Introduction to AAC coaching - Workshop online with Sam Brydon

This 90-minute presentation will introduce the topic of coaching for communication support partners. The skills needed to support a child using AAC are complex and generally not intuitive. Speech language pathologists often feel frustrated by the lack of carry-over for AAC support, even when they have provided training to parents, care-givers and other communication support partners.

Sam will talk you through the current research around training and coaching, and help you to understand why training is often not enough in this complex area. Sam will then introduce a basic model for coaching that she developed when designing her own doctoral research with the help of her supervisors during her doctoral research, building on other coaching models developed at Massey university, and talk you through some essential coaching skills. There will be opportunities to practise using videos and discussion.

This webinar aims to give you the confidence to start implementing some coaching techniques in your own practice, or to develop your knowledge in this area further.

Sam Brydon

Sam Brydon qualified as a speech language Pathologist in 1993 from Manchester University in England. Since then, she has worked as a social worker and then as a speech language therapist, with over 20 years' experience in the areas of early intervention and, more recently, AAC. Sam emigrated to Aotearoa / New Zealand in 2007. Her passion for evidence-based AAC led her to undertake doctoral research, starting in 2018.

She has completed a year-long research intervention that looks at using a core board with pre-school children with complex communication needs, alongside a comprehensive training and coaching package for their parents. Sam is currently finishing writing up her thesis and is keen to share the exciting results of her research study. She lives with her partner on a remote hill in the North Island, along with a pack of furry companions.