We landed in tropical Brisbane on a Sunday afternoon, the humidity steaming up our glasses as we unloaded our luggage from the taxi and set up in our next home-from-home. After a refuelling cuppa, we headed down to South Bank, Brisbane's urban oasis stretching along the river. Huge fruit bats sailed over our heads, as we marvelled at this rainforest city and tried to prevent our toddler from running in front of e-scooters.
I had been told a few times that of the Australian states and territories, Queensland and South Australia were arguably the best resourced in terms of speech and language support in schools. Unlike Western Australia (the first stop on my itinerary), Queensland state schools all receive input from a government-funded speech and language pathologist (SLP). Whereas lots of UK SLTs are employed by the NHS but are based within schools, these SLPs are employed by the Queensland Department of Education, and their remit is explicitly to improve the literacy and academic outcomes of students by reducing barriers to accessing the curriculum. Collaboration with education staff at all levels is thus integral to their role. In a meeting with Gaenor Dixon (Director of Therapies and Nursing), Jenny Peach (Director of Language and Literacy) and Katie Whitworth (Senior Advisor, Speech and Language Pathology), I learned about the strategic vision for SLPs in Queensland Education, and visited Windsor State School to see it in action. I was struck by how embedded speech and language pathologists were in the education system, and how language was chiefly viewed through the lens of academic participation. As Jenny commented, “literacy is what language looks like in a learning environment.”
During my 10 days in Brisbane, I spent a couple of days with Language Disorder Australia, a unique organisation in Australia that encompasses Mancel College (a specialist school), the government-funded School Support Services, and the Bright Door clinics (a chain of multidisciplinary private clinics). Most students attending Mancel College have a language disorder associated with another diagnosis, such as autism or intellectual disability, rather than DLD (see this post for an explanation of the difference). By sheer chance, my visit coincided with Mancel College’s Open Day, so I got to hear presentations from the Principal, a range of teaching and health staff, and Sarah, the head of the parents’ association. It was a privilege to meet and talk with prospective and current parents, and to hear their stories about what had brought them to the school. I met with Ryan, one of the minority of students with DLD, and his mum Natasha (names have been changed). I soon learned that Ryan was creative, a Lego master, and was proud that he could help others at the school. Natasha shared how they had moved across the country for Ryan to attend the school. Frustratingly, she was still fighting for Ryan’s DLD to be recognised as a lifelong, neurodevelopmental condition to secure National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funding; a story I have heard repeatedly since arriving in Australia.
Brisbane is also home to some outstanding researchers and innovators in the DLD space. Fairly soon after arriving, I finally met with Shaun Ziegenfusz, the CEO and co-founder of The DLD Project. The DLD Project has had a tremendous impact on raising awareness and support for DLD, not just in Australia but internationally. Many SLT/Ps listen to the “Talking DLD” podcast, which I was lucky enough to feature on as a guest in 2021, and the organisation also launched the first (and only) international conference devoted specifically to DLD. The DLD Project also provides training, funds research and advocates for DLD. With his global perspective, Shaun was an ideal person to talk to about the current state of DLD provision in Queensland, Australia, and the world in general. Over some excellent Greek food, he shared some of the exciting things he has been working on, including a systematic review of the educational achievements of students with DLD, best practice guidelines for supporting children with DLD in schools, and the use of video reports for families.
The following day, I was back on presenting mode. Haley Tancredi, a Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher who investigates and champions inclusive education and student voice, had kindly organised a public lecture around advocacy and classroom collaboration. Before presenting on my own DLD work and the Fellowship that had brought me here, I listened to Haley and Gaenor Dixon speak inspiringly about how collaboration, rather than the more hierarchical consultation, should be our model for working with staff and parents, and how the notion of curriculum ‘adjustments’ implies that teaching might not be inclusive to begin with. I was also fascinated to hear Stella Martin speak about her trailblazing work establishing speech and language pathology in Queensland’s Youth Justice system. The morning allowed for lots of discussion and networking, including with two previous recipients of Churchill Fellowships!
My time in Brisbane ended with good food (another recurrent theme of the trip) and energising discussion with Shaun, Haley, and DLD researchers Rebecca Armstrong and Aisling Mulvihill. While all expressed concern about the current level of support for DLD in Australia, everyone was in agreement that things had improved significantly in the past five years, and there were lots of reasons for optimism.
For now, I bid farewell to the sunshine, and head south for the final leg of my trip: Melbourne.