subscribe   About Clare Clare Ward has been working in the world of SEN for the last 30 years as a teaching assistant, Speech and Language Therapist, specialist social worker, researcher, NHS manager, education advisor and CBT Practitioner.  She specialises in working with young people with social communication difficulties, some of whom have a diagnosis of autism.   About Jamie Jamie is a chartered developmental psychologist with over 20 years of experience in inclusion, psychology, innovation, and learning. He builds frameworks around which practice can sit, bringing coherence and connecting disparate or fractured notions and concepts. as a founding member of special networks, Jamie challenges traditional hierarchies of evidence and co-creates solutions for social inequalities as well as addressing universal needs.    Clare and Jamie met when they both started working for the same inner London multidisciplinary outreach team  – supporting teachers and young people with a diagnosis of autism.      Contact Clare and Jamie www.specialnetworks.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/specialnetworks/ https://x.com/UniversalSuppo3 hello@specialnetworks.co.uk   Useful Links My Senses Are Like Cups  The Anxiety Workbook for Supporting Teens Who Learn Differently  https://www.cast.org/ https://www.novakeducation.com/   The SENDcast is powered by B Squared We have been involved with Special Educational Needs for over 25 years, helping show the small steps of progress pupils with SEND make. B Squared has worked with thousands of schools, we understand the challenges professionals working in SEND face. We wanted a way to support these hardworking professionals - which is why we launched The SENDcast! Click the button below to find out more about how B Squared can help improve assessment for pupils with SEND in your school.

With rising diagnosis rates, there's growing debate about whether ADHD is being accurately identified or misdiagnosed in Ireland.Minister Mary Butler claims this is driving spiraling waiting list numbers…Joining Andrea to discuss this is Dr. Sarah Carty, GP, Sarah Kelly, SpeakEasy Speech and Language Therapist as well as listeners.

The lack of speech and language therapists in the country is having a profound impact on Irish children.That's according to Andrea's guest, Eoghan O'Byrne, Principal of St Mary's National School in Limerick City. He joins, along with Sarah Kelly, SpeakEasy Speech and Language Therapist and listeners to discuss.

We are really pleased to talk with Kate the co-creator of the Pippin App and Independent Speech and Language Therapist.The App was created to support parents to develop environments where communication can flourish and thrive.  Pippin provides helpful videos which offer top tips and strategies for anyone working or living with children.   Creating environments at home and at play where every interaction is polite and respectful and aids communication.  Please use our unique link to find out more  https://pippin.app.link/1P1gB2xwCRbYou can also head to www.pippinspeech.com Head to www.thrivinglanguage.co.uk to discover more with The Beckies.Training for educators, key note speakers and workshops, one to one sessions for speech language and communication play sessions for children and families.Publications Routledge:Speech Language and Communication in the Early YearsSpeech Language and Communication for Healthy Little MindsEmail Rebecca@thrivinglanguage.co.ukThank you for listening and being part of this awesome Thriving community who empower all children to be understood. Love The Beckies

Libby interviews the wonderful Ali Battye, Speech and Language Therapist on Ali's three passions. She has written books about all of them. We love all her books but her latest book is definitely her best work yet.  https://amzn.eu/d/gkW4FqJ

Welcome to the fourth episode in our RCSLT AI series. In this episode we chat with Dr Richard Cave, Project Manager SLT at MND Association and Consultant Speech and Language Therapist, about his work in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Richard has backgrounds in both computing and speech and language therapy and he brings these together in his work with voice banking and AI, working with Goggle, MNDA and most recently in his PhD research at UCL.We cover:Richard's journey with AI and speech and language therapy.What are the opportunities with AI?What are the things to be cautious about? How can we ensure people are not left out.Why speech and language therapists need to be in this space.Interviewees:Dr Richard Cave, Project Manager SLT at MND Association and Consultant Speech and Language Therapist.Resources:Centre for Digital Language Inclusion: https://www.cdl-inclusion.com/RCSLT Artificial Intelligence resources: https://www.rcslt.org/members/delivering-quality-services/artificial-intelligence-resources/ Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.Please do take a few moments to respond to our podcast survey: uk.surveymonkey.com/r/LG5HC3R

Happy New Year! As we prepare for a new term, I wanted to share the first episode of 2025 with you. In this episode ‘Sensory Uncertainty', my guests Clare Ward and Dr. Jamie Galpin, Speech and Language Therapist and Developmental Psychologist respectively, provide invaluable insights. They discuss their new book, My Senses Are Like Cups, which uses a compelling metaphor to help listeners understand how sensory experiences impact emotions and behaviour. This engaging metaphor illustrates how our sensory experiences - everything we see, hear, feel, smell, touch, and taste - can be understood as water filling or emptying cups of various sizes. Clare and Jamie emphasise the importance of recognising our internal body sensations (interoceptive sense) and how this awareness can significantly ease school-based anxiety for young people. They also introduce their 3S framework, with sensory uncertainty at its core, highlighting how our senses shape our experiences in the world. Listen now to gain a deeper understanding of how we can support ourselves and those around us in recognising and managing sensory uncertainty.   About Clare Ward Clare Ward has been working in the world of SEN for the last 30 years as a teaching assistant, Speech and Language Therapist, specialist social worker, researcher, NHS manager, education advisor and CBT Practitioner.  She specialises in working with young people with social communication difficulties, some of whom have a diagnosis of autism.    About Dr Jamie Galpin Jamie is a chartered developmental psychologist with over 20 years of experience in inclusion, psychology, innovation, and learning. He builds frameworks around which practice can sit, bringing coherence and connecting disparate or fractured notions and concepts. as a founding member of special networks, Jamie challenges traditional hierarchies of evidence and co-creates solutions for social inequalities as well as addressing universal needs.  Clare and Jamie met when they both started working for the same inner London multidisciplinary outreach team  – supporting teachers and young people with a diagnosis of autism.     NEW BOOK PUBLISHED Clare and Jamie released a new book 'My senses are like cups: What to do when everything feels too much or not enough' in summer 2024. Think about our senses being like cups and everything we see, hear, feel, smell, touch, and taste as we move about is like water going into our cups. Some of our cups might be big and some might be small. Whether big or small, we like it best when our cup is filled enough so that it's just right for us! We are all different. We need just the right amount of information to feel good! Help your child aged 7+ think about, explore and develop ways to manage sensory overload and feeling under stimulated with quirky cartoons that visually illustrate the approach. Sections on each of the eight senses (including your internal 'body signals' like hunger) feature noticing and knowledge-building activities to help kids get their own, unique, senses cups feeling 'just right' for them. Get going on some sensory experiments!   Contact Clare & Jamie www.specialnetworks.co.uk hello@specialnetworks.co.uk https://x.com/UniversalSuppo3   Useful Links My Senses Are Like Cups  The Anxiety Workbook for Supporting Teens Who Learn Differently   B Squared Website – www.bsquared.co.uk  Meeting with Dale to find out about B Squared - https://calendly.com/b-squared-team/overview-of-b-squared-sendcast  Email Dale – dale@bsquared.co.uk  Subscribe to the SENDcast - https://www.thesendcast.com/subscribe   The SENDcast is powered by B Squared We have been involved with Special Educational Needs for over 25 years, helping show the small steps of progress pupils with SEND make. B Squared has worked with thousands of schools, we understand the challenges professionals working in SEND face. We wanted a way to support these hardworking professionals - which is why we launched The SENDcast! Click the button below to find out more about how B Squared can help improve assessment for pupils with SEND in your school.

Hello and welcome back to The Night Feed. Tonight, I spoke with Laura Bottiglieri, a Paediatric Feeding Specialist who shared some amazing insights and tips on feeding and weaning. I think you'll find the conversation useful no matter what stage of the feeding journey you're on. Enjoy!Here's Laura's details: It was such a pleasure to join The Nightfeed Podcast and share the journey behind Milk to Mealtime, my approach to feeding therapy, and my passion for supporting families to create positive and nourishing mealtime experiences.While much of the discussion focused on breastfeeding, Laura wanted to emphasise in the notes that there's always more to say about bottle feeding too. Whether bottle feeding is the choice you made or the card you were dealt, there are ways to optimise it for both parent and baby. Laura strongly affirms, celebrates and supports all paths to nourishing your baby, whatever that looks like for your family.If this resonates with you, I encourage you to seek the support you need—there's always more to explore and understand about feeding. If you'd like to learn more about my services, join our Live Webinars or get in touch, you can find me at www.milktomealtime.com, on Instagram at @milktomealtime or via email at info.milktomealtime@gmail.com. If you aren't sure if you are ready yet, let's have a quick chat (it's free!) and get things started.I hope our conversation empowers you to take the next step, wherever your family's feeding journey may be!Laura, is a Paediatric Feeding Specialist, Speech and Language Therapist, and founder of Milk to Mealtime. With over 10 years of experience, including extensive work within the NHS, Laura has supported countless families navigating a wide range of feeding challenges—from breastfeeding and bottle aversion to sensory feeding difficulties and neurodevelopmental needs.TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thenightfeed

Just 3 Things – *BONUS EPISODE* Host: Charlotte Hall, Speech and Language Therapist (Speech Therapy with Charlotte) Guest: Kate Burgess, Speech and Language Therapist (Co-creator of The Pippin App) Description: In this insightful episode of “Just 3 Things,” Charlotte Hall is joined by Kate Burgess, a Speech and Language Therapist and co-creator of The Pippin App. Kate shares her expertise on how parents can use The Pippin App to support their child's speech and language development through everyday interactions. She provides three effective ways to integrate the app into daily routines, making this episode a must-listen for parents eager to enhance their child's communication skills. Call to Action: Discover more about The Pippin App and how it can support your child's speech development. Visit The Pippin App https://pippin.app.link/i2V7oMzTbLb. for more information. BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL- 20% discount! https://www.pippinspeech.com/#/upgrade-offer?promoCode=CHARLOTTE20 Join the Conversation: We'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences! Share your feedback and connect with us on social media using the hashtag #Just3ThingsPodcast.

Our latest Island Influencer Amy Howse, grew up in Weston-super-Mare and started exploring the world on her own at 19. Her adventures and curiosity inspired her to pursue a career in Speech & Language Therapy (SLT) while also fueling her passion for yoga and sound therapy. Through Soundology, she uses sound therapy to encourage emotional healing and support mental health. Her approach now includes combining sound with nature, especially in her role as the Biosphere Artist in Residence with the Manx Wildlife Trust. In addition to sharing her story, Amy offers practical advice for new entrepreneurs. She also speaks about her love for the Isle of Man and its beauty and reveals how she finds balance in her life. Looking forward, Amy has big plans; enjoy this inspiring conversation with the incredibly talented Amy Howse in episode 120 of Island Influencers.

Multi-disciplinary artist Tim Arnold in conversation with Sandy Chappell, a Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist with over 30 years of experience. Sandy specialises in working with pre-school and primary school children who have speech and language disorders. She is the founder of Chatterbox Speech and Language Therapy in North Yorkshire and a passionate advocate for screen-free activities that promote early speech and language development. Sandy is also a member of the Health Professionals for Safer Screens campaign group.   For more information on Sandy Chappell, please visit: http://www.chatterbox-slt.co.uk/   Health For more information on Health Professionals for Safer Screens, please visit: https://healthprofessionalsforsaferscreens.org/   Arts If you support a more mindful approach to screen use, join our community and learn more about the film, album, and theatre show of Super Connected: http://superconnected.technology/   This podcast is independently produced and not sponsored. If you appreciate the content created by The Tim Arnold Company, consider supporting on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/timarnoldmusic

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In this conversation speech and language therapist, Sarah Kelly, discusses the importance of individualised communication strategies for children. She emphasises the need for parents to seek information and advice from reputable sources, such as registered health professionals. Sarah provides practical tips for parents to support their child's communication and language development through play and everyday routines. She highlights the significance of gestures, imitation, and turn-taking in communication. Sarah also discusses the use of Augmented Interactual Communication (AAC) devices and the importance of providing choices for children to express themselves. You can find Sarah at: https://speakeasyslt.ie/ https://wwhttps://speakeasyslt.ie/w.playeasy.ie/ Key Takeaways: Seek information and advice from registered health professionals for communication challenges in children. Support communication and language development through play and everyday routines. Focus on gestures, imitation, and turn-taking in communication. Consider the use of Augmented Interactual Communication (AAC) devices for children with communication difficulties. Provide choices for children to express themselves and foster autonomy.

In this podcast recorded in 2023, we were joined by our guest Smruthi Venkat, a Stroke Speech & Language Therapist, who discusses her expertise and learnings from working within stroke rehabilitation.INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY

Get your 3 months FREE Beauty Pie Membership here: https://tidd.ly/3vmnesFJoin us this week a we speak to Award Winning Speech and Language Therapist, Charlotte Hall. In this episode, Charlotte talks us through ways we can support our child's speech development at home, when to seek extra support, guidance and signs to look out for if you think your child may need extra support with their speech and language and so much more!Connect with Charlotte HEREListen to Charlotte's Podcast HERESpeech Therapy with CharlotteFollow us on Instagram @thecarolappwww.carol-app.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How essential is SALT and when should we seek their help? Many families leave the school system behind often wondering which elements of support they still need as they begin unschooling. With concepts such as 'being behind' (which your child is not) and 'early intervention' (which causes its own problems with neurodivergent children) it can be hard to know what to do for the best and when. As a Speech and Language Therapist and an unschooling parent Kate Appleby sits beautifully at the intersection between one of the busiest services in early education. Her insight, wisdom, and warmth will calm your soul and clear the muddy waters for you and all in half an hour!! Plus you can skip to the good part: 400 Introduction to SALT and their role. 600 Is there a need for SALT in an unschooling home and when should parents consider a self-referral? 1000 Key indicators that a referral should be considered. 1300 Developing and establishing communication between a child and their parent or main caregiver. 1500 Communicating with their friends and close family members. 1700 How to approach SALT with neurodivergent and PDA children aka is it possible to wait until they are older/ ready? 2400 How parents impact the child and how they view themselves 2500 What are they key elements of a child centred approach to therapy?

Join Rachel and Lucy for Episode 13 of 'The Skies We're Under' podcast. They are joined by the always insightful Jo Holmes, who talks about her life as a recovering Speech and Language Therapist. Rachel and Jo reflect on the impact of life changing moments where we go from one side of the fence to ‘the life we didn't order.' In addition to talking about what we're qualified in, Rachel also takes on something she's totally NOT qualified for, and her amazing efforts at the best not trying too hard/trying my best World Maths Day outfit. You can find out more about Jo at: Mummy vs AAC We'd love to hear from you – we love sharing stories, we love hearing how things are going, the good, the bad, the snotty-crying ugly. You can leave a message with us in a number of ways: Firstly you can leave a message using speakpipe here: SpeakpipeTSWU  (Please note calls need to be limited to 90 seconds) You can send us a voice note from your phone to our email address at tswupodcast@gmail.com Or, if the thought of hearing your own voice gives you ‘the ick', then send us an email to tswupodcast@gmail.com Whatever way you choose to get in touch, we really want to hear your thoughts, views, musings, rants and confessions (we love a confession!) . Thanks for listening and being a part of our podcast community -It would make our day if you could like, follow and review the podcast wherever you listen.  Follow us on Instagram @BornatRightTime. Head to www.bornattherighttime.com to find a parent workshop or CPD-certified training for practitioners in communication, collaboration and personalised care with parents/carers.

On this month's Parenting SOS, Gi is joined by leading Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist, Emma Pomroy. Learning to communicate and express yourself isn't something that comes naturally to all children. and Emma is passionate about enabling parents and families with the tools to make all children confident and competent communicators. As always on Parenting SOS, we'll be answering our communities' questions with this month's focus on language and speech development. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Stefanie is joined by Sarah Kelly, Senior Speech and Language Therapist and Clinical Director of SpeakEasy SLT. Follow Stefanie on Instagram @StefaniePreissner You can support Stefanie and the show on HeadStuff+ Thanks to Cathal O'Gara for our artwork and our music is from Only Ruin. This episode of Basically is sponsored by "Mater Private Network" and Rockwell Financial. HealthCheck at Mater Private is one of the best ways to get a detailed snapshot of your health. Visit healthcheck.ie to make an appointment and find out more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rose Kimberly and Claire Williamson join Alexa to discuss the South West Voice Hub, a network they created to connect voice practitioners and singers in the South West of the UK. The hub aims to provide a local network for all things voice-related, including referrals, training, and support. They discuss the challenges of finding voice professionals in the South West and the importance of building a community in the region. The hub offers different membership tiers for practitioners, singers, and students, with benefits including access to forums, discounts on CPD events, and a profile on the website. They also mention their upcoming launch event, which will feature workshops and networking opportunities. KEY TAKEAWAYS The South West Voice Hub is an initiative by Rose and Claire to establish a network for voice professionals in the South West region of the UK. It aims to connect various practitioners such as vocal coaches, speech and language therapists, and performers. The hub provides support and resources for professional development, including bi-monthly online forums and in-person seminars for continuing professional development (CPD). The network addresses voice-related issues and promotes local talent, aiming to make specialised voice services more accessible and affordable within the South West region. The hub offers different membership tiers for practitioners, singers, and students, with benefits such as access to forums, discounts on CPD events, and a profile on the members' section of the website. The hub's launch event in Exeter will feature a laryngeal massage workshop and a vocal triage session for singers. The network plans to be responsive to the needs of its members, offering events and training that reflect the interests and demands of the local voice community BEST MOMENTS  "We want to make voice services more accessible and affordable, reducing the need to travel to larger cities." "It's important to work holistically with people, and having a network of professionals is crucial." "We're aiming to support and educate the local voice community, making it stronger and more connected."   EPISODE RESOURCES Guest Website: https://www.southwestvoicehub.com/ Social Media: Instagram: @southwestvoicehub Contact Claire & Rose directly: southwestvoicehub@gmail.com Relevant Links & Mentions:  Stephen King: https://voicecarecentre.co.uk/stephen-king/ (Singing Teachers Talk Podcast) Ep.90 Help! I've Got a Voice Problem with Lydia Hart and Stephen King Exeter Phoenix Centre: https://exeterphoenix.org.uk/ BAST Book A Call ABOUT THE GUEST  Rose Kimberley is a Vocal Coach/Singing Teacher based in South Devon, where she runs The Vocal Studio Devon. Trained in 2012 with BAST, she has enhanced her skills through various CPD courses, including VHE's Vocal Health First Aid. A professional singer and solo artist, Rose combines industry knowledge with a passion for helping others develop and care for their voices. She also teaches music, artist development, and songwriting for the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth. Claire Williamson trained as a singer at LIPA and worked professionally as a singer and actress before becoming a Speech and Language Therapist at UCL. She has extensive NHS experience with children's speech, language, and communication needs, and now works in private practice with both adults and children with voice disorders. Claire specialises in client-centred, evidence-based treatment of voice difficulties, with a special interest in helping professional voice users. ABOUT THE PODCAST BAST Training is here to help singers gain the knowledge, skills and understanding required to be a great singing teacher. We can help you whether you are getting started or just have some knowledge gaps to fill through our courses and educational events. basttraining.com Updates from BAST Training

In this episode Rosey talks to Charlotte, speech and language therapist. They talk about accessing speech and language therapy, things to do at home, and how to approach a speech delay. How do we know what is normal? When should we worry? Along with the effect of TV, and SLEEP! on speech.  Find Charlotte over on InstagramCharlotte Hall | Award Winning

What value is there in allied health professional research?  To consider this question Sophie Chalmers, Hazel Roddam  and fellow researchers conducted a systematic review, which explored the value of research engagement specifically by AHPs, and also considered mechanisms which might connect research engagement with healthcare performance.  In this podcast Sophie and Hazel discuss their research and its implications.We cover:What is this new research and why it is important?What does it mean for allied health professionals?What does it mean for their organisations?How do AHPs develop their research skills?The launch of the multi professional research capabilities framework.Interviewees:Sophie Chalmers, Speech and Language Therapist & NIHR ARC-GM pre-doctoral fellow Dr Hazel Roddam, FRCSLT, HEE's Lead for the AHP Research & Innovation Strategy for England 2022 Resources:1.   Link to paper being discussed The value of allied health professional research engagement on healthcare performance: a systematic reviewS. Chalmers, J. Hill, L. Connell, S. Ackerley, A. Kulkarni & H. Roddam, BMC Health Services Research, volume 23, Article number: 766 (2023) https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-023-09555-9  2.   Link to bitesize resources from this paper:Infographic: https://twitter.com/SChalmersSLT/status/1687172202553102336/photo/1 AHPs2mintalks video: https://x.com/SChalmersSLT/status/1684863198434844673?s=20  3. NIHR research capacity building funding streams Information resource for all AHPs https://cahpr.csp.org.uk/news/2024-03-12-new-nihr-research-training-development-career-awards 4.  NHS England Multi professional research capabilities framework launched February 2024 https://advanced-practice.hee.nhs.uk/research-framework-launched/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Orlo5. Related paper‘It depends': what 86 systematic reviews tell us about what strategies to use to support the use of research in clinical practiceAnnette Boaz, Juan Baeza, Alec Fraser & Erik Persson Implementation Science volume 19, Article number: 15 (2024)            https://implementationscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13012-024-01337-z 

03 April 2024: Join Dr. Bisi, a Clinical Psychologist from Sage Clinics, as she explores the complexities of repatriation alongside two expats who have recently relocated. Uncover the psychological nuances of returning home and discover effective strategies for navigating the challenges of repatriation. In a heartfelt discussion, Heidi Jones, a health coach and mother to a child with autism, shares her journey of obtaining a diagnosis for her daughter Hana. Annabel Whitcombe, a Speech and Language Therapist from Insights Psychology, sheds light on common challenges faced in clinic settings. Yasmin Carey, a mother of three, shares her experiences with her son Ellis, who she won't diagnose. Dr. Manos leads this week's Pets n Vets segment, focusing on summer safety tips for our furry friends. Learn how to protect your pets during the summer months and ensure their well-being in hot weather conditions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode I interview Speech and Language Therapist, Lena Davis of Savvy Speech who provides some great insight into how to identify if your child needs to be assessed for communication difficulties. She gives strategies for moms on how to be kind to themselves during this time and what steps to take. Unfortunately we experienced some technical difficulties during this interview but were able to ensure you are able to hear the amazing information provided by Lena and strategies to assist you. For additional resources or assistance, you can connect with Lena at https://www.savvyspeechtherapy.com/. ————————————————You can visit my website www.drnicolearkadie.com to book me as a speaker and to see other resources I have available to assist in your mental wellness. ————————————————. If you want additional resources to assist and enhance your personal and professional development skills then make sure to visit https://aaonlineacademy.org where you can gain access to quick, interactive, online courses that are designed for you.

Host Ruben Navarrette interviews Veronica Navarrette -- his Mexican-born wife, and better 7/8 -- about her long career helping kids on the margins as a bilingual Montessori-trained, certified academic language therapist, dyslexia specialist and speech & language pathologist. 

This episode will focus on our experiences of being AuDHD Speech & Language Therapists. Including our journey through training to clinical practice and our specialisms. We'll discuss what life is like as a neurodivergent SLT and the benefits and challenges we encounter. It's a celebration of our differences and how they support our professional careers. Trigger warning: discussion of mental health difficulties and trauma. Find more information from us here: Social media: @neurotalk_podcast, @autistically_me & @hat.talks.uk www.hattalks.uk Etsy: Hat Talks Shop 

How can you support LGBTQIA+ colleagues in the workplace? In this podcast we speak with two of the authors of new guidance that deals with just that question.We cover:-  An introduction to the guidance, and supporting tools. - Why it matters.- Why it is everyone's business, even if you do not identify as LGBTQIA+.- How to use it as individuals or in teams.- Understanding intersectionality.Interviewees:Kate Boot, Clinical Locality Lead (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Hampshire), Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist and Sensory Integration Practitioner Jessica Davies, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist- Acute Medicine Team Lead, St Helier Hospital ,Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust Resources: Guidance on supporting LGBTQIA+ colleagues in the workplace: a guide for all: https://www.rcslt.org/learning/diversity-inclusion-and-anti-racism/supporting-lgbtqia-colleagues-in-the-workplace-a-guide-for-all/ The interview was produced by Jacques Strauss, freelance digital producer.

Matthew Mills (he, him) is a Lead Consultant Speech and Language Therapist, and Head of Speech and Language Therapy at the London Gender Identity Clinic, where he has worked since 2009. He is a National Adviser in Trans Voice for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, founder member of the Trans Voice Clinical Excellence Network and External Examiner for the Voice Studies MA/MFA at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Matthew is current President of the British Association of Gender Identity Specialsts (BAGIS). VOICE CHOICE Listen to Matthew's favourite vocal performance ‘Home' MJ Rodriguez on the VocalScope Podcast Guests Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4pjclKQVRnnUnMW0vgu0H0?si=8380f4264b42464e  VOCALSCOPE BOOK CLUB - Join the VocalScope Book Club: https://www.vocalscopevoice.com/bookclub  VOCALSCOPE Linktree: https://linktr.ee/vocalscope  VOCALSCOPE Socials: @vocalscope www.vocalscopevoice.com

In today's episode, we are delving into the groundbreaking world of AI art expression for those with Motor Neuron Disease (or MND) such as ALS. We spoke with guests Franklin Williams and Evan Schmidt from the AREA 23 Agency, along with Richard Cave from the MND Association. Richard Cave is a Speech and Language Therapist, working with the MND Association and also with Google, providing specialist Speech Therapy consultancy to the technology teams.He is also PhD candidate at University College London, national adviser to Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists for voice banking and 2022 Allied Professional of the Year recipient from the International Alliance of ALS/MND Associations.Then from Area 23, we have Franklin Williams and Evan Schmidt. As EVP, Executive Director of Experience Design, Franklin is an ideal blend of creativity, user experience, and technology, and has been using his passion for innovation to elevate the importance of experience design in the advertising industry for nearly 20 years. Along with Franklin we also have Evan Schmidt, Associate Creative Director (Art) at AREA 23. Evan is a dynamic creative fueled by an unwavering passion for AI art. With a background in illustration and a flair for innovation, he seamlessly integrates AI algorithms into his artistic vision, crafting visually stunning and thought-provoking pieces. Together with the team at AREA 23 an IPG Health Company, Evan helped to develop the Mind's Eye app. Mind's Eye is the world's first AI art expression tool for people with MND/ALS. As an Associate Creative Director, Evan inspires his team to embrace the transformative power of AI, creating a new era of visually captivating and intellectually stimulating experiences.In our conversation, we unravelled the journey behind Mind's Eye, exploring its purpose, unique features, and the impact it has on the lives of its users. We also uncover the synergy between Mind's Eye and the Smart Eye assistive technology partner Smartbox (who use our eye tracking to help give a voice to those who are unable to) the pivotal role of eye tracking technology, and hear inspiring user stories. Evan has an exciting call-to-action for our listeners—try Mind's Eye in Grid with a 60-day free trial for Windows or a 30-day free trial for iPad at thinksmartbox.com/try-grid. Get ready for a deep dive into the transformative realm of Mind's Eye and the evolution of human-centric AI!Links of interest: [Try it] Try Mind's Eye in Grid with a 60-day free trial:  thinksmartbox.com/try-grid [Watch] Mind's Eye: https://minds-eye.app/home/[Read] Smart Box: https://thinksmartbox.com/products/eye-gaze/[Get] Smart Eye Smart Box Case Study: https://smarteye.se/testimonials/empowering-people-with-disabilities-with-eye-tracking-technology-a-smartbox-and-smart-eye-collaboration/

The RCSLT has published a position paper on the use of thickened fluids in the management of eating, drinking and swallowing difficulty (dysphagia).  In this podcast we speak with the team behind the paper. We cover:Why did we create a position paper?How the paper was developed using a very wide group of stakeholders.The main themes of the paper.If you're a therapist what do you need to think about now? Thinking about the person sitting in front of you who needs therapy.Interviewees:Maya Asir, Neonatal Clinical Specialist Speech and Language Therapist and Acute Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy Lead  Kathleen Graham, Senior Project Manager, RCSLTLizzie King, Allied Health Professional (AHP) Clinical Lead and Professional Lead for Adult Speech and Language TherapyTracy Lazenby-Paterson, Speech and Language Therapist, Team Coordinator, Community Learning Disability service, RCSLT Clinical Adviser- ALD DysphagiaResources:Link to the position paper:  https://www.rcslt.org/members/clinical-guidance/dysphagia/thickened-fluids The interview was produced by Jacques Strauss, freelance digital producer.

In this episode of “How Do You Say That?!” sponsored by britishvoiceover.co.uk, Karen Esposito joins Sam and Mark to talk about vocal health, prepping a TV promo with lots of differing styles, and how to keep the entertainment in a seemingly very dry e-learning script.Our VO question this week is all about keeping your voice safe and well during the winter - and especially party season!Get involved! Have you got a Wildcard suggestion that we should try? Send it to us via Mark or Sam's social media or email it directly to podcast@britishvoiceover.co.ukScript 1Welcome to Pacific London! In this presentation, we will discuss the government student schemes available to European citizens, the educational programs, the eligibility conditions and the funds that can be obtained from the government. First of all, who are we? Pacific London is a UK-based student education and consulting agency. Our mission is to provide: Support in choosing the right course Help with completing the registration process – and obtaining funds for studies And support for during studies. Script 2The very first thing you did when you were born into this world, was to take a deep breath. Living your life breath by breath, takes you as many places as the wind blows. Eight celebrities are about to experience the adventure of a lifetime.10 days of challenging and exciting dives lie ahead of them which will push them to their limits.Deeper down. Into the unknown. Danger lurks. Seeing the wonders below the surface. Remaining calm. Trusting yourself. Trusting the diver next to you.All of them having been let down before in their lives - now they will have to trust again to make it through Are you able to let go, to be free? **Listen to all of our podcasts here - you can also watch on YouTube, or say "Alexa, Play How Do You Say That?!"About our guest: Karen is a voiceover artist, vocal coach and voice therapist based in a village called Stoney Middleton in the Peak District-famous for rock climbing, caves and Tom Cruise chucking a train from the top of its quarry to film a scene for the latest Mission Impossible movie!Karen is a qualified Speech and Language Therapist and spends part of her week running busy Specialist clinics for voice and respiratory disorders.She has also travelled internationally as a singer and saxophonist and still likes a good warble. In her spare time, she loves a bit of metal bashing (silversmithing) and roaming the hills with her Border Collie, Nell. Her lifelong fascination, however, is the human voice.Karen's Website @karenespositovoiceover on Instagram Karen's Facebook pageResources: Click here for the Wildcard GeneratorMark's demos & contact details:

Early childhood centres are stretched as they deal with more children with learning and behavioural challenges.   The Educational Institute says the increase has meant waiting lists for specialist support are far too long.   It's thought there could be a connection between the issue and children experiencing Covid lockdowns early in life.   Speech and language therapist Conor Fraser told Mike Hosking that the services have been stretched for a long time.   She says this year, there's been a 20% vacancy in special education roles.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the Aphasia Access Conversations Podcast. I'm Jerry Hoepner. I'm a professor at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and co-facilitator of the Chippewa Valley Aphasia Camp, Blugold Brain Injury Group, Mayo Brain Injury Group, and Thursday Night Poets.  I'm also a member of the Aphasia Access Podcast Working Group. Aphasia Access strives to provide members with information, inspiration, and ideas that support their aphasia care through a variety of educational materials and resources. I'm today's host for an episode that will feature Paula Valente and Dr. Assunção (Maria) Matos from the Portuguese Institute of Aphasia (IPA). In this episode, we'll be discussing Paula and Maria's role in building three dimensional social, LPAA in Portugal from the ground up. Biosketch: Paula Valente is a Speech and Language Therapist, social entrepreneur and responsible for the creation of IPA. She realized that there are important gaps in the therapeutic interventions that are offered to the person with aphasia in Portugal. With the support of partners in Portugal and in another countries, and with a team consisting of a speech therapist, a psychologist, a social worker and volunteers, Paula is convinced that the path will not be easy, but it's possible.   Dr. Assunção (Maria) Matos is a Lecturer at the University of Aveiro in Portugal. Her work is grounded in the WHO-ICF model and social, LPAA approaches to aphasia rehabilitation. As one of Paula's teachers, she influenced the development of the IPA and is a crucial partner in the innovative programming that they offer. Take aways: Shift to Social Approach: SLPs in Portugal moved from a medical model to a social approach in aphasia intervention, realizing the limitations of traditional speech therapy alone. Comprehensive Support Program: EPA in Portugal offers a wide range of services, including therapy, psychology, and caregiver support, aiming to enhance the lives of people with aphasia and their families. Limited Services in Portugal: EPA is the sole organization providing such extensive aphasia support in Portugal, serving the entire country, with an emphasis on online services to reach distant regions. Professional Training Focus: Assunção Matos emphasizes holistic training for speech-language pathology students, preparing them for diverse practice settings by exposing them to various intervention approaches. Fundraising Challenges: EPA faces fundraising challenges in Portugal due to limited access to funds and philanthropic support. To sustain their services, they generate revenue through clinical services, therapy programs, online courses, and book sales. They also have associates who contribute annually. Despite challenges, they are working to demonstrate the effectiveness of their approach to gain government support for sustainable funding.   Interview Transcript: Jerry Hoepner: Well, it is my privilege today to have a conversation with Paula and Maria. So, we're going to just begin talking about the programming that they've started within Portugal. And I'm just really excited to have this conversation. I think this is a unique conversation for aphasia access. Because we're really get to talk about the process of building a program within a country from the ground up from scratch. So, I think we're used to stepping into this process partway through and again. This will be a really fun conversation. So welcome, Maria and Paula. And yeah, welcome to Aphasia Access. Assunção Matos: Okay, thank you. Thank you, Jerry, for the great opportunity of being here with you, sharing our experiences and our dreams. It's an honor to be here with you. Honestly, thank you.   Paula Valente: I make my [unintelligible]. It's the same. Thank you very much. Jerry Hoepner: Absolutely. I have to say I was really privileged to have some conversations with Maria and Paula at the IARC Convention in Philadelphia last spring. So got the opportunity to meet there. And obviously really interested in learning more about your work and programming that you started in Portugal. So. we were talking just before this podcast about your name, and then you call it the EPA or the I.P.A. I was saying that in a in English we'd probably call that the Portuguese Institute of Aphasia. But I'll let you explain the name a little bit from the Portuguese standpoint. Assunção Matos: So, IPA is Instituto Português da Afasia the so it's exactly what you were saying in in in English. I.P.A. is known as EPA all over all over the country and it was decided to call the association like this? It was actually it was Paula's decision. Paulo, do you want to say something about it? Paula Valente: No, we just at a name to our legal name is another one, because in when we did the registration of the organization, we had to choose another name. So, our name is Afasia. It's like, if IPA. Afasia Epaphazia. So, our organization of the legal name is Epaphazia. But the trademark Is Instituto to Portuguese Epaphazia. That was the Portuguese Institute of Fascia. When we choose this name it was a little bit scary, remember, as soon, so I don't know if because we were afraid to do. To tell people this is a big thing we are a Institute is an institute is a reference is something that sounds like very credible. And we want to do that. But at the time it was the beginning, and we were like, I hope this will work. So was like, okay, let's do. Let's do, Let's do this with this big name, impressive name. And what's also a strategic name to show the people that we were doing something with something good, something with good basis and good principles, and the with and impact to the person the people with the afasia. So, we were a little bit afraid at the beginning, but with the responsibility we were taking. But I think it was the right choice. Jerry Hoepner: Yeah, I agree. I think it's a great name and thank you for filling in a little bit of that background. In full disclosure. There's no way I could pronounce the Portuguese version of that name. So really happy to have you do that? But yeah, this really speaks to that kind of building from, you know, from the ground up from scratch. Paula, I'm interested in a little bit more on that. How did the EPA or the EPA come about? Paula Valente: Okay. So, I was. I've been a speech therapist since 2008, and I did my practice with a Assunção. She was my teacher in the hospital and maybe she can tell a little bit. She influenced me at the time because when I finish that practice internship, I was convinced that my mission, my life mission, and my professional vocation was to work with people with aphasia in a socio model or in more psychosocial model, because she taught me that in the hospital. So, from there I study about that, I did my master in that field like my master. I'm sorry about my English, so try to understand me, please. My master was about partner training aphasia partner training, communication training. And from there I was convinced that I had to do more to help people with the Aphasia to live better, besides the aphasia I was working at the same time in hospital context, public one. And I was also working in a private clinic with patients with a phase. So, I saw the difference of get to work in more functional and communicative way with the people, with the, with the person, with the patient and his family, and in a medical model. So, I was seeing the differences I was studying, and I thought no, I would love to help the people with the aphasia to in Portugal, because I was also understanding better the public services to this, this to these persons to person with aphasia, and I started to feel that I could do more. Something started to make me dream about a common community program or center and at the time I had to I did the A social internship course, Intensive program training program that give tools that I needed to start making my dream a reality. So, at the time after I did that social entrepreneurship course, I said goodbye to my jobs and I started a pilot project. The name of Pilot project was Aphasia 3D. Because at the time I thought already to work in 3 dimensions, person with aphasia, family and friends and community. So, to achieve a better life with the aphasia I needed to working that 3 levels. So, the pilot project was aphasia 3D was the name but when he I did my pilot project I called was from Zoom at the time she was my teacher, but also she gave me orientation in my thesis master thesis a project and I call, and I talk. I talk with her. We had a conversation about these, and she was a big supporter. So, she at the big since the beginning, she told me. Paula, I am with you and I will help you. I will be on your side. Let's go. So, she was very, very important. Since the beginning, since everything I don't know. So, add in the final of that. Here the pilot project began and we started to invite some people with the aphasia, some family members, some friends of mine to be the social organization. I don't know. How do you say in America. But we, when we, we have to have a group of founders to register our organization to founder organization, we have just say, let me see. I think it's the Board of the Association. Yes, it's like we have the board. We have a structure and we invited people to do that with us. And then, born the organization the ONG EPA institute together the maybe I can now talk more about what we do but maybe someone can explain better how she influenced me to do that, because is also our passion. Assunção Matos: Well, first of all, first of all, I think I need to do a clarification. My name is Maria. I'm also Assunção, so when Paula is talking about this and some, I'm the same person to say and all other people from other countries, what can I say? I started as an speaking language therapist in the nineties and my first job as an SLP was in a cerebral palsy center with children and their families and indicators and in this kind of center we were very already at the time we were very focused in intervention, on communication. So, it was really common to work with the children, with their family members with the augmentative and alternative communication systems, low high technology. So, this was very common for this population already. So when I changed my job 2 years later, and I went to a central hospital with people with aphasia, my idea of working as an SLP was, you know, focused in communication, and not just in speech or language but thinking about people with the aphasia at the time. The medical model of intervention was the strongest one in hospitals in Portugal, maybe around the world. I'm not sure so when I started working with my patients, I thought I have to do more. This is not enough, so I was not happy about what I was doing, because after months and months of therapy my clients, they were just looking the same. They were not improving their functionality, or they were not doing their lives, as I thought they could do if I did something different. So, I start looking. I went to congresses. I went to the International Society. How many different alternative conferences by the time in the Netherlands, and I started looking, for no one uses AAC with the people with the aphasia So I started also looking for papers, and then I could find Linda Worrall, Aura Kagan, Audrey Holland and I started dreaming. So, policies, EPA is my dream, and I used to say that Paula did what I wanted to do, and I was not able to do because I couldn't just quit my job As she did so, I started at the same time I started teaching in the SLP course and in 2000 the ICF appeared. I'm trying to jump, not to be too boring and everything made sense to me. So, I started looking for different ways of working even at the hospital, and I started bringing the family, bringing the family members to the hospital. I started them trying to train my patients with the total communication approaches. I tried to do my best, because it's not easy in a medical context, you know, to change minds and to change in. That's why, Paula, she's saying she came to me as a student. I was doing this this kind of job. I was trying to apply what I've learned from AAC and children with cerebral palsy, and I was doing some experiences with my patients And also suddenly I met some people in in the Isaac Conference that I told you about few minutes ago and I got involved in a multinational project where we were trying to develop a specific software for people with aphasia to communicate better with a portable AAC device, I can say I'm very proud to be involved in in that project. And so that's how I started. That's how I started. Jerry Hoepner:  That's fantastic. It's just been fun listening to your story kind of a microcosm of things that have happened in other countries, I think, in terms of moving from the sense of the medical model isn't meeting the needs of the people that we're serving. I heard, you know, just a little bit of some of my conversations and everyone's conversations with Audrey over the years so we shift from a very medical behavioral approach to one that is more of a social functional approach. I can just hear those same threads kind of being woven into your stories. And just really, really interesting, I mean. Assunção Matos: Sorry. Sorry, sorry, Jerry. It's just to say that in Portugal no one was then I know no one was working in this swaying, in a more social approach. And Internet wasn't like it is today. So it was really hard to get access to the papers. But I also remember buying the book beyond the fascia from the connect in London and I got in love about connect. Yes, I still have it here also. And I decided, I said to my husband, I have to go to London, and I decided to go to the connect and see how they were working, and do the training the trainers course that they were that they were well, I was trying. It was hard, but I was trying to do it in a different way, because I could see my patients after months and months of therapy linguistic therapy it wasn't enough, and I felt I have to do something else. Jerry Hoepner: So insightful. And I think so many people have come to that conclusion about social approaches and the life participation approach. That Doing those impairment-based pieces alone is just not enough right? Not that they don't have a place, but alone. They're not enough. I think it's really great. I was thinking about Paula's thesis on communication partner training, and how that must just sprung out of all of these discussions, and certainly just central to a life participation approach. The other thread that I kind of heard from both of you is this idea of the dream that you started to have to create something to fill this gap? Maria, I like the way that you said that? You know you started dreaming, and Paula made that dream happen. Paula Valente: Maria knows that I am the crazy, 2 of us is necessary courage conditions of obviously, because as the sun sounds said I was married. But I didn't have children yet. So, at the time I thought, Okay, it's now or never, because soon I will have my family, and it will be very difficult for me to do this kind of choices to quit my jobs. Goodbye, my jobs! No, so it's now, and never. My husband was still in love with me so at the time was easy to convince him that I wanted to do that. I quit my job at that time. For the beginning of EPA. I was doing voluntary work. I did all without receiving anything, so that was not easy. Choice but it was necessary. A little bit of courage and a little bit of  craziness like I was. We were doing something that's in Portugal. We don't. We didn't have a big organization behind us or supporting us. So, in terms of giving us the structure or the security to do something. So, It was like doing a house from the 0 from the ground, so didn't have any money at all. So, everything was started from the 0, and it was a little bit scary. And III admit that I was a little bit crazy, but I think and persistence, because the difficulties were, and they are so almost 9 years later it years later, 8 years later, we are here but this is a big adventure, and he in still is Jerry Hoepner: Courage, persistence, a little bit of risk taking I'm not going to say that you were crazy, but those are things that help you move it along, and I can see now why you so connected with Maura Silverman and the Triangle of Aphasia Project.   Paula Valente: Yes, she was the biggest, when I started. I also. II remember very well to be on the aphasia, because the book, because when I started, my internship gave me the book to read, and I was like I come from the school with a medical model mindset, like language and speech, and she gave me the beyond the feature read this. And let's think about this in your internship. So, when I started to, okay, let's think about these programs. This center I went to connect also was my first experience with the center personal experience. And then I contact there numerous centers around the world, mainly in America, of course, but also some here in Europe and Australia to learn from them, to learn from the programs, to learn about the programs, about the social, the about the business model, how they sustain their activities, how they communicate with the community, how they articulate with another organization. So I did a lot of contacts, and I talk with many people and Maura was one of the most the most easiest person. I don't know how to say that sorry was very available, and she talked and she wrote a letter of support. She was incredible, so that was very important to me at the beginning to start to organize the structure of our programs. I can explain how we work at the moment. what we do at the moment. But I want to say also that many things have changed through the years. We learn a lot with experience, with the errors, with the feedback. That person, either. Persons with aphasia and their families told us so. We learn every year we did changes about the protocols, about the instruments about the programs, about the number of persons that we involve, the number of Anyway, many, many changes were done. And I think we will. We will do that kind of adaptations along the way, because they are very important to achieve our goal better. Okay? So, we have to listen to be aware of the impact, the results. The feedback is very important to getting better. Okay? So, what we do now is, I think our better version of the programs but I think maybe in 2 years we will be doing things differently. Jerry Hoepner: That makes sense and I think you approach this whole process in the right way by connecting to those people. And you know everything you said about Maura rings true, right that she's available, and she is excited to get me going and to share my knowledge. So why, so I would love to hear about what you're doing right now. I think you said 9 years it's been so...   Paula Valente: We, 1916 was the founding year. I started the pilot project in 2015. So, I quick myself therebefore. So, it's almost 10 years in this adventure. It's all. But the organization is only 8 years. So, when our main objective with our association, our mission is to improve the quality of life of people with the aphasia and their families so to do, that we have to we organize our working 3 targets out all the targets. Population. Okay, audiences. Okay, we work with people we work with. And for people with aphasia themselves we work with and for family members and friends and we have we have to work to the community to a more inclusive and community communication accessible community. Okay, so we have activities actions in the these 3 main, groups. Okay, for these 3 main groups for the people with aphasia and the families we have. Hmm, 2  responses. Okay, we have resources and information we wanted to give them the more resources, more information about the aphasia, about how to leave with the aphasia, how to recover the path that the different teams that are important to them to learn more about what aphasia is  And now to leave with the aphasia So we work a lot to offer to Japanese to offer resources and information in our websites in our social networks, with lives in the Facebook, with conversations online, with the workshops, with events, to talk about aphasia, to inform, etcetera. So, we work a lot to give them resources and information free for free. Okay, that's when before EPA, It was very difficult to them to find anything in Portuguese. Okay? In the Internet, or in another ways, in books or in La leaflets, leaflets. Okay? So, they didn't have many choices, many options. So now they have. If they go to our website, to our YouTube channel, to our net, Facebook, page, Instagram, they have videos. They have aphasia friendly videos. They have informational videos. They have testimonials. They have documentaries. They have many things in English that we put legend, subtitles. So, we work a lot in this field of information and resources. Okay at the same time for people with aphasia and families, we develop programs. Okay, you call programs in America and we in Portugal, we don't call that programs but we called like therapies. Okay, it's more the term for us. Your programs for us. We call therapies. We develop different therapies to give responses to the aphasia, the necessities, communication, necessities, and the goals of people with aphasia ask us for help. More concrete, more rehabilitation help. So, at the beginning we were doing only group programs. Okay, with many different types of groups. Okay? But at some point, we saw that was not for some people that was not sufficient because they needed help to communicate better, to develop resources for themselves, to adapt better to aphasia to work some psychology, psychological problems or family problems. So, the group conversational groups, communication pho, functional communication groups, they were good, but they were not, some of them to respond to their particular needs. Okay? And we started to do individual sessions with them also. So at the moment we have like a program, a response to them. So, it's like a service. Okay? That when people with aphasia ask for our help to live with aphasia, to have speech therapy. They want to. They ask us for a specialist. So, they see if a specialist team, so they ask us to help them. So, the first thing we do is an assessment, and the that assessment includes not only the language, the impact of aphasia on the language domain, but also in the participation activities like psychological states, family members, networks social network so we have, we do a global holistic assessment and then we have a reunion. We have a session that we call decision reunion. In that decision reunion we discussed with the person with aphasia in an aphasia friendly way. So, with communication, support to conversation, communication and we show the results. We explain what the evaluation show us and we discuss in in with them their main goals and then we make together a plan and that plan is not only to do things in EPA is not that focus. So, the plan is out. What I can do at the moment to feel better, to achieve my goals. Okay, something, some things they can do with our support. But other things they can do outside. So, we also give them another options. We talk with another professionals or organizations, and we help them to make decisions and go through the process. So, if they want to do something with us, we have only three objectives in the center of the process. So, everything they do they do to achieve the objectives that were clarified in that discussion in that conversation initially and then we start doing. They can do with, not with us individual and group sessions of speech, therapy, psychology, neuro psychology, communication training. All of these approaches are personalized. They follow the pace of the evolution of the person and their needs. And we also and they are all very different. So, some of them do only individual start from start doing only individual sessions. Then they go to the groups. Some of them do only groups, some of them do groups and individual. It depends on their path, their situation, their goals, and the in the continuum of care. So, where they are okay, so with the family members is the same. They are very involved since the beginning, so we will offer to them individual or group sessions that go that will help them in their needs. So, from the beginning and along the way we are always talking with them and give them what they need. So we have also caregiver groups and communication training groups and communication training individual sessions everything to promote adaptation to aphasia, to improve the relationships, the well-being, the success of interactions. We promote also meetings with people with the aphasia, and there, another with them. Sorry. We promote. Provide also meetings with another family members and in in group sessions it makes sense. Sorry about my English. Jerry Hoepner: Totally makes sense, Paula. Well, you have a just a breadth of services that you offer, and I know those have evolved kind of over the years, but very collaborative, very person centered. It seems like, you've really thought this through. You've obviously brought upon a lot of resources to do that. A couple of things I wanted to know. One is you mentioned those video resources and other resources. We'll make sure that those are available on the show notes, so people can connect and check those out even if like. I watch some of them and just to get a little taste of what they look for obviously, I don't switch Portuguese, but just valuable just to have those resources. The other thing I'm wondering about is what's the area that you serve. I mean because it seems like you may be one of the only collaborative social programs in your area. Paula Valente: Yes, we at the moment. If you want to say something, please interrupt at the moment we serve. All the country we are. We are not a big country, but unfortunately, people with aphasia in Portugal they don't have many choices, and after the rehabilitation centers or the care the main public centers that in the acute phase they go, they get, they go there, and then they go home. When they go home, the choices to continue the rehabilitation are very few. And we in Portugal we are the only organization that are doing this work, and specifically with aphasia. We people with aphasia. So, we receive calls from all over the country and, but we are in Portugal and that is the second main city in Portugal. So, we have Lisbon. That is the capital, and then we have Porto is another big city, but in North and we are in Portugal. So, we can't see everyone in Portugal, mainly the people that live near us but with COVID we started to do many teletherapy and now we have almost 50 people with aphasia doing online services. So, at the moment, we have also online groups and individual online sessions and consultation sessions that are like a specialty consultation that we do to that families that only want some someone who helps them to decide things to understand what to do next, and that help us help them to decide what to do. So, we do a lot of consultation sessions that are more periodic and we go through. We. We've talked to them through the year to see how things are going. and to give them more information about what they should expect from the rehabilitation, from the therapist, from the communication, and give them psycho education, but also orientate them. We do a lot of that kind of in-service. Okay. So now, we have many people in our presential activities in our center. But we are the only organization in Portugal. So many people from other cities are asking for help and we are trying to go to Lisbon to create some groups and some enlistment. But Lisbon. But it's something that takes time. Okay, so it's another something that will take some time to happen. And this year as soon sound, Maria will start a group also in the university. So, it's something this kind of different points of presential group. Presential groups. I think, will be the next step to give other options to the, to the persons with aphasia in Portugal.   Jerry Hoepner: Wow! What an incredible breadth of services, and literally in in terms of area. I can't imagine serving all of the people with the face that in State of Wisconsin, which is probably smaller than Portugal. So that is that's really incredible. And wow! What a service! And I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about training professionals and students, because I feel like that might be an important step for having a broader network of people that concern people with a phage throughout Portugal. Maria, are you willing to talk a little bit about some of the trainings that you've done with professionals and your connection with the university and training students? Assunção Matos: Yeah, yeah, I can only tell you about my experience. There are other schools SLP, from my perspective. What I tried to teach my students is a bit of every type of approaches, because in one side, I know that when they go to their practices, they will find some places where the medical model is still very active, so I have to prepare them in order to know how to work with people with the phase in a more linguistic approach. But at the same time, I try to tell them about social approaches and about live participation approach. And II it's not easy, because I don't have much time to do it. But I try, you know, I'm a really big fan of the ICF so I try to prepare them to know how to work according to the ICF and how to work in the different domains the ICF suggests at the same time. We have established the Protocol with the IPA at our university, the University of Avairo. So, my final students, some of them those who want to work and wishes to do their practices in the field. Some of them are going to the EPA for 16 weeks and they do their practices there, and also during that that the time they have to develop an investigation project. So, most times I try to see with Paula we share the needs of the IPA, and we try, you know, to go and to work with the students and try to do some investigation that has an impact for the EPA and for the colleagues who work there. And this is this is great work. At the same time, just to finish me and Paula, we have been doing the SCA. The supportive conversation with adults in Canada and since then, we are doing lots of lots of workshops with the health professionals in many different hospitals. I'm also trying to do some investigation about it, because we don't have it in Porto. Well, so I tried to involve my master students and we are, you know, working together, trying to change minds trying to change the settings in order to people with the face you to leave better from the beginning, when they wake up in the hospital. If they have their health professionals prepared to communicate better with them. We read it from other countries, and which really believe it. So, we are trying also to make some changes and I've started also last year. Doing some SCA work with the other students from other courses. In my university we have nursing students. We have physiotherapists. And we have radiology students. So, at the beginning of the of the year we are doing some online courses to prepare them before going to their practical settings and communicate with the people, with aphasia, or with other communication disorders. So, this is my experience. This is what we are trying to do. Jerry Hoepner: Such important work I can't imagine. I've had so many kind thought leaders and researchers and clinicians that have guided me in this process, and that it wait so much of that groundwork out. So, I just can't imagine building that from the start. And what you're doing is so important. Assunção Matos: This year we are planning to start group therapy with people with the face, you know, because I am at the moment I am 100% at university. So I left my hospital and I really miss my patients and I miss, you know, to do the to be an SLP in practice And because there are not many groups in the country, as Paulo was saying. So, we are trying to organize group therapy for people with aphasia, maybe to do also some work with their family members and the idea is to do the group therapy and trying to do some investigation at the same at the same time. Now it's better going to be the challenge for this year for me. Paula Valente: I just want to say that at the beginning we were offering some workshops and training for the professional health professionals about aphasia, about how to communicate, and other topics that are important from for them to manage better the person with the aphasia since the beginning and we started to see that the health professionals. They don't have time to do training and they don't have money they don't have. They don't want to invest in this kind of training. They want training, but they want that accessible for them so it but the accessible means free without costs and preference in their setting. So, we have to go there to give them the training, because if they have to go some an another place, they don't go. So, where LPA was finding these things and was okay, what we can do. So, one of our works was to find funding programs to fund 2 projects that are, that the main objective is train, the health professionals to communicate. And so along these lines, we did a lot of free training in settings like hospitals and rehabilitation centers, and main mainly financed by those kind of funds. Assunção Matos: Let me just highlight that we are not doing this training alone. So, we are involving people with aphasia in the training. So, we, me and Paulo, we explore the more theoretical parts and then we have people with the aphasia, with us who are the trainers in, you know, in in practice. And II also would like to highlight that this is something that we have tried from the beginning to involve people with the phase in their family members. our Vice President is a woman with the aphasia we have some family members that belong to the Board of EPA. And we from the beginning. The idea was, as Paula already said, work with them and for them and I think this is something that is really is really important. And it's very, you know, for us it's very good. It makes us feel very good about it. Jerry Hoepner: Totally agree. And I mean, it is really impressive that the amount of work that we've been certainly important work. And I get the feeling that the 2 of you probably don't sleep a whole lot. You're certainly doing a lot. I don't know a lot of good things, and you're doing them the right way. So maybe I can shift gears one more time. To talk a little bit about the business end of things. cause that's a part of building from the ground up.  Would either, if you like to start talking about your model. Paula Valente: Yes, since the beginning we wanted to be a social entrepreneurship project. So, what is that? We want to solve a social problem that the public services weren't solving. So, we have innovative responses, services, resources but we also have business model near underneath that because we wanted to. We thought, and I think I'm sorry about my English. I can't I my English day. II feel like I have a aphasia because it's like II know everything. I know what I can. I won't say, but I can say it. I don't speak English every day, so I'm sorry I'm not in the academic field, so I don't have many, many opportunities to train my name, my English, what I am saying our goal is to be sustainable and I personally believe and I think that the EPA boards are completely aligned with this is that the solutions that EPA offers to people with aphasia are not only our responsibility to sustain, to provide is something that is a responsibility from all is responsibility. Okay, I, Paul, sound the board. All this, the people involved that we have the responsibility to, because we started that. So, we have the responsibility to provide the organization, and guarantee that all is working. But in the end, the solution doesn't depend only on EPA, we need the community to achieve our goal. We need the people and their families to achieve our goal. So, everyone as responsibility in this this is, I don't have anyone with aphasia in my family. I could have aphasia someday but  is not only my responsibility to bring this to the community, or somebody that has aphasia is our responsibility, because in the end some of us really have aphasia. My family member, my neighbor, also is our responsibility. So, when we started this organization, the social organization. We want it to be sustainable. But we don't want it to be depending on funding on the States because many of our social organization in Portugal. They have the tradition of being funded by the States. They are. They have a lot of funding that comes from the States and that is a problem, because states they don't have many money to owe it. So, they don't do the better job because they don't have money sometimes. Sorry about my English. So, we thought, if you want to do better than the State, we don't,  If they have a responsibility. We want them to participate, but they don't have the only responsibility we have the wrong responsibility. But the piece, the person with the aphasia and their families that are beneficiating from our services. From these services. From this organization they also have to compensate. And as organization, we have to be aware that to be accessible to all okay, we have to be open to different kinds of participation. So, people with aphasia will compensate will pay for some services in different ways, in different measures and that was the difficulty we had to the term to at the beginning. We have to think about how to do that. So, at the moment, we have different recipes.   Jerry Hoepner: If we put maybe multiple different funders sounds like that are contributing. Is that what you mean? Paula Valente: So, we go get money from different our services, clinical services, our programs group programs, okay and individual programs. So, people with aphasia pay for part of it. If go do fundraising to pay another part and our and our objective, our goal is the community, the municipalities and the state pay another part. So, we don't have to lose our sleep. Doing fundraising is very difficult in Portugal, I think, from what I learned from other centers, our reality is different in Portugal. We don't have many we don't have access to fundings and programs and investments. And the philanthropic minds is not something very easy in Portugal, very available. So, we do fundraising in Portugal and do fundraising to help people with the aphasia. What is aphasia? What is that? So that is very, very, very, very, very difficult. So, we need to involve people with aphasia. So, they pay for their services for our services. They pay for our therapies, but they don't pay for resources. They don't pay for information. They don't pay for workshops for some of if events that we do that are open and they are invited to come. But therapy with therapists that we have to pay. They have to pay also we have services. We sell courses some of online courses. We did. In our websites, you can see mainly in Portuguese. But we have online courses with very good programs, very good professionals, international colleagues that help us to do the courses. They are another source of income, not a big one, but they help. We did a translation of some communication books from Aphasia Institute, and then we sell them to give us also some in income. So, we have members of our association and pay a contribution. Yes, like every year they pay a contribution. So, we have, some associates that do pay an annual contribution. We do a lot of fundraising and we try to develop more services to, not to people with the aphasia, but professionals that give us income to sustain the organization. So, it's a hard work. But it's in the beginning, because we, it's difficult to involve the municipalities and the States. In these solutions we have to prove that they are better, or they have major impact in in the lives of the persons with the aphasia, but also in their pockets the state pocket, because we have to prove that our support, our kind of approaches make more difference and the people with the aphasia that stay in the State. The public services consume more resources during more time And they don't go. They don't achieve their goals in the end so we are now trying to show the Government our model of work may for the in the future they maybe support some incorporate some of these approaches in their public services. So, it's another way to support. Jerry Hoepner: Yeah, that's it. I was going to say, yeah, that's a lot of work to do. I mean, you're providing all of the services you're providing a lot of the fundraising and providing a lot of education to students and professionals throughout the country at no charge in many cases. So certainly, this is a grassroots ground up kind of work. it has been a really fun conversation. And I think we did continue this conversation for hours. It sounds like, but unfortunately, we have to close it up at some point. I just want to see if there's any last thoughts that you want to share with our listeners. Assunção Matos: I just want to say that it looks like it is a lot of work but I really believe in what I'm doing. I still dream Paula is doing one of my dreams, but I still dream that in the future, if I have aphasia, I will find one of my students doing the best job with me. This is my, this is my dream. That's why I believe so much in what I'm doing in And I'm always trying, you know, to move on into and to do different things and best things because I really don't want to face the difficulties people with the aphasia yet face in Portugal, because it's different to have aphasia in Portugal, or to have aphasia in Australia, for instance and I want to do my best job so I can enjoy it in the future.   Paula Valente: I just want to say it's really worth working on a live participation approach, because it really makes all the difference in the people. It's an adventure but it's worth it. And I hope that this conversation inspired other colleagues to do the same, or to continue doing the same. Jerry Hoepner: Absolutely. I think that's a great way to end. Thank you both so much. You've been just great to have this conversation with. Really enjoyed it, and I know that our listeners were will enjoy it like you said. I hope this inspires someone else to take on this kind of work. So, thank you so much.   Assunção Matos: Thank you, Jerry. It was a pleasure. Paula Valente: It was a pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity. Jerry Hoepner: You're welcome.   Jerry Hoepner: On behalf of Aphasia Access, thank you for listening to this episode of the Aphasia Access Conversations Podcast. For more information on Aphasia Access and to access our growing library of materials go to www.aphasiaaccess.org. If you have an idea for a future podcast series or topic, email us at info@aphasiaaccess.org. Thanks again for your ongoing support of Aphasia Access.   Resources: Online courses with national and international lecturers: https://ipafasia.pt/formacao/ Mobile application for communication support and functional and social interactions:  https://ipafasia.pt/aplicacao-movel-da-afasia/ Info-graphic videos: https://ipafasia.pt/videos-informativos/

In this episode we are joined by Kate Boot - a late discovered AuDHD Speech and Language Therapist, Sensory Integration Practitioner and Relationships and Sex Education Practitioner. Since qualifying, it's fair to say that Kate has found herself on an authentic and original journey which has seen her lean into what she now understands, post discovery to be her autistic and ADHD strengths and identity. Kate talks openly and vulnerably in this episode about her own experiences, and of how she has experimented with language, expanded her language, and crucially acquired new language on her own late discovery journey - which has not only helped her to make sense of her own autistic experience, but has also professionally helped to build that safety and advocacy for others too. Language Matters. Follow Kate on⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Head to Kates website 3 ways you can support the podcast and the work we do... Become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠member⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, champion or partner and join our growing community. Buy us a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠coffee.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Rate & review⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ the show Thank you to our ⁠⁠⁠Community Partners ⁠⁠⁠who are supporting the work that we are doing. ⁠⁠⁠A Tidy Mind⁠⁠⁠ A BIG shoutout to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Community Champions ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠who are championing the work we do: Helen Hillman Kay Mathiesen Katherine Kowalski The Late Discovered Club is hosted by Catherine Asta and edited by Caty Ava - visit our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Catherine Asta⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Allora⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Catherine Asta ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Late Discovered Club⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our next Group Circle⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Marie Halpin, BSc (Hons), CertMRCSLT, HCPC, a Senior Speech and Language Therapist in Ireland, joins host Sara MacIntyre, M.A., CCC-SLP, to discuss effectively working with autistic individuals who also stutter (stammer). Marie walks us through terminology and emphasizes the importance of language and the words we use within therapy. She explores neurodiversity affirming zones of practice as foundational to our work, the importance of learning and taking the lead from the autistic community, and general considerations for best supporting autistic clients in a total communication, strength-based manner. Finally,  Marie discusses Palin PCI considerations when working with autistic children, as well as walking us through a research study (linked below). Article discussed:'Palin parent-child interaction therapy with children with autism spectrum disorder and stuttering' in the Journal of Communication Disorders, 2022.Resources mentioned:Recent Virtual Learning  by Stuttering Foundation,  'Working with Young Autistic Children who Stutter' with Gemma ClarkeStammering Plus training at MPCMarie on Twitter @MariechalpinThe Therapist Neurodiversity CollectiveThe Autistic Self Advocacy NetworkEm Hammond @Neurowild_, Elaine McGreevy, Emily Price (Lee)Divergent PerspectivesMarie Halpin has over 11 years of experience working as a SLT. She has a wealth of expertise working with children and young people in health, education and specialist services. Her areas of clinical expertise include Autism and Stammering, and with a particular interest in neurodivergent-affirming support. Her background includes a number of specialist SLT roles in the UK,  which lead to being trained in a range of related therapies, including LevelUp Energy Meters, Attention Autism, Intensive Interaction, TalkingMats, SCERTS, Hanen More Than Words and TalkAbility, Makaton, Lámh etc. This role included working within an integrated neurodevelopmental autism diagnostic team, delivering therapy within mainstream schools and autism classes/special schools, as well as delivering trainings to families, school staff and other professionals. She also worked as a specialist at the Michael Palin Centre for many years. This involved specialist consultations and clinical work with children, young people and their families. She is trained in a wide range of therapies for people who stammer, including Palin PCI, Family Communication Skills Therapy, The Lidcocmbe Programme, The Camperdown Program, CBT, ACT, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy etc. Marie regularly presents training on the intersectionality of autism and stammering and has co-authored research on autism and stammering, as well as having contributed to other related publications. She developed and continues to deliver the training ‘Stammering Plus' which runs at the MPC since May 2019, and she has presented on this at international levels, including at the Oxford Dysfluency Conference 2021. In recent years, Marie has been working in Ireland, leading on national training for teachers related to SLCN and provision of sustained in-school support to build capacity of education staff in supporting all students (implementing universal design for learning). She continues to work in Ireland in 

    Relebogile speaks to Carianne Vermeulen a Speech & Language Therapist, as we delve into part 2 on the masterclass of  speech and language therapy for adults. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

      Relebogile speaks to Carianne Vermeulen a Speech & Language Therapist, about Speech therapy, also known as speech-language therapy or speech pathology which is a specialized field that focuses on diagnosing and treating communication and speech disorders.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's episode I have special guest, Alice. Alice is 25, autistic and studying speech and language therapy. I've known Alice for quite a while now - we both knew each other growing up and we were both late-diagnosed as Autistic so this should be an interesting chat! Links to things Alice mentioned: Purple Ella's Discord: https://direct.me/purpleella Right to choose: psychiatry-uk.com/right-to-choose-asd/ More about being a Speech & Language Therapist: https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles My 21andsensory links:  @21andsensory on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠www.instagram.com/21andsensory⁠⁠⁠  @21andsensory on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠www.tiktok.com/@21andsensory⁠⁠⁠  21andsensory on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠www.youtube.com/c/21andsensory⁠⁠⁠  21andsensory Blog: ⁠⁠⁠21andsensory.wordpress.com⁠ ⁠⁠  @21andsensory on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠twitter.com/21andsensory⁠

Emma Wainer has had a gloriously squiggly career, starting in pharmaceutical sales, then training as a Speech and Language Therapist. =============== Social Media / Coaching My Other Podcasts ⁠⁠https://bio.link/podcaster⁠⁠   ============== Bio of Emma Wainer: Emma has had a gloriously squiggly career, starting in pharmaceutical sales, then training as a Speech and Language Therapist. After a short and sweet affair with the NHS, she became Operations Director in a successful event business, before finding her true passion and training as Voice Coach at the prestigious Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She brings the wealth of all that knowledge to help women raise their visibility and credibility at work, by amplifying their ability to be heard and cultivating thoughtful leadership in both the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds. ====================   What we Discussed:   - Emma's journey from her voice to getting it back ( 2 mins) - What was covered in her Speaking course ( 5 mins) - The Fear of Speaking in a Meeting ( 8 mins) - Tips to stop being anxious going on stage ( 10 mins) - Warming up Tips ( 13 mins) - Preparing a TED talk (16 mins) - Doing a speech in flow (20 mins) - Putting your personality into a Speech ( 22 mins) - Helping Women getting Leadership Positions ( 24 mins) - Why the drama & acting classes help your speaking ( 26 mins) - Developing Your Executive Presence ( 28 mins) - Advantages of being authentic ( 31mins) - Her Coaching and why she prefers 6 in Groups - Pros & Cons for Creating an Event ( 35 mins) - Social Media Recommendations ( 39 mins)  Contact Emma Wainer:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmawainer/ https://www.instagram.com/emmalwainer/ ===============   Speaking Podcast Social Media / Coaching My Other Podcasts + Donations ⁠⁠https://bio.link/podcaster⁠⁠   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/roy-coughlan/message

Interviewer info Lyssa Rome is a speech-language pathologist in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is on staff at the Aphasia Center of California, where she facilitates groups for people with aphasia and their care partners. She owns an LPAA-focused private practice and specializes in working with people with aphasia, dysarthria, and other neurogenic communication impairments. She has worked in acute hospital, skilled nursing, and continuum of care settings. Prior to becoming an SLP, Lyssa was a public radio journalist, editor, and podcast producer.  In this episode, Lyssa Rome interviews Kate Meredith about using concepts from family and systemic psychotherapy to help people with aphasia and their families.    Guest info Kate Meredith is a Family and Systemic Psychotherapist, working for the NHS and in independent practice in South Wales. She is completing a Professional Doctorate in Systemic Practice. Kate worked for 15 years as a Speech and Language Therapist, working with adults with acquired communication difficulties. Kate's dual training enables her to support families and individuals with the impact of these changes on family and social relationships. Kate has studied at University College London, King's College London and the University of Bedfordshire. Kate worked with Giles Yeates to publish Psychotherapy and Aphasia: Interventions for Emotional Wellbeing and Relationships (Meredith, Kate. H. and Yeates, Giles. N. 2020). Kate also presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association International Convention in November 2022.   Listener Take-aways In today's episode you will: Describe the importance of narrative for helping families cope with aphasia. Understand how speech-language pathologists can use genograms and ecomaps to support their LPAA care. Learn why the way speech therapists talk about aphasia matters. Edited show notes Lyssa Rome   Welcome to the Aphasia Access Aphasia Conversations Podcast. I'm Lyssa Rome. I'm a speech language pathologist on staff at the Aphasia Center of California, and I see clients with aphasia and other neurogenic communication impairments in my LPAA-focused private practice. I'm also a member of the Aphasia access podcast working group. Aphasia Access strives to provide members with information, inspiration, and ideas that support their aphasia care through a variety of educational materials and resources.   I'm today's host for an episode that will feature Kate Meredith. Kate is a family and systemic psychotherapist, working for the NHS and in independent practice in South Wales. She is completing a professional doctorate in systemic practice. Kate was a Speech and Language Therapist for 15 years, working with adults with acquired communication difficulties. Her dual training enables her to support families and individuals with the impact of these changes on family and social relationships. Kate has studied at University College London, King's College London, and the University of Bedfordshire. Kate worked with Giles Yeates to publish Psychotherapy and Aphasia: Interventions for Emotional Wellbeing and Relationships. Kate also presented at the ASHA convention in November 2022.   Kate Meredith, welcome to the podcast. I'm so glad to be talking with you.   Kate Meredith    Thank you for having me. I'm really glad to be here.   Lyssa Rome    So to start with, I'm curious about your transition from speech language pathology, or speech language therapy, into family therapy. What led you to make that change?   Kate Meredith    So I loved working as a speech language therapist or a speech language pathologist, as you would say in the US. It was great. I mainly worked in a rehabilitation setting, and what that enabled me to see, from the off, was the changes to people's relationships. On a daily basis, I was witnessing people coming into the center, trying to figure out who they were in relationship to each other, and that got me really, really curious. The more I thought about it, the more I thought about the ask that we put on partners and family members in those settings—so whether it's supporting people with toileting or washing, feeding or swallowing, there's so much change that takes place.    And it really made me think: What about the relationships? Are we asking about the change in relationships? Are we asking what it feels like for partners to have different roles, to have different aspects to the way they do their relationships? And as a speech language therapist, I was thinking: Okay, what does this person need in terms of their communication skills, what do they need on the ward? Do they need to be able to indicate whether they're hungry or thirsty or in pain? And all of that was important. But it also kept me thinking: What would matter most to me? If I were in this situation, if I had aphasia, if I was having difficulties with my communication, what would be the biggest impact for me? And it just kept coming back to relationships for me.    Now, I worked in the multidisciplinary team, with neuropsychologists and physios and OTs, nurses, healthcare support workers, doctors—great, great teams. But I wasn't sure that any of us really felt like we had the remit or the focus to think about people's relationships after brain injury.    When I was working in the community for a while, I started working with a neuropsychologist, who started asking questions about this with a couple that I was working with alongside him. And I said to him afterwards, “I loved those questions. I'm so glad you're asking those questions. I think about this all the time.” And he said, “Well, I wasn't doing neuropsychology there, I was doing family therapy.” So I started looking into it. And when I started exploring it, and when I got onto the course, straightaway, I thought, I think that speech and language therapists, speech language pathologists have got a really unique set of skills here that matches so well with the skills that are needed in family and systemic psychotherapy.    So starting the training, loved the training straightaway. And I always hoped that I'd be able to do something and brain injury with it, but then, when I found a job in family therapy, in a different context, actually, working with children, adolescents in mental health services, I kind of started down that direction, and love it. But I've really held on in my private practice, where I'm not working as a speech language therapist anymore. But most of my private practice work is with adults who have a communication disorder. And I find that so enriching. I just love it. And I also do a little bit of writing a little bit of presenting. And that's kind of where I got to here.   Lyssa Rome   It sounds like you very organically saw this connection between what families, people with acquired brain injuries and acquired communication disorders were dealing with, and how family and systemic therapy might be able to help them live better with their conditions. So I want to back up for a moment and ask you to define for us what is family and systemic therapy for, say, SLPs, who aren't familiar with that term?   Kate Meredith   Absolutely, because I wasn't either. I think it's more popular in certain contexts of healthcare than in others. So in the UK, it just wasn't in brain injury anywhere. So I'd never heard of it. There are different names for family and systemic psychotherapy—so some people call it systemic psychotherapy, some people call it family therapy, sometimes it's a mixture, which doesn't really help with the difficulties that people have in understanding what it is. But really what it is, is about helping people who are in relationships with each other, work together to achieve change. The idea being that change happens through relationships, rather than individuals just making a change that can that can affect everything.    The big principle of it is really that problems aren't located in people. Problems and people are not the same thing. People don't just have ownership or become the problem, they very often happen between people. So who takes responsibility for that change, if actually, the problem is happening between two people, or more than two people?    So family and systemic psychotherapy thinks about actually how relationships can support people, and how improving relationships can reduce problems and can reduce symptoms. So we're trying to provide a really safe space in family therapy and systemic psychotherapy, where people can communicate, they can make efforts to understand each other in a different way. We can think about strengths—it's very, very strengths based—but also about what the needs are, what the emotions are, and how people can be a resource for each other. So rather than thinking, you need to go and get this fixed, or you need this medication, it's actually: What can happen in the relationships that will bring about the change?   Lyssa Rome  That brings to mind a really interesting conversation that I was able to have, as part of this podcast, several episodes ago, with Dr. Marie-Christine Hallé, who really emphasized this idea that aphasia is a family thing, it's not something that just happens to the person with aphasia, and what you're describing, this idea of locating the problem, sort of outside of the person with with the brain injury and situating it within the family context, I think, is a really powerful way to think about it.    So you've been bringing these ideas from family therapy to speech language therapists, speech language pathologists, working with people with communication disorders. And today, our plan is to talk some more about some of these concepts from family or systemic therapy that can be useful for SLPs, who are working, particularly within the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia. So can you say a little bit more about what you've been doing to bring these ideas to SLPs?   Kate Meredith   Yeah, absolutely. So for me, this is this is really exciting. What I really want to help people understand, I guess, a lot of people do already, but actually, if relationships are what matters to the person, we're working with, then that's everyone's business. You know, we don't need to think of it as being something that we don't have the right to ask about. So of course, you can always train as a family and systemic psychotherapist. But as a speech and language pathologist, there are also many other things that you can do to support people's relationships after brain injury and with aphasia. And the feedback that I get from clients I work with now, from clients I've worked with in the past, is that it's really helpful to have someone who understands neurology, who understands aphasia and what can support communication alongside the permission in those sessions to make the relationships the focus. So this is really important for people, really meaningful for people. So what I guess I'm trying to do is get that message out there—make this your business, because we've got the skills.   Lyssa Rome   I first became aware of your work with your presentation at ASHA in November 2022, and you talked about ways that speech therapists could make it our work. Specifically, you talked about—one of the things you talked about—was narrative therapy, and the power of stories to help people make sense of their situation and to shape their reality. We've touched on this earlier, but part of that had to do with this idea of externalizing the communication disorder, in this case, the aphasia. So I wondered if you could go into that a little bit more for us.   Kate Meredith   Absolutely. It's one of my favorite approaches. So I'd be delighted to talk more about it. So narrative therapy is based in a kind of philosophy of social constructionism, which I won't go into too much here. But essentially, it's kind of an epistemology, or a way of understanding knowledge that underpins the doctorate I'm doing. And it really kind of lends itself to thinking about truth as being a product of social processes, rather than there being one objective truth. So that gets a bit philosophical.    But essentially, what we're thinking about here is that when we are in conversation with each other, which is largely language-based, our conversations support the beliefs that we have and our views of the world. And these events that we are in conversation talking about, they are subjectively perceived. And we link those together into stories that make sense to us. But they're rarely the whole story.    Those of us who have the power to tell these stories, to talk about events and the way that we see them, those of us that have got the loudest voices, the most power, we get to shape the stories that get told and retold. And that, in social constructionist terms, means that we get to shape truth, and we get to shape reality and how it's shared in our communities, which is a privilege that not everyone has.    When we when we do this we see, in narrative therapy we believe, that the stories that fit get retold. They become very dominant. They become the dominant narratives in our societies and in our communities. And the stories that don't fit with that dominant narrative get lost. We would call those subjugated narratives. Now, when I was learning about this in my first year of training in systemic psychotherapy, I just had this epiphany, this kind of light bulb moment of, what does this mean for the people I've just left on the ward and have aphasia, and in the most literal sense, don't have a voice. It just really kind of lit off so many sparks in my brain.    So really thinking about the place of power in this and and how people with aphasia don't get a chance to input into certain stories. I think that we can all probably think about stories that have been told about us in the past that don't really fit for us very well—it might be that we're a rubbish driver, it might be that we're really scatty or that we're selfish or that we're cranky in the morning. You know, there's lots of stories that we don't particularly like that might get told about us. And can we challenge those? Can we give an alternative version and say, well actually is not quite the whole truth and do remember this time? And actually that happened once or twice, but I have been driving for I don't know 30 years or whatever it is. If we can challenge those, then we get to kind of address that narrative and have an influence over it. But if we can't challenge those narratives about us, then we feel less well. We feel subjugated by that.    So I really started to think: Well, what are the options that are available to somebody with aphasia to tell the stories that fit for them? And how as speech and language pathologists do we support them to develop a rich narrative that fits more, that is more congruent with who they are and how they see themselves? So narrative therapy is all about this. Narrative therapy has got a series of kind of parts to it. Essentially, the first thing we're doing is hearing the problem and whatever form people can communicate that to us. We're listening, we're validating, and we need to stay with that. We need to stay with that part of the process before moving on. And when we're doing that, we're thinking about the language that people are using, the way that they're expressing it, because these things are really important later on.    The externalization part of that is about separating the problem out from the person. So the problem and the person are not the same thing. That is absolutely essential as a belief in narrative therapy. And there's some parts of healthcare where that works really well already—that's established. So if we think about cancer care, we don't call people “cancerous.” But yet we call people “aphasic.” So what happens to somebody's identity when they are called “aphasic”? It sounds like, to me that's kind of becoming quite a big part of who they are. And so it's about tending to the language we're using, when we're talking about an aspect of a person or an aspect of an illness that they have had, that then affects their communication with others, rather than making them the problem.    So I want to know: How can we make this routine in brain injury services and aphasia services? How can we talk about, “Oh, yeah, the aphasia—the aphasia happens between the two of you.” “The aphasia gets in the way when you two are trying to communicate.” “The aphasia makes it difficult for us to understand you and your needs, and what matters to you,” rather than, “Your aphasia” or “You as an aphasic.” You know, I know that language is moving on and, and I'm sure that that people are adjusting to making changes with this already. But I think it's really, really important that we think about how can we really relocate that problem from being something that is within the person to something that is cropping up between people.   Lyssa Rome   I think that's such a powerful idea. And after I heard you speak at ASHA, I started paying more attention to the way I was talking about aphasia, and where aphasia would get in the way, or how aphasia impacted, say, someone's ability to write a grocery list or to communicate with a child. There's something I think quite powerful about the ability to name it as separate from the person. It's different than I think, what I sometimes hear, which is people sort of blaming themselves for the communication breakdown or for the difficulty. So sometimes you'll hear people say, under their breath, like, “Oh, I'm so stupid,” or that sort of thing. And I think that when we say, “Ugh, aphasia is really getting in the way here, right?” That's, that's a little bit of a different message for people to hear, or maybe for people to tell themselves.   Kate Meredith   Yeah, it really thinks, to me, it speaks to me about who takes responsibility for that and who takes responsibility for the change. And if somebody is already experiencing this in every part of their lives, do we also make them responsible for owning it and, and managing it, and making amends for it. Yeah, that's a lot to put on someone.   Lyssa Rome    So what are some ideas for how SLPs might use these narrative techniques to give them, or people that they're working with, a sense of having influence over aphasia? What kind of questions can we ask people with aphasia and their significant others?   Kate Meredith    So this part of it, I find this really fun work. Okay, so what we're doing here is we're essentially giving aphasia a character. And we're doing that through making the person that we're talking with, the person who has the brain injury, the expert. Their expertise really gets raised here, because they're the one that understands it the best. So we're working with them to say, “Okay, let's understand more about this aphasia.” We could call it aphasia, or you might give it a different name. Now, the names can get a little bit profane.    Essentially, what would people call this thing that is coming along and disrupting their lives? What name do they want to give it? What does it look like to them? Do they have a vision of it? What does it sound like? Does it sound like noise and static? Does it have a color? Does it feel like it's this kind of black thing kind of approaching them? Is it big? Is it small? Does it have a shape? And what does it say? Does it say those things that you hear people saying, “Oh, I'm so stupid?” “Oh, I should have got that right.” “Oh, this is…?” Does it put words into people's minds? “You're stupid, you can't manage this situation. If I was you, I wouldn't even go out today, because you're not going to succeed at anything.”    There might be things that it's saying to the people that we're working with that get into their narratives. So can we be curious, first of all? “Tell me more about this—what that looks like, what it sounds like, what it says to you, and how can I understand that better?” And we might be doing that most effectively in a session with one or two of their family members there as well. So they can really listen in and think, “Okay, I've got my experience of it. And this is their experience of it. And wow, I'm understanding this in a really different way now.”    So then we can start to think about the influence of the problem on people and on relationships. So what does it do? How does it get in the way? How does it disrupt? Does it provoke frustration? Does it provoke anger? Does it make you feel isolated? Lonely? Does it provoke other people to engage in behavior that you find really patronizing? So can we understand what does it do that really affects your life and your relationships?    Then we can start to think about its presence. So when is it most present in your relationships? What helps it to successfully disrupt your communication together with the people that you care about? So it might be, “First thing in the morning, when I'm really tired, it's everywhere. And I can't do anything without it tripping me up.” Or, “It's okay in this situation. But actually, in these situations, when someone's trying to rush me, and I've got a queue of people behind me, then it's just there, shouting in my ear, saying, ‘I told you, you couldn't be in this situation, you may as well go home.'” So really thinking about where are the contexts where it's most present, most visible, most disruptive?    Now, an interesting part of this process is finding out whether or not aphasia might also have some benefits to it. Because the problems we have in our lives often do have some useful side effects. Not always, but it's worth being curious about that. So if aphasia had any benefits to it, what would they be? And some examples of that might be “I can just not worry about my emails anymore. You know, emails were always really stressful to me. And now, you know, my partner's told everybody, look, don't email them, speak to them on the phone. And that's great, because actually, that used to be something that really used to stress me out.” So it's worth kind of just exploring, kind of with a bit of playfulness. Is there anything good about this? Does it do anything useful for you?    The important part or another important part of this process, is looking at what we call the relative influence. So by this stage, we've understood a lot more about what the problem does to people what the problem does to relationships. But actually, the relative influence is what influence we as people have on the life of the problem. So here, we're not just thinking—this is crucial—we're not just thinking about the person with the aphasia, but actually, everybody around them. How can everybody influence aphasia? So when is at least present? We've heard a bit about when it's most present, but when is it least present? When is it hardly even noticeable? And this is often to do with people having stepped up.    So what happens to aphasia when John writes down key words for Millie? Does aphasia get a bit smaller? Does it get a little bit less troublesome? What happens when Angela puts her phone down to look at her dad and talk to her dad? Does aphasia find that something that it doesn't like quite so much because it can't quite have its own way? What happens when David gives Phil time to finish rather than interjecting? So are these things that start to reduce the power that aphasia has to disrupt?    When we're doing this, we're looking for other people to think about their agency over aphasia. So it doesn't feel like a massively oppressive problem in all circumstances and in all contexts. But we're thinking about the unique outcomes that can be threaded together. So actually, most of the time, it's awful, but when that happened the other day that it didn't really feel like it was around, or it felt a lot smaller. Okay, so let's start to thread this together. And let's start to think about other stories that we can tell that are healthier. And through that, we identify the actions that people can take, the tools that they have to reduce the power of aphasia. But again, crucially, not just the person with aphasia, the person with aphasia and everyone else. So we can think about how power is produced when everyone learns aphasia's ways, and uses their tools as a collective, as an army, as an uprising, to fight the power of aphasia.    Now, we have speech language therapists, speech language pathologists, have got so many tools, with working with families working with conversation partners, to really say, “These are your weapons against it. These are the things that you guys are already doing. But if you can do that more, if you can do that in that context, and that context, if you can do that here in the aphasia center, and at home and in the shop, then actually aphasia is going to start to think, ‘Okay, I don't really have much of a place here. I'm not so welcome here.'” And it's going to get less powerful. And we can draw attention to that. We can thread it together. So it's not, “Okay, you know, John's aphasic. And he can't really communicate with anyone.” It's “Aphasia tries to get in the way of John and his family and John and his friends. But this is a really skilled group of people on guard for that. And they are equipped with so many skills and tools, working as a team to make sure that aphasia does not disrupt their relationships.” And that's enormously empowering for people.   Lyssa Rome    Yeah, it's a big shift. What you're describing makes me think about how people in relationship are dealing with aphasia, and how the reciprocity of communication, and that back and forth, might promote resilience with aphasia. And I'm wondering how we as SLPs can help people foster that resilience.   Kate Meredith   So resilience is such an interesting concept when we think about it in any walk of life. And there's so much different research into it. And I was looking into this a lot when I did my family therapy training, my dissertation was really around kind of partner coping when their partner has a communication disorder. So what helps people to cope and what helps people in relationships to feel resilient? And the reading I was doing at the time showed me that interpersonal relationships really influence resilience.    There was a paper by Roland, which was saying that actually, couples who can communicate openly, directly, and sensitively can better cope with chronic disorders. So what does this mean for groups of people that we work with in speech and language therapy and pathology, where open, direct, sensitive, reciprocal communication is less possible? And this is really where SLPs come in with their skill set. Because we need to understand, I believe, how people are managing. I think we need to start having those conversations—what's going on with renegotiation around the boundaries in this family around where the illness has its impact, about how they find a balance in their relationships that suddenly might be really skewed from where it was beforehand. In family therapy, we're really curious about people's understanding of each other's needs, of their strengths, and of their different perspectives on it.    So I guess when we're thinking about open and reciprocal communication, we can have ideas about supported communication. But we can also have a think about actually, what is it like to, to slow it down and to really be thinking, what are our different perspectives on this issue? How do we have a session that is supported by an SLP—somebody that's just taking it slowly and saying, “What is this like for both of you? How do you feel you're managing with this? What are your different ideas about this?” We can be there, supporting the person with the aphasia, to share their perspective, to share their worries. And it's the quality of that that can really, really lead to people feeling that we are open with each other.    It's not about the ease of the quick communication, necessarily, of: “What we're going to have for dinner tonight? And can you phone so-and-so?” It's about: “How we both feeling about this? How are we going to support each other? There's this idea about, you know, me helping you with personal care. What does that feel like for you? Does that feel okay for you? Would you rather someone else did it, so we protect our relationship in a different way? How can I understand your perspective? And how can you understand my perspective?” For me, that's the quality of that communication, that we can really have a part in making more sensitive, making more open, which I think can directly feed into people's resilience.    There are other ways that we can think about resilience, which is about the protective factors that they have as part of them or in their environment or in their relationship. And we can do a little bit of work around that—”What is it that that you do to help you manage at this time?” So then might be emotion-oriented coping mechanisms. Some of those can be healthy, some of those can be unhealthy. So we might be thinking about faith, we might be thinking about denial. There's problem-oriented coping mechanisms, where people might think about giving up work to help manage the kind of care package of their partner. But obviously, that can have its implications with social isolation and financial resources. There's problem-solving coping mechanisms where people might seek social support, or take on different roles that were previously held by the person with a brain injury.    But we need to, I think, be curious about this. What are you doing that's helping you through this time? What ideas do you have about the future and how you guys are going to manage? Because we know that sometimes people can do things with the best intentions. So partners have been found in the past to isolate themselves from social networks to avoid placing their partner into difficult or embarrassing situations. And we might be curious about that and thinking: Okay, yeah, we can see what the intentions are there. And that sounds like you're really holding them in mind. What will that do to you and your resilience, if actually, your social network kind of closes down?    So there aren't necessarily the right answers. And that's another kind of value, I guess, in family and systemic psychotherapy. We're not necessarily there to give the answers. We're there to ask the questions. We're there to be curious. Because generally, our belief is that people come up with their best solutions that fit them, that fit their context. But what we might do is ask the questions that help them to feel: Here's somebody interested in this, here's somebody that can help me to work this through with my partner, by being there, supporting the communication. And that can be a really valuable extension of our role that people might find more meaningful than maybe other things that we do.   Lyssa Rome   So it sounds like you're describing resilience as also something that's sort of based in and fostered by relationships. One of the ideas that really stood out to me in the presentation you did at ASHA was about how speech therapists could use diagrams and maps of relationships and systems to help them understand the context that aphasia exists in, right, the people who are dealing with aphasia, and so I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about using diagramming within our practice?   Kate Meredith  Absolutely, I think this is one of those quick wins that SLPs can kind of start to implement kind of really, really quickly if they're so inclined. So genograms and ecomaps are two tools that I started using really, really quickly when I was training as a family therapist, but still working as a speech and language therapist. And they're slightly different. But essentially what they do is kind of map out the context for communication, map out the context for relationships.    So genograms we tend to think of—they're better known as family trees. So you might have seen these in other books and other contexts. But essentially, we use normally circles for women and squares for men and different shapes for people that don't identify as either. And we kind of map it out according to at least three generations. So you have symbols for each member of the family, and lines to connect them in their different family groups and generations. And what we do there is we map out the structure of the family. So we understand who's in the family and, and where do they live and how often do you see them. But also we can start to think about the quality of relationships. So in systemic psychotherapy, we draw lines between relationships. So you might have two or three lines between the people that are really, really close. And then you might have some squiggly lines between the relationships where there's conflict.    So it helps us to understand, okay, where are where are the people that we're working with in the context of their family relationships? Which relationships are going well? We can also put significant dates on there, separations, illness is really useful to put on there—physical illness, mental illness. How well is this family doing at the moment? What is this new injury, or this kind of developing illness mean to this family? And if we're thinking about their conversation partner as being kind of their key support, potentially their partner, actually what else is going on in their family, because most of us have got something going on in our family. I think I fell into the trap very often as a speech language therapist, thinking: Oh, I bet this wife will be delighted when I say, “By the way, I can stay late tonight, if you want to come in, and we'll do a conversation session with you and your husband.” Without thinking: I wonder what else this woman has on in her life and how this will fit for her?   So it helps us to understand a little bit more about what's going on for that family at this point in time and how this fits. It also helps us to understand if we ask questions, things about the family scripts, the things that get handed down the generations. “We are a family who grin and bear it and get on with life and don't grumble.” Or, “We're a family where bad things always happen to us. And this was always going to happen.” What are the stories that we tell about ourselves as a family? This can be really informative for us as therapists to be thinking: Is this to them feeling like another example of that? Or actually, are they ready to challenge that family script? Or do they have a really positive family script? “We're survivors, we find ways to make stuff work.” “No matter what happens, we're going to stick together.” It's really interesting to ask people about the stories that get told about their family and, and what gets handed down in a really positive way. And what gets handed down in a way that doesn't feel okay, and maybe it's time to think about doing something differently.    So those genograms kind of map out the significant relationships within the family, which can be really helpful for us as speech language therapists to think about. Okay, who are the key communication partners here, and what is the meaning of the illness or the meaning of the aphasia for this family? So that's kind of one way of doing it.    There's another way of doing it, which sometimes, I'd almost recommend starting with, because maybe it fits better for a lot of people in the way they live their lives these days, where it's less centered on the family and the different generations, and more about our social networks. And I'm not necessarily talking about online social networks here, I'm talking about wider social networks. So the tool that I'm thinking about here are called ecomaps. And what we do with ecomaps is we draw a bit of a map of the family and their social systems and their professional systems. And we do that by drawing a circle in the middle with the person we're working with, and their immediate family, or household in that circle. And then around them, we draw more circles. And that can be as many as is relevant—a circle for each system that they are engaged with. So it might be the two partners, if it's two partners, each their work context. If there's kids, it might be their school. There might be adult friends. There might be kids' friends. There might be sports teams, book clubs, neighbors, other family groups. We can start to think, okay, all of these people interact with this family on a weekly basis or monthly basis.    And we can put ourselves on there. Now coming into this, there's a rehab team, or a speech language pathologist or a psychologist or social worker. We can start to kind of put ourselves on there as well. And we can have bigger and smaller circles related to kind of how present those systems are in the family's life. I think what can be really interesting is looking at how much space we take up in somebody's life sometimes, particularly in the acute stages or early on in rehab. Actually, work might have shrunk down to a tiny, tiny circle, whereas it used to be something that somebody did 40 hours a week. And actually now we take up 40 hours a week if they're on an inpatient ward, or even more. Things get really skewed. We become really big in people's lives and that might be quite complicated for people.    But what we can do is start use the lines that I talked about earlier in genograms—the straight lines for closeness the squiggly lines for conflict, again, between that that group in the middle and the different systems around them. What's going well here? What is really shrinking down but we don't want it to? We want that to be bigger, that meant something to us, and at the moment, it doesn't have any space because all these other systems are involved. Where is it that actually, we can say, “Okay, right now, yes, having all the support from the speech language pathologist is really great. We want that. But what would it look like in a year's time?”    Doing these over time can be really important. If you had three of them, you might do an ecomap the year before the brain injury. What did family life look like? Who were the connections? Who were the networks? Right now what does it look like? And if we were to think in two years', or three years' or five years' time, what would you like it to look like? Because that helps us to think about: Which are the systems that we really need to support this family to communicate with? And what would that communication goal be? What would be meaningful for that person? So if it's, “I really love my book club, they're a brilliant group of people, I want to stay engaged with them.” Okay. What does that mean for our communication goals together? How can we really make that important and prominent?    So we can really set goals that are based very much on what will help this person to keep their network—that again, like you said before, feeding into those ideas of relational resilience. And meaning that actually, that social isolation, the people can really experience with aphasia, with people adjusting to aphasia and caregiving, we can say, actually, there are ways to keep these networks going if we think really carefully and really intentionally around what communication goals are needed for us to work on, but also how can we explain to these different systems about aphasia and its sneaky ways? And how can we help them to feel just as skilled in outwitting it and outsmarting it, as the family are hopefully beginning to feel?     Lyssa Rome So as we begin to wrap up, I'm wondering what what would you like speech language pathologists who are listening to this to take away from what you've been sharing with us?   Kate Meredith    I imagine that many speech language therapists listening to this will already have a load of these ideas. So I hope that they feel empowered to keep thinking this way, keep using these ideas. I, for my own practice, like to think: Okay, what would matter the most to me? If I was to have a stroke, if I was to have aphasia, what would matter the most to me? And I think that can be a helpful way to think.    So my thinking is that actually, communication builds relationships, communication sustains relationships, and my relationships are the most important things to me in the world. But what if no one that I was working with in our health system was talking about the significance of aphasia in my relationships? I'd feel stuck. I'd feel like I didn't have anywhere to express that. So I would love speech language therapists would be thinking, I'm gonna ask, “How's this affecting your relationship? How are you doing with that? Who should we be bringing in? How can we understand that?”    So curiosity underpins everything that family and systemic psychotherapists do. So be curious and be broad with your curiosity. Don't feel like there are limits that you've got to stick to. Feel free to ask, “So what's this doing to your relationship with your partner? How's that working for you? What are you worried about?” Because actually, when we can help people to say it, it feels more manageable. So I'd love people to think about that.    I'd really encourage people to think about the concept of timeframes. So what were things like before? How are things now? Where are we going to? What to what place do they want to get to? Because actually, if we don't ask what things were like beforehand, we might never know that actually, they were just about to divorce. And then this happened, and now they feel stuck together. So, you know, ask, “How was your relationship before the stroke?” A lot of people will be doing this already. I don't want to patronize anyone. But I do want people to feel permitted—not that I'm here to give permission—but encouragement to ask these questions. So can we find out who the key conversation partners are, because that really makes us think about the key communication goals more broadly than our immediate context that we see them in.    I'd also really like to think about change happening in relationships rather than change happening within the individual. So a great shooter I had recently said, you know, when people are traumatized, don't make them responsible, alone, for change. This is Robert Van Hennik. And I love this idea: Is it fair for us, in healthcare, in society, to say, “You, there, with aphasia, you need to change your communication so other people find it easier to to understand you.” How can we help families and societies and communities to understand the relational responsibility for aphasia and for managing aphasia?    I also would really like people to have a think about the problem. So the way we talk about the problem gives the problem meaning. So what are the stories that we hear and we tell? And how can we help people with aphasia and their families and their networks to challenge the dominant stories that actually might not fit for them. Actually, there's a really lovely possibility there for joint working. There's short training courses. And there's already a lot of kind of writing out there in systemic theory and practice and more writing coming through about the links with aphasia.    Finally, I guess what I would say is a speech language pathologists, people listening to this, they're already uniquely skilled. And I don't think people understand how good they are at noticing and supporting communication. And that's what builds relationships. We're so proactive in reducing communication barriers, and we've got the opportunity, through our work with people, to really, really find out what matters to people, and help people, help relatives learn new ways of communicating. So don't underestimate everything that you have to offer, in expanding that to relationships, and the quality of relationships to do work that is more and more meaningful for the people that we work with.   Lyssa Rome    Kate Meredith, thank you so much for talking with us. These ideas, I think are both very practical, and then also very empowering to think that as SLPs we can really think broadly and with curiosity about how we are supporting people and families as they deal with aphasia. So, thank you so much for talking with us today.   Kate Meredith    It's been a real pleasure. I'm delighted to have been able to have this conversation with you.   Lyssa Rome    And thanks also to our listeners. For the references and resources that were mentioned in today's show, please see our show notes. They're available on our website, www.aphasiaaccess.org. There you can also become a member of our organization, browse our growing library of materials, and find out more about the Aphasia Access Academy. If you have an idea for a future podcast episode, email us at info@aphasiaaccess.org. Thanks again for your ongoing support of Aphasia Access. For Aphasia Access Conversations, I'm Lyssa Rome.       References and Resources  www.merediththerapies.com kate.meredith@outlook.com Headway https://www.headway.org.uk Stroke Association https://www.stroke.org.uk   Aphasia Access Conversations Episode #97: Aphasia Is A Family Thing with Marie-Christine Hallé    

Alexa is joined on the Singing Teachers Talk podcast by Carrie Garrett, who is a BAPAM registered SLT and vocal rehabilitation coach, singer and co-founder of the company VitaVoice. Through VitaVoice, Carrie and her team produce supplements to support the vocal health of voice users. Carrie has over 25 years of experience as a singer and singing teacher, and she is on the podcast to discuss physical well-being and supplementary products for singers. KEY TAKEAWAYS Carrie views well-being as encompassing comfort, health and happiness. When it comes to vocal health, these are the ultimate goals for singers and individuals undergoing voice therapy. The aim is to ensure that individuals are comfortable and healthy enough to achieve everything they desire with their voice, while also finding happiness in the process.  VitaVoice is a daily food supplement capsule designed to support your well-being and health and maintain your voice. Their product includes key vitamins, minerals, and botanicals, including lion's mane mushroom, ashwagandha and ginseng. If you have a healthy lifestyle and a good diet, you generally don't need to take supplements. However, there are other factors which impact this, such as the lack of sunlight in the UK at certain times of the year. This can lead to people lacking in vitamin D. As singers, we also live irregular lives, often on the road where it's hard to eat healthy.  Adaptogens are a class of plants and herbs that help your mind and body adapt to a wide range of stressors (physical, mental, emotional and environmental), helping you to restore balance and function at your best. Adaptogens can boost your energy levels naturally, giving you sustained energy levels throughout the day. The term ‘Nootropics' refers to substances which have a positive impact on mental skills such as memory, creativity, motivation, and attention. They increase blood circulation to the brain, providing increased energy and oxygen flow. BEST MOMENTS‘The Singing and the Actor course completely opened my eyes to what vocal anatomy is' ‘Well-being is not just the physical side of things' ‘If you want to look after your vocal health, live well and everything else will fall into place'‘I wanted people to maximise their body function for creativity' ‘You don't need a multivitamin if you're getting everything you need' EPISODE RESOURCES Website: www.thesingersclinic.com  www.vitavoice.co.uk Social Media:  @carrie_voice_slt @vitavoicehealth Relevant Links & Mentions:  Vocal Process (Gillyanne Kayes & Jeremy Fisher): https://vocalprocess.co.uk/ Declan Costello: https://www.voicedoctor.co.uk/ Singing Teachers Talk Podcast: Ep. 87 How to Manage Allergies and Upper Respiratory Infections with Laryngologist Declan Costello The World Health Organisation: https://www.who.int/ Tim Ferriss: https://tim.blog/ Podcast: Feel Better, Love More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee  The work of Jessie Inchauspé  BAPAM: https://www.bapam.org.uk/ BVA: https://britishvoiceassociation.org.uk/ Singing Teachers Talk Podcast - Ep.25 The Performers Health Starts from the Inside with Nutritionist Stephanie Moore Singing Teachers Talk Podcast - Ep. 60 The Best Nutritional Do's and Don'ts for Singers with Stephanie Moore Singing Teachers Talk Podcast - Ep. 100 The Truth About Singing and Dairy with Nutritionist Duncan Rock Singing Teachers Talk Podcast Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/basttraining?utm_source VitaVoice Contact Email: info@vitavoice.co.uk  ABOUT THE GUEST Carrie is a UK-based HCPC registered health practitioner working in the field of Voice. She is a BAPAM Registered SLT and Vocal Rehabilitation Coach and has over 25 years' of experience as a singer and singing teacher, adding to her skillset when she qualified as a Speech & Language Therapist in 2012. With a wealth of knowledge in diagnostic and therapeutic interventions related to her specialist field, she splits her time working in independent voice therapy practice, is clinical lead for Voice at Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, and is co-founder of VitaVoice: a wellbeing company with health and prevention of voice issues at their heart…Good health for great voices! She holds a degree in Popular Music Performance, is a qualified teacher of music, and spent 9 years working in FE/HE music education alongside recording and performing original music and working in tribute and cover bands across the UK. All of this alongside her classical singing training at Birmingham Conservatoire as a teenager has contributed towards her empathy and compassion for the demands which exist for vocalists everywhere.  VitaVoice is a passion project developed with her husband and their colleague following recognition of a need for holistic health and well-being advice and products to support people with hard-working voices. Having been inspired by the nutritionists she worked with in the development of their hero product ‘VitaVoice: Optimise', any free time she has available is currently spent researching and studying towards her diploma in Health and Nutrition to ensure the information she shares with others relating to health and wellbeing is evidence-based and up to date. ABOUT THE PODCASTBAST Training is here to help singers gain the knowledge, skills and understanding required to be a great singing teacher. We can help you whether you are getting started or just have some knowledge gaps to fill through our courses and educational events.Website: basttraining.comGet updates to your inbox: Click here for updates from BAST TrainingLink to presenter's bios: basttraining.com/singing-teachers-talk-podcast-biosThis show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Emma has had a gloriously squiggly career, starting in pharmaceutical sales, then training as a Speech and Language Therapist. After a short and sweet affair with the NHS, she became Operations Director in a successful event business, before finding her true passion and training as Voice Coach at the prestigious Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She brings the wealth of all that knowledge to help women raise their visibility and credibility at work, by amplifying their ability to be heard and cultivating thoughtful leadership in both the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds.Support the show

In this week's episode, Mckell Smith is back to answer your questions about speech therapy. Mekell is a Speech and Language Pathologist, as well as a special needs Mom. Speech therapy is so important to so many kids, and won't believe some of the things speech therapy can actually help with. It's actually, kind of amazing. Mckell helps you navigate your speech journey by sharing things like when to get your child evaluated, how to prepare for your initial evaluation, what questions to ask, how to ensure the best possible outcome and everything in between.This episode is designed to be a community resource and I hope it helps you to better understand, prepare for, and navigate speech therapy.If you enjoyed this episode, please take 30 seconds and leave a review on apple podcast. Here's how you do it:1) Click here2) Scroll down about halfway and you'll see where you leave a review. Thank you!! :-)Guest Bio:Mckell Smith is a Speech & Language Therapist, mom of four (three with special needs), advocate, and business owner. Mckell is passionate about helping kids, and their families.You can find here at the links below:www.childchampions.netwww.instagram.com/im.mckellHost Bio:Rob Gorski is a single Dad to three amazing autistic boys as well as Found and CEO of The Autism Dad, LLC. Multiple award-winning blogger, podcaster, content creator, digital marketer, social media influencer, and respected public figure for well over a decade.Connect with Rob Gorski: https://listen.theautismdad.comMentioned in this episode:Mentioned in this episode:Learn More: GoallyThe Goally tablet is focused on fostering independence in kids without the distractions of ads, social media, or potentially harmful content. Unlike Kindle and iPad tablets, Goally's Tablet exclusively features educational apps like Khan Academy, Duolingo ABC, and Starfall, and is entirely controlled by parents. Goally's Kids Calendar helps kids with things like task management. Kids also learn life skills through video classes and pre-made routines, enhancing their independence. For more information, you can visit getgoally.com and use the code “theautismdad” to save 10% off your order.Visit Goally

In this week's episode, Mckell Smith is back to answer your questions about speech therapy. Mekell is a Speech and Language Pathologist, as well as a special needs Mom. Speech therapy is so important to so many kids, and won't believe some of the things speech therapy can actually help with. It's actually, kind of amazing. Mckell helps you navigate your speech journey by sharing things like when to get your child evaluated, how to prepare for your initial evaluation, what questions to ask, how to ensure the best possible outcome and everything in between. This episode is designed to be a community resource and I hope it helps you to better understand, prepare for, and navigate speech therapy. If you enjoyed this episode, please take 30 seconds and leave a review on apple podcast. Here's how you do it: 1) Click here 2) Scroll down about halfway and you'll see where you leave a review. Thank you!! :-) Guest Bio: Mckell Smith is a Speech & Language Therapist, mom of four (three with special needs), advocate, and business owner. Mckell is passionate about helping kids, and their families. You can find here at the links below: www.childchampions.net www.instagram.com/im.mckell Host Bio: Rob Gorski is a single Dad to three amazing autistic boys as well as Found and CEO of The Autism Dad, LLC. Multiple award-winning blogger, podcaster, content creator, digital marketer, social media influencer, and respected public figure for well over a decade. Connect with Rob Gorski: https://listen.theautismdad.com Mentioned in this episode: Goally Goally is a digital visual scheduler, AAC talker, token board system, and more all rolled into one easy-to-use app. It's made for unique thinkers like autistic kids and kids with ADHD. Kids together with Goally can conquer daily routines and therapy practice without prompting from mom or dad. This reduces that feeling of nagging your kids, and it also grants your kids some autonomy to sort of manage their own lives. Goally can easily be used on your child's existing device or with Goally's optional and affordable, dedicated device. In my house, we found that the dedicated device seems to work better for my son, so that's what we use. For more information, you can visit getgoally.com and use the code “theautismdad” to save 10% off your order.

We get a lot of questions about Speech and Language Therapy careers. It's a hugely rewarding area of work where you support and care for people of all ages who have difficulties with speech, language, communication, eating, drinking and swallowing. York graduate Jess is a Speech and Language Therapist working with adults with learning disabilities. Find out about what she does each day and how she got there. As always, full transcript and useful links can be found on our blog. Jess's bio: Jess graduated as a Speech and Language Therapist in 2019 and now works as an NHS Specialist Speech and Language Therapist in an Intensive Support Team for adults with learning disabilities. Jess is also a Speech and Language Therapist for the Down Syndrome Training and Support Service.