Ms Claire Mortell:

From a speech and language therapy perspective, what families are really asking for is support for their child's communication. Training for parents and educators is very important. It is about working directly with the child and the family. This is what we want as therapists and it is what families want also. It is only when we get to build a relationship with a child and a family that we can see what is important to them, perhaps in terms of an appropriate AAC system that works for the child and their family and where they are attending school. What needs to be prioritised is that we remove some of the barriers to access AAC supports. Funding to be able to access an AAC device, for example, is coming through resource allocation groups better but we do not have the resources to match this from an expertise perspective, to support children to be able to develop their communication skills and be able to be included in the classroom and the community now that they have this excellent tool. We also need to look at support for the communication partners. There are also the people who are on the other side of the communication tool, and they need to understand how the children are communicating and how they can support them to develop their communication further. It is about the resourcing to allow for a therapist to really get to work closely with the children and families to meet their needs.