Natasha Kay and Lizzie Sadiku, AAC Consultants from our clinical team, share their experience of presenting a training seminar in sunny Cyprus at the start of October. Read about their experience below, including an overview of the content and how it was facilitated and received.

Introduction 

When there was mention of going to Cyprus to facilitate a seminar on AAC, both of us jumped at the opportunity and were thrilled to be chosen for this amazing experience. After some initial remote discussions with the training organiser and the Greek interpreter, we were able to create a presentation to share our knowledge, experience, and passion for AAC with the attendees. We presented on an introduction to AAC, an overview of various access methods, and a deeper look at implementation strategies including specific considerations when working with children with Autism.  

 

Attendees 

Around 40 Speech and Language therapists working across Cyprus joined us for the seminar. Although most of them worked with autistic clients, many only had limited experience with using AAC, and around a quarter of them had never used AAC in their practice. The attendees all spoke Greek as their first language, though many also had a good understanding of English. We worked with an interpreter to provide live translation of the training into Greek, ensuring attendees were able to receive the information in their native tongue. 

Presenting with an interpreter 

Presenting with an interpreter definitely had its challenges. It meant there was a clear need for a “less is more” approach to what we said, and a need to find the right places to break our chunks of information for it to be translated. Over the course of the day and a half’s training, we were able to find a good flow and work well with our translator Elena, who was brilliant. However, there were certainly moments when she would ask us to repeat something, leaving us racking our brains for what we had said only moments before!  

Basic content covered in the training 

While the training was focused on AAC and Autism, as the majority of the attendees had limited or no experience in AAC we started with a general overview of symbol-based AAC. This included an overview of paper-based AAC (including when direct access is challenging), and a session on alternative access methods including touch adaptations, switch access, eye gaze, and alternative mice. We ended the Access session with an opportunity for the attendees to get hands-on with the kit, including demonstrating switch access and eyegaze on some electronic devices.  

We were then able to move on to the more targeted AAC concepts and strategies including prompting and modelling, and some of the considerations for Autistic clients including Echolalia, Gestalt Language Processing, and Ruling Passions. We also spoke about the importance of Communication Partner skills, Goal Setting, and Literacy.  

Thankfully the combination of an Occupational Therapist (Natasha) and a Speech and Language Therapist (Lizzie) worked perfectly, and allowed us to work to each other’s strengths. Natasha was able to facilitate the Access session, Lizzie the session on Choosing a Vocabulary, and the other parts we were able to tag team to ensure we were talking about things we were confident in, as well as giving our voices (and brains!) regular breaks.  

Feedback from attendees 

We are awaiting the formal feedback from the attendees, but all of the verbal feedback we received during and after the seminar was incredibly positive. The attendees noted enjoying being able to get hands-on with some of the AAC technology and access equipment (our switch-activated Crocodile was a big hit!), and feeling like they had a lot of ideas to take back to their workplaces and to consider when working with their clients.  

Overall thoughts 

Overall, we both had a wonderful time in Cyprus and were pleased with how the training went and was received. We were also lucky enough to enjoy some beautiful weather and delicious food and do some sightseeing in the two days before the seminar. We are looking forward to ongoing contact with the team in Cyprus, and further discussions about how we can continue our collaboration! 

 

Our thanks to Natasha and Lizzie for sharing their experience. If you’d be interested in discussing bespoke training for your organisation, please contact us through our Bespoke Training page