ACQ Vol 10 No 2 2008

R eflecting C onnections Antipodean knowledge sharing Alison Russell and Trish Bradd

Alison Russell, Trish Bradd, Clare McCann, Catherine Epps and Felicity Bright.

A fter 12 years Speech Pathology Australia and NZSTA rekindled old friendships and came together to share their experience, practice and ideas at the ‘2008 Reflecting Connections Conference’ in Auckland. It was a pleasure planning the Conference with the capable support of our NZ colleagues, Felicity Bright (Co-convenor), Clare McCann (Scientific Program Coordinator) and Catherine Epps (committee member), and the fabulous support of the student helpers during the week. Dr Pamela Snow’s opening keynote presentation about child abuse challenged the audience to consider how speech pathologists can play a crucial role in positioning oral language competence as a social justice and public health issues across the lifespan. Her workshop and second plenary explored the relationship between maltreatment of children, oral language competence and mental health, all key social

Keynote presenter Dr Pamela Snow

determinants of health and educational outcomes. Her presentations sparked considerable discussion about how the profession needs to broaden its perspective to include advocacy for children, the consideration of mental health in our practice, and our role in influencing public health policy. Associate Professor Margaret Maclagan from Christchurch University gave an interactive presentation as the Inaugural Grace Gane Memorial Lecture (NZSTA) which had us contemplating trans Tasman linguistic similarities and differences.

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S peech P athology A ustralia