Printable program - Rethinking roles – how speech pathology can shift from deficit to dialogue

Rethinking roles – how speech pathology can shift from deficit to dialogue

Tracks

60/120-minute presentations

Friday, June 13, 2025

11:30 AM - 11:40 AM

City Rooms 3&4, Upper Level

Overview

Assoc Professor Sarah Verdon

Details

⏫ Panel discussion
⏲️ 11.30am - 12.30pm
⌛ 60-minutes
📚 Assumed knowledge of attendees: Foundational (new/casual familiarity with the topic e.g. treated a single case)

Presenter

Nadia Marussinszky

Speech Pathology Australia

Rethinking roles – how speech pathology can shift from deficit to dialogue

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Presentation summary

This panel invites critical and constructive reflection on the evolving role of speech pathologists. Panellists will share insights from practice, research, and lived experience to explore how the profession can move beyond deficit-based models and reimagine its work in ways that are collaborative, strengths-based, and culturally responsive.
With audience input guiding the conversation, the session will explore what it takes to embed more equitable, person-led approaches—and how we can support one another in making that shift.

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Assoc Professor Sarah Verdon

Charles Sturt University

Rethinking roles – how speech pathology can shift from deficit to dialogue

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

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Dr Vishnu Nair

University of Reading

Rethinking roles – how speech pathology can shift from deficit to dialogue

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

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Vishnu KK Nair, PhD, FHEA is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at University of Reading (UoR). He co-leads the health theme of the Centre of Literacy and Multilingualism at UoR. His current research draws from critical and decolonial theories in understanding the intersections between language, standardization, and race and how boundaries between these intersectional categories are blurred in constructing disorders in speech and language therapy.

Professor Betty Yu

San Francisco State University

Rethinking roles – how speech pathology can shift from deficit to dialogue

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

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Betty Yu is a Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and a managing co-editor of the Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability. Her research and clinical interests are in how communication access among racially-minoritized, disabled children in multilingual communities are shaped by institutional practices/policies, family socialization, and dominant ideologies about race/language/disability. She has investigated the communication and socialization experiences of autistic children in Bay Area Chinese communities as they and their families interact with disability services, school systems, and healthcare. Another strand of her work focuses on issues of equity in the field of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS), particularly the systemic influences of raciolinguistic discrimination, ableism and pathologization.

Session chair

Nadia Marussinszky

Speech Pathology Australia

Student volunteer(s)

Jin En Gan

Areesha Hamid

The information contained in this program is current at of the time of publishing but is subject to changes made without notice.

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