Speechmag

Why it's worth attending major exhibitions like Naidex and Talk Shop

The needs of people with communication difficulties will be well represented at the Naidex exhibition, which starts tomorrow at the NEC in Birmingham.

It’s a shame I’ve never managed to get to this annual showcase for products to aid independent living, as I’ve found other exhibitions such as BETT, the Communication Matters roadshows and Talk Shop inspiring and informative. As Louise Scrivener of Talk Shop says, such events give you “the space and time to re-discover your passion for your work...discover new ideas and products...and most importantly to network and update your CPD.”

Naidex runs from 5-7 April 2011. Wordswell speech and language therapist Janet O’Keefe will be speaking on inclusive practice in special educational needs, and the Association of Speech & Language Therapists in Independent Practice (ASLTIP) will be exhibiting for the first time. The ‘Communication Village’ area features well-known names in alternative and augmentative communication.

If this is too short notice, TES Education North is from 8-9 April at Manchester Central. Or you can keep Friday 30 September in mind for the third Talk Shop. In a development from previous years, this will now be the National Speech & Language and Occupational Therapy Fair and will include Communication Champion Jean Gross as the keynote speaker.

Comic Relief, stammering, and the real irony

Humour can be difficult to get right - but last night Lenny Henry and the BBC got it very wrong.

My children have been very moved by the various TV programmes leading up to Comic Relief, in particular one involving Lenny Henry in Kenya. On their own initiative they set themselves challenges and got sponsorship. Their questions have led us to discuss politics, culture and the use of humour to highlight inequalities, injustice and our own inconsistencies.

It beggars belief that Comic Relief would open with a spoof of The King's Speech which involved absolutely no irony, hidden message or clever humour. All it said was - it's OK to roll your eyes and laugh at people who stammer, to interrupt them, to hurry them, to make fun of them and to finish their sentences. What sort of signal does that send out to young people who stammer and to their peers who are so crucial to their self-esteem and acceptance?

In a strongly worded complaint Leys Geddes, chair of the British Stammering Association, said, "Thousands of children are teased and bullied every day simply because they stammer. By doing stuff like this, you give other children permission to continue this foul treatment and encourage adults to snigger and turn a blind eye...In your drive for audiences and edge, you trample on the very vulnerabilities you claim to dispel."

The BBC recently showed an excellent programme about young people attending a course at the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children. Comic Relief spends considerable sums on anti-bullying projects. It's a pity that no-one involved in the production or showing of the opening sketch seems to have spotted this real irony.

Shopping habits, risky decisions and getting to grips with statistics

I’m sure Jen Reid didn’t intend to improve my shopping habits when she conceived the ‘Journal Club’ series on critical appraisal for Speech & Language Therapy in Practice – but that has been one outcome.

I picked up a pack of four leeks yesterday emblazoned with ‘Special offer! Only £1.70!’ But I paused as a little voice in my head said, “Check the figures and think about it. It’s up to you, not the shop, to decide if this is the best deal.” The loose leeks had a tiny little sign saying ‘£2.75 a kilo’. The four nicely packaged leeks weighed 500g. I did the maths - and swapped them over.

A new Cochrane Systematic Review concludes that people – whether health professionals or consumers – may make different decisions depending on the way risk statistics are presented. There are the usual caveats about more research being needed (and I won’t claim to have studied the whole review), but check out how the example given in the plain language summary (p.2) changes your own perceptions:
“You read that a study found that an osteoporosis drug cuts the risk of having a hip fracture in the next three years by 50% [relative risk reduction]. Specifically, 10% of the untreated people had a hip fracture at three years, compared with 5% of the people who took the osteoporosis drug every day for three years. Thus 5% (10% minus 5%) less people would suffer a hip fracture if they take the drug for 3 years [absolute risk reduction]. In other words, 20 patients need to take the osteoporosis drug over 3 years for an additional patient to avoid a hip fracture [number needed to treat].”

The authors conclude their findings suggest that “the formal education and training of health professionals apparently has no effect on their handling of statistical information” (p.26). It certainly doesn’t come easily to me but, as a teacher said at my older son’s parents’ evening, “He is used to being able to do things so, when they don’t come naturally, he just thinks he can’t do it. I tell him to take his time and to think it through, because he can. And then he does.”

I will keep trying to understand statistics because, when we are asking people to trust us to give them appropriate, evidence based information, an ability to look behind the headlines matters.

Jennifer Reid’s Journal Club series in Speech & Language Therapy in Practice has so far taken the mystery out of appraising expert opinion articles (Autumn 2010), qualitative research (Winter 2010) and systematic reviews (Spring 11). In Summer 11 she will tackle intervention.

Reference
Akl EA, Oxman AD, Herrin J, Vist GE, Terrenato I, Sperati F, Costiniuk C, Blank D, Schünemann H. Using alternative statistical formats for presenting risks and risk reductions. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2011, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD006776. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006776.pub2.

Music, Melodic Intonation Therapy and Giving Voice

"We found music provided an opportunity for people to express themselves and interact in a poignant way...This has given us food for thought about the link between communication, music and movement."

So say the speech and language therapy team for people with learning disabilities at Yourhealthcare, while reflecting on their Signsational training in the Spring 11 issue of Speech & Language Therapy in Practice (pp.28-29).

Another speech and language therapist, Lindsay King, has been pondering the link between singing and speech. Having heard about the resurgence of interest in Melodic Intonation Therapy (which I reported in 2007), she introduced it to a young man with a brain injury with promising results.

Lindsay wrote this up as a case study which will feature in the Autumn 11 issue of Speech & Language Therapy in Practice. Her Trust then asked her to write a summary of the approach in its new Cumbria Partnership Journal of Research, Practice and Learning (freely available online and well worth a read). With interest in speech and language therapy fuelled by The King's Speech, journalists picked up on her contribution at the Journal's launch, and her client was delighted to be interviewed and photographed for his local paper.

This is a really good example of the same 'story' being presented in different ways to suit the needs of different recipients. It also shows the advantages of therapists and clients working together to tell the story, as is being encouraged by the Giving Voice campaign. So go on, express yourself!

Spring has sprung at Speech & Language Therapy in Practice

Mailing of the bumper Spring 11 issue of Speech & Language Therapy in Practice is now complete and, as always, it is blooming with practical and inspiring articles.

We have a new arrival, Whose goal is it anyway?, a series for 2011 on goal negotiation from Sam Simpson and Cathy Sparkes. Journal club continues with a look at critically appraising systematic reviews, Editor's choice is on stammering, and Boundary issues is back with the ethical minefield when work and home life meet.

Other articles are on:

• putting people with learning disabilities in control of where they live and with whom
• introducing TOPICC (Targeted Observation of Pragmatics in Children's Conversations)
• reducing the risk of choking in adults with learning disabilities or mental illness
• training people with aphasia and their carers to communicate effectively beyond therapy
• resources for being an effective national specialist adviser.

And, as you would expect, we have fantastic reader offers (for NDP3 Speech Builder, Grow Words, and Independence Through Communication) as well as reviews of books and resources and more low cost ideas for groups in Here's one I made earlier.

New subscribers to Speech & Language Therapy in Practice should note that, in addition to the 4 issues for 2011, they will get a free copy of the Winter 10 issue.

Happy reading!

4 bursary places at No Mind Left Behind conference to benefit cash-strapped speech and language therapy departments

You're hearing it here first! In recognition of the vital part that speech and language therapists play in the field of learning difficulties, Mindroom is offering the profession 4 free places at the forthcoming major international conference No Mind Left Behind.

The conference runs from 29-30 March 2011 in Glasgow. Delegates also receive access to the Virtual conference for up to a year. It will feature 52 international speakers from the fields of learning difficulties, autism, ADHD and other early onset neurodevelopmental disorders. They include a speech language pathologist from Sweden, Carmela Miniscalco, who will be speaking about her work on early diagnosis of autism.

The cost for professionals attending the conference is £495 + VAT, but Mindroom founder Sophie Dow decided to offer these bursary places specifically to speech and language therapists following my blog post about the impact of cuts on training budgets.

She says, "The offer is for 4 free places at both days of No Mind Left Behind. This includes the bonus of access to the Virtual conference for up to a year. In other words, it also offers fantastic in-house training opportunities for an entire department."

Interested speech and language therapists should contact Sophie (email sophie@mindroom.org) as soon as possible. Successful applicants will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation.

What a brilliant CPD opportunity - good luck!

 

New 'Communicating ethics' article explores use of Seedhouse grid

There wasn't room for 'Boundary issues' in the Winter 10 issue of Speech & Language Therapy in Practice - but don't despair if you missed your ethics fix, as I have just published an online only article which explores the use of the Seedhouse grid.

'Communicating ethics' is a collaborative effort from Professor Jois Stansfield of Manchester Metropolitan University and Jane Handley, one of her former students and now a practising therapist.

When Jane was in her final year she found a series of workshops on a case-based approach to ethical reasoning very helpful. As she says, we frequently need to make decisions that "are often difficult to resolve because they present ethical dilemmas which cannot be reasoned out with logic alone. To achieve the best possible outcome, it seems that a moral judgement is also required." 

The article explores how Jane used David Seedhouse's Ethical grid with a hypothetical client, Bryan (5), who has profound physical and cognitive disabilities. His parents are looking for a second opinion, as they do not believe sufficient time is being allocated to his feeding in school or in respite. This was the first Manchester Metropolitan University speech and language therapy case to be presented in Seedhouse's Values Exchange, an online approach to ethical decision-making.

Therapy ideas - a collaborative web resource

While editing an article today, I went to check something online. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did come across a really interesting blog and ideas-sharing website run by speech and language therapist Rhiannan Walton.

Rhiannan's blog very sensibly favours quality over quantity of posts, with topics including dynamic assessment, care aims in education, outcome measurement and how speech and language therapy is changing.

The website is also a free collaborative resource for sharing practical therapy ideas, the bread and butter of direct intervention. I expect this would be particularly useful to students and new graduates, or anyone keeping an eye out for a fresh twist.

Learn with rhyme and help children shine - I CAN's Chatterbox Challenge 2011

I love reading and singing, but there is something uniquely special about books and songs for children. While we're now on to Tolkien's The Two Towers as a bedtime story, it's not so many years since I knew several Julia Donaldson rhyming picture books off by heart! Yet the importance of sharing stories and rhymes to later communication skills is not always recognised.

Julia Donaldon's most famous creation, The Gruffalo, is also a popular stage show, and the cast at The Garrick Theatre (right) is endorsing this year's I CAN Chatterbox Challenge. Now in its 10th year, this sponsored event for children, families, nurseries and other early years settings aims for everyone to have fun while developing their communication skills and raising money to benefit children who have difficulties with speech, language and communication.

The Chatterbox Challenge 2011 is 'Learn with rhyme and help children shine'. To take part in the challenge contact I CAN for your free fundraising pack. This includes songs and activities, stickers and sponsor forms. You can even help in a Guinness World Record attempt for the largest game of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, which will be in multiple venues across the UK.

Chatterbox Challenge is also a key event in Hello, the year-long campaign to help children communicate.

Major conferences in 2011 and how to get there

With training budgets severely constrained, it is likely UK speech and language therapists will have to use some ingenuity to access funds for major conferences in 2011.

If you're not quite ready to have a car boot sale or go busking, the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists (RCSLT) offers minor grants up to £500. These are awarded on merit to members for activities which will “benefit the profession of speech and language therapy” and “enhance their own professional development”. The ‘Grants and awards’ section of its website also lists external sources of funding.

A number of conferences with exciting programmes are coming up this year. In addition to Caroline Bowen's Speech Sound Disorders (9-10 March, York) which I have already blogged about, here are a few more:

29-30 March 2011
No Mind Left Behind, Glasgow
The 52 speakers from a range of backgrounds in autism, ADHD and other early onset neurodevelopmental disorders include Lorna Wing, Simon Baron-Cohen, Jeremy Turk and Sam Goldstein. Topics include collaborative working, the impact on parents and families, attachment, and what makes different conditions (such as autism, Tourettes, intellectual disabilities, obsessive compulsive disorder, epilepsy) distinctive and similar.

2-3 April 2011
NAPLIC
Championing Better Communication: Theory, Practice and Innovation
University of Warwick
Early booking discount available until 31 January.
Keynote speakers include Jean Gross, Julie Dockrell, James Law and Sue Roulstone.

13-14 June 2011
Child Language Seminar
Newcastle
Themes include child language and literacy, children with speech, language and communication needs, capturing change in child language and bilingual and cross-linguistic perspectives on child language. Keynote Speakers include Maggie Snowling, James Law, Sheena Reilly and Elizabeth Pena.

PS Eagle-eyed Norbert Lieckfeldt (Chief Executive of the British Stammering Association) has pointed out that I failed to mention the 9th Oxford Dysfluency Conference, 1-4 September 2011. Abstracts are due by 1 April.