Speak Out August 2020 DIGITAL EDITION

And, the winners are...

Elinor Wray

The Elinor Wray Award was instituted in 1981 to honour Miss Elinor Wray, who is regarded as the Founder of the speech pathology profession in Australia. The award is granted for significant and outstanding contribution to the profession of speech pathology, through completion of a specific project or major clinical contribution. In 2020 the Association was proud to bestow this award on two very worthy members.

Robyn has bridged the academic and clinical world as a Senior Lecturer and Discipline Head at LaTrobe University and until recently a senior research speech pathologist at St Vincent’s Hospital. Robyn has led innovative research that has resulted in the internationally acclaimed Inpatient Functional Communication Interview – Screening, Assessment and Intervention. She has a passion for speech pathology practice and research that changes the lives of people with communication disability. This most recent publication promotes speech pathology to a new range of health care professionals and will impact positively on many hospital patients with communication disability. Jennifer Peach

Dr Robyn O’Halloran Dr Robyn O’Halloran has made an outstanding contribution to speech pathology research, clinical practice, leadership, student education and supervision over her entire career but it is the more recent development and publication of the Inpatient Functional Communication Interview – Screening, Assessment and Intervention that has earnt her an Elinor Wray Award. The aim of the newly published Inpatient Functional

Jennifer has made a highly significant contribution to the profession of speech pathology, particularly related to recognition of the role of speech pathologists, in contributing to the education outcomes for students and the delivery of speech pathology services in an educational setting. Jenny has delivered speech pathology services within the Queensland Department of Education as a service provider and manager for over 25 years.

Communication Interview – Screening, Assessment and Intervention is to provide speech pathologists with the tools to make hospitals communicatively accessible for people with a communication disability. Robyn was ahead of her time when she developed and published the original Inpatient Functional Communication Interview in 2004. The result of her Master of Philosophy thesis. Robyn completed her PhD measuring the incidence and prevalence of communication disability in stroke units, determining the validity and reliability of impairment rating scales relevant to the stroke unit setting, and measuring the performance of people with a communication disability on tasks that have been found to enable participation in health care. In the past three years, Robyn has worked closely with the team at St Vincent’s hospital to expand the tools within the original Inpatient Functional Communication Interview. The newly published resource now contains a screening tool for nursing staff, interview by a speech pathologist, impairment scales, and an Environmental Questionnaire that audits the communicative accessibility of the ward or the hospital. The foreword written by world renowned Professor Emeritus Nina Simmons-Mackie describes the Inpatient Functional Communication Interview – Screening, Assessment and Intervention as required reading for students as well as seasoned clinicians.

While Jenny's achievements have been numerous, the Elinor Wray award is in recognition of her role in the development and implementation of ‘Read it again – Foundation Q!’ and her positioning of speech pathologists as critical partners in the development of reading skills for students across Queensland State Schools. In her role as Project Leader in the development, implementation and scaling of ‘Read It Again – FoundationQ!’ Jenny lead collaboration with international researcher, Distinguished Professor Laura Justice, who developed the original ‘Read It Again – Pre K’. Jenny identified a potential to adapt this program, which was originally targeted to children in the prior to school age bracket, for the students just beginning in school in Australia. Jenny saw the opportunity to apply contemporary research in how adults can support children’s long-term language and literacy development using systematic and explicit instruction to the key indicators for the Australian Curriculum. This lead to the collaboration with Professor Laura Justice to develop ‘Read-it Again – FoundationQ!’. Read It Again – FoundationQ! Is currently implemented in over 250 state schools across seven education

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Speak Out | August 2020