May 2008 Edition - agosci

eportsState Reports (cont)8Queenslandby Anne Pearson and Melanie WaalderLike all AGOSCI representatives, we have been preparing forthe 2008 National Tour. Also as with previous years we’vereceived many registrations to attend the Brisbane workshopon the 16th June. We are very excited to be hosting severalWebinars of the tour on the 25th June. We will be hosting theWebinars in Townsville, Cairns and Rockhamptom. Look outfor the fl yers for these events.Thanks must go to Wendy Webster, Melissa Bakes, andPaula Hartwig for assisting us with the Brisbane workshopand Webinars. Thanks also must go to Deb Burmester(Rockhampton), Kim Rumble (Townsville), and Kia Morton(Cairns) for organising the Webinars in their local area.We also have the Learning and Development Portfolio forAGOSCI. We’ve already been discussing several ideas for theNational Tour in 2010 but will do more brainstorming andformal planning after this year’s National Tour.If you have any questions about AGOSCI QLD events or ifyou would like to suggest a topic or presenter for a local QLDevent, please do not hesitate to contact us.West Australiaby Sally HunterPlanning is well underway and registrations for the NationalTour in Perth are strong. Subsequent to the National Tourregistrations opening, WA has experienced a big increase inits membership numbers and plans are underway to retainthis membership, with some post National Tour gatheringsthat hope to be both social and informative. Suggestions forgatherings include discussing topics as Makaton, an AidedLanguage Stimulation (ALS) sharing workshop, and PragmaticOrganisation Dynamic Displays (PODDs). Please feel free tomake further suggestions. The AAC Devices Interest Groupcoordinated by the Centre for Cerebral Palsy continues to meetregularly, once a term, and information regarding their nextmeeting can be obtained form Danielle Lampropoulos at theCentre for Cerebral Palsy.AGOSCI WA and the Conductive Education group in WA areplanning a PODD workshop, aimed at training those whoare building PODD products, in September, so we are reallylooking forward to seeing Gayle and company here too.Tasmaniaby Diane SymonsIn March 2008, I compiled a submission to the TasmanianParliamentary Committee on Community Development’sinquiry into the provision of assistive technology andequipment for people with disabilities. The submissionhighlighted the specialised equipment needs of people withcomplex communication needs. I have heard via the grapevinethat the committee have arranged some meetings with variousindividuals and organisations that contributed submissions, sohopefully we will hear more from the committee in the comingmonths.We have had two interest group meetings in Hobart, the lastdiscussing the challenging issue of vocabulary selection forAAC. I hope to organise something in the north of the state inthe latter part of the year.At the moment it’s all hands on deck for the national tour.Tasmania is hosting two webinar sites, one in Hobart and onein Launceston. I’ve had interest from a number of people whohave not been involved with AGOSCI in the past. It’s a greatopportunity to raise awareness of complex communicationneeds.I’m very excited (and a little nervous) about trying the webinarformat. It sounds like a great way to spread the knowledge tomany more parts of the country. I’m just hoping that on the daythe computer says “yes”!Northern Territoryby Anne DixonAGOSCI NT had a flying start to 2008 with the Triple C/InterAACtion workshop presented by Karen Bloomberg. Thisworkshop was presented by arrangement between AGOSCIand ISAAC Australia. A wide spectrum of people attendedincluding disability support workers, parents, teachers, dayservice coordinators, occupational therapists, and speechpathologists. The workshop was highly successful and rated at4.7 out of 5, indicating that the workshop was seen as relevantby all participants whether they supported children or adultsand whether they provided support at school, at home, in dayprograms, or in supported accommodation. Thankyou Karen!We are in the process of arranging two other developmentactivities for 2008: a web linkup for the Literacy in AACNational Tour with Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver on27th June 2008, and the Aided Language Stimulation workshopto be presented by Wendy Webster on 4th October 2008.The AGOSCI Interest Group is continuing to meet quarterlyto network, share information, and discuss issues related tosevere communication impairment. Thanks to an increasingmembership, the meetings are generally well attended.Information about the dates and location of each meeting is onthe NT page of the AGOSCI website. Any suggestions aboutcontent for these meetings are most welcome.If you have any questions or comments I can be contacted byemail anne.dixon@nt.gov.au or by phone on 8922 7226.