Speak Out October 2020 DIGITAL EDITION FINAL

Branch News

Western Australia

WA 1241 members as at September 2020

I have worked in lower-primary education since graduating. In particular I enjoy working with schools and families to support children to communicate for social and academic success. Joining the WA Branch School-Aged services Working Party (SAWP) in late 2017 gave me the opportunity to work alongside like-minded speech pathologists in advocating for speech pathology in schools, and for rights of our school-aged clients more broadly. The SAWP aims to work towards better outcomes for school-aged children with Speech, Language, and Communication Needs (SLCNs). The way we’ve set about achieving this goal has changed between 2017 and now, and will no doubt continue to shift as new members join SAWP. The goals of the group may also be impacted by members’ input through the upcoming WA advocacy member forum. In the first part of 2020 we worked on two fantastic outcomes from the group. As part of advocating for school-aged children with SLCNs one of our members, Dr Emily Dawes liaised with Murdoch University’s School of Education for us to have the opportunity to present at their Mondays@ Murdoch seminar series. Mondays@Murdoch is a free practice-focused seminar series aimed at teachers of all levels of experience. Dr Emily Dawes, Clare Woodfield, and I adapted Speech Pathology Australia’s GP Education Kit presentation, available on the SPA website under Resources for Speech Pathologists>Promoting the Profession>GP Education Kit, to include education focused and WA relevant information. On the 15 June Emily, Clare, and I presented Time to talk: speech pathology and schools to 60 educators on speech pathology in education, and SLCNs . There was lots of positive feedback at the end of the session along with many questions about WA School-Aged Services Working Party WA SPA POLICY AND ADVOCACY REP ROBERT WELLS REPORTS ON THE WORK DONE TO CONNECT THE PROFESSION WITH EDUCATION.

Pictured above is Robert Wells, the WA SPA Policy and Advocacy rep with Clare Woodfield. Below is Dr. Emily Dawes, who was presenting off-site.

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Speak Out | October 2020