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Most of us spend well over a decade of our younger lives at school. The transition from school to work, school to university – or to whatever life after school looks like – can be a tough one! And it becomes even more complex when you have a communication disability.
In this insight article, we share some strategies and ideas for you to help prepare your person to begin their new life after school, and be ready for whatever the future brings.
You don’t need to prepare anything for this, just talk as you normally would. If possible, use your person’s communication system to model the messages. Here are some ideas:
Create a story using Microsoft Word or the Pictello App outlining what will happen. Use photos and symbols. It’s ok if you don’t have all of the answers when you first introduce the story, you can add to it as you go along. Try to include photos of the school, your person and the key people in their lives. If you know where your person is transitioning to, whether it be further education, work or something else, start introducing this.
When you know where your person will be transitioning to after they finish school, organise some on-site visits as early as possible. It is important that the new setting, whether it is another educational facility, a workplace or somewhere else, becomes a familiar place for your person, to reduce anxiety they may experience about leaving school. Take photos if you can. Ask your person their thoughts about the visits each time they go. Try to gradually work up your days at the new location, so your person has an opportunity to get used to their new routine after school has finished.
A visual calendar is a great way to support the lead up to finishing school and the start of their life after school. This may help you to talk about changes in their routine with symbols. A visual schedule may also help your person with new morning or afternoon routines once school has finished.
Leaving school is a big change, so it is important to give your person access to the vocabulary they need to talk about it. If your person uses a communication app as part of their overall communication, you can program additional vocabulary to support the transition from school. Include the name of the place they are transitioning to once they leave school and the key people that will be in their lives. You could also create a chat page about the transition from school and questions that your person may ask. Be careful not to erase their school vocabulary. Most young adults still want to talk about school after they have left.
If your person is transitioning to a new place such as a workplace or day options program, it is important that their new team understand how they communicate. You, your person and/or your speech pathologist can create a communication video talking about:
These videos are an accessible and engaging way for others to get to know your person.
Once your person leaves school for the final time, find ways to stay connected and enable them to have conversations about their school experiences.
Learning doesn’t stop with school! Your person will have the opportunity to consolidate skills they have learned at school and pick up new skills on their post-school journey. Using these strategies, your person will be better prepared for life after school and empowered to embrace whatever the future holds. This is a new chapter full of possibilities and with your support and the right tools, your person will continue to thrive and grow in their own unique way.
Is your person already a client with Two Way Street? Talk to your Speech Pathologist about creating resources to support the transition from school.
Written by: Erin Morley, Speech Pathologist
On October 14th, the people of Australia will vote in a referendum. The question on the ballot paper is: “A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?”
Voters will be asked to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to this question.
At Two Way Street, we think it’s important that everyone has a voice. If you are over 18, then you are entitled to vote in the election. If you are under 18, then it’s still a very important topic of conversation. Not just for the outcome of this vote, but to consider and understand significant events occurring in our country and the world. This will help you to relate to information you might hear in the news or on social media, as well as to be part of conversations both in person and online about current events.
Voting is both a right and a privilege in Australia, as well as being compulsory for those over 18 (remember to enrol to vote if you haven’t already!). For those under 18, events like this referendum give us opportunities to talk about voting, laws and topics that help to build our understanding and capacity to make decisions, and to vote as an informed citizen after we turn 18.
The Australian government and others have created some accessible resources relating to this referendum. We’ve included links to these below.
We also think it’s important to provide opportunities for people to talk about the referendum, their reasons for voting ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and to ask questions before they make a decision. Good decisions include more than just being told information. Most people have conversations with friends, family, colleagues and even those who disagree with us in order to make decisions and prepare to vote.
To get the conversation started for people who use communication symbols to augment their communication, we have created a ‘Talking about The Voice’ aided language display (ALD). Of course there may be many more words required for a robust discussion on this referendum. This ALD is just to get the conversation started.
The first page has vocabulary to talk about the Voice and express opinions. The second page (reverse side) includes some common questions as well as space to add the individual’s own questions that they might like to ask people. We’ve also included some spaces to add personal opinions or preferences to share with others once you’ve had a chance to think about it. If you are a parent or support worker, be sure to only add messages that have been created by the person or at a minimum, agreed upon by them.
After these discussions, you might also like to add messages to the person’s own AAC system for use in all situations, or consider sharing information on social media, or by joining their selected campaign. It is crucial that you gain consent for any action you take on their behalf and that you keep your preferences separate from theirs when sharing their message.
Enjoy the conversations and we look forward to a referendum where everyone has a voice about the Voice!
The Voice website, includes:
Visit the Australian Electoral Commission for more accessible resources and information on enrolment and voting.
Civics Australia also provides information about the referendum in an engaging way.
When you’re little, emotions are big! Think back to when you were young. Did you throw an occasional tantrum? Did you have a bad day and go over it again and again in your head? Until you eventually talked about it with someone you trust and finally felt that huge sense of relief from a problem shared… Probably.
We’ve all had a tough few years and kids have watched their world evolve in ways we could never imagine a short time ago. One of the main messages conveyed when the world was in the turmoil of a pandemic was to ‘stay connected’. We stay connected with one another through sharing stories, ideas, thoughts and even our sense of humour. And we use language to manage our emotions – to tell people how we’re feeling, to validate ourselves, to get help and to regulate ourselves.
So just imagine, you have a million thoughts in your head – some are worries about the future, some are funny stories about your day, some are wondering about what’s happening with your body… but, you need an augmentative communication system like a PODD or communication device, and maybe also a communication partner to share your thoughts clearly. You may not get the same opportunities to talk things through like your siblings or peers.
Emotional development is extremely intertwined with language development. During early years of communication, parents describe their own emotions and the emotions of their child. This ‘emotion talk’ is how we navigate our feelings and start to create our belief systems that stay with us through life. So it’s time to start talking about the important stuff with children with a communication disability, as early as possible, so they too can build a strong foundation for emotional well-being.
Just being aware that emotional development and language development go hand-in-hand is important. Think about all the things that happen in a day that can affect a child emotionally. Create a supportive environment, where you notice when your child may have had strong feelings about something. Celebrate and acknowledge those feelings when you notice them, and do that often! There may not be a response from the child yet, but it’s a great way to ensure they feel heard and can navigate those feelings. And keep talking about stuff in age appropriate ways!
Make vocabulary available. Further to that, model emotional conversations. These conversations may be about something that happened that day or what’s happening in a story you’re reading. You can also scaffold and co-construct messages, to figure out what is happening for your child and help them learn what it means to feel a certain way, how to share their feelings with others and how to indicate why they’re feeling that way.
It is crucial to encourage independent exploration and problem solving from an early age, no matter how a child communicates. Ask children to direct you when appropriate, respect preferences and begin to negotiate. Perhaps you could include your child in interviews with support workers. Any time you find yourself advocating for your child, add those messages to their communication system and show them how to advocate for themselves. Let them hear from people with lived experiences of communication difficulties. Always respect and enable privacy and authorship for anyone using AAC. Do they have the opportunity to talk privately? Can they tell you ‘don’t say that’ or ‘don’t tell anyone’? Can they clarify a message, or say ‘that’s not what I meant’?
By adopting these simple strategies, you can help your little one manage big emotions and navigate their world with confidence and resilience.
To learn more about positive emotional development in children with communication difficulties, take the FREE Two Way Street online course ‘Talking About The Important Stuff’. The course gives parents and key communication partners the skills and knowledge they need to enable meaningful conversations with their kids.
If you’re a white, middle-class male or female living without disability, you won’t need to look far to find someone you can relate to in the media. People just like you are on TV, in movies and can be seen on the pages of catalogues and magazines.
Yet, if you’re living with a communication difficulty, or any type of disability for that matter, you’d be hard pressed to find relatable characters on your favourite media outlet. And when you consider that 4.4 million people in Australia live with disability, there’s a huge gap. That’s 18% of our population, or 1 in 6 people, unrepresented. It’s definitely time for a change.
Media is a powerful creator of perceptions. And it can also be used to create the cultural change that people living with disability would love to see.
Our very own Communication Access Consultant, Margie Charlesworth, lives with Cerebral Palsy and has a communication difficulty. She uses her natural speech to communicate and also uses AAC when creating videos or presenting at conferences and to businesses looking to increase their communication accessibility. She is one of the smartest, funniest, most driven people you will ever meet and a great work mate to everyone at Two Way Street. And yet, Margie faces all kinds of perceptions around her ability to communicate. People STILL finish her sentences for her ‘to help’. And she goes from being respected for her knowledge and experience one minute, to being infantised and called a ‘good girl’ the next.
In one of her ‘Street Talk’ moments, Margie explained how it feels to have people finish her sentences. “Finishing my sentences implies many things. It implies that the person who I am communicating with can read my mind, or that I can’t communicate my own messages. It also implies that I have difficulty expressing myself or trouble figuring out how to say it myself. And finally, it implies that people would rather not listen to my voice…”
Imagine if Margie’s experiences were depicted somewhat realistically in the media! Those assumptions of Margie not being able to get her message across, or not being mature due to her communication difficulty wouldn’t exist. A person’s disability is an important part of their identity and is something we would love to see normalised in media representation.
We’ve seen Target Australia using a model in a wheelchair to advertise kids clothing. Was that the first time a child in a wheelchair rolling through Target saw someone like them on an in-store advertisement? Potentially, yes!
We’ve just seen Disney release a remake of The Little Mermaid featuring a non-caucasion Ariel played by African American actress and singer, Halle Bailey. Reactions from little girls seeing their all-time favourite mermaid as someone they can relate to, again maybe for the first time, made the internet explode.
Our team was just as excited to see Val Kilmer using AAC in the Top Gun 2022 sequel, Maverick. In the movie, Iceman’s battle with throat cancer rendered him unable to speak without causing pain (emanating a little of what was going on for Val Kilmer in real life). He is seen typing sentences and pointing to his screen to get his message across.
It’s this type of representation that needs to be included in mainstream media more. The every-day lives of people, all people, as valued members of society. This is why inclusion is important and representation matters.
Representation can also be achieved through communication modes. We have all become very familiar with the sign language interpreters during community announcements and emergency services briefings. Imagine if other modes of communication were as prevalent. Imagine if people who use modes other than mouth speech to communicate, could see their mode of communication used in advertising, signage and information media.
We work with a range of agencies to create signage that is not only useful for people who need the symbols to communicate, but also represent this mode of communication within the community. Our playground communication boards are a great example. We’ve also been busy creating beautiful products, like our AAC cushion covers, to ensure that symbolic communication is seen and valued around the home. And we have more to come, so if you haven’t already, join us over on Facebook and LinkedIn to stay up to date.
We’re strong believers in that world where communication brings autonomy, belonging, connection and opportunity for everyone. But we still have a long way to go…
If you are a business or organisation and would like some representation at your site, online or within your advertising, give us a call on 0434 266 237.
Do you have a communication difficulty? Are you comfortable using AAC? If you answered yes to both of those questions, then we’d love you to join us on our mission. Get in touch with Two Way Street to find out more about employment opportunities. Email [email protected] and tell us a little about yourself.
