Introduction/or rationale:
It is widely acknowledged that therapists can achieve the best outcomes for our clients when we work collaboratively with other professionals. For speech-language pathologists (SLPs), this usually involves working with our non-SLP colleagues as part of a therapeutic team around an individual. However, with increased funding available for private speech pathology services through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), many SLPs are finding more and more that we are collaborating with another SLP as joint primary therapists. For clients who are multimodal communicators, this can mean that clients receive Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system recommendations and intervention from two practitioners. With the NDIS now an established part of the funding landscape in Australia, it is imperative that we consider this aspect of its impact on SLP practice.

Aim(s):
To describe the current circumstances, and explore the evidence base around professional collaboration, and evaluate its applicability to intra-professional practice for speech pathologists.

Methods:
We undertook a scoping review of the literature via a range of databases and repositories.

Results:
Included studies, guidelines, frameworks and practice standards describe evidence and models of collaboration from other contexts, which can be applied to intra-professional practice for SLPs.

Conclusions:
This exploratory work describes the current circumstances under which two SLPs may share clinical responsibility for a client, and the tools and strategies that are currently available to us in building strong, trusting and collaborative intra-professional relationships, so that SLPs can achieve the best possible outcomes for the clients that we work with.

Keywords:
Intra-professional practice
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)

Submission Statement:
In undertaking this work, we have engaged in deep reflection on our practice. In opening up a discussion around this topic, we aim to encourage other practitioners to do the same, with a particular emphasis on collaborative practice that responds to individual circumstances.

Introduction/rationale
Mancel College is a unique setting for children with Language Disorders. It supports a growing population of students who utilise alternative and augmentative communication (AAC). However, these students remain a minority group, and often evade use of their device in the classroom, seemingly to avoid ‘standing out’ amongst their peers.

Aim(s)
To increase AAC users’ confidence by providing enjoyable opportunities to use AAC in an adult-led, play-based setting, with the idea that increased confidence and enjoyment of communication may positively impact AAC use in class.

Methods
AAC users from Years 4-7 were invited to participate in a weekly 30 minute ‘AAC Club’ facilitated by a Speech Pathologist and Occupational Therapist. Between 2-4 students attended weekly. Sessions ran as follows:
- 10 minutes weekend ‘Chat’ using AAC
- 15 minutes gameplay using AAC (spoken instructions/exclamations generated by AAC, including adult participation)
- 5 minutes throughout to discuss issues around social interactions e.g. how do we decide who goes first?

Results
Observations made across Terms 2 - 3 included:
- Students more willing to independently bring devices with them to AAC Club
- Students began independently searching for vocabulary
- Students bringing AAC into classroom when prompted

Conclusions
AAC is an essential communication strategy, however ensuring its use in everyday life can be extremely difficult. For older children, feeling comfortable communicating in social settings is extremely important. It is vital that schools and Allied Health facilities offer opportunities for enjoyable AAC use in supportive peer environments.

Keywords - AAC, education, confidence, group therapy, social

Submission Statement:
AAC remains an underutilised tool. It is generally introduced and focussed on in the home, despite the time spent by children in child-care settings and schools. Because of this, devices often stay hidden in backpacks and their users stay silent. Our profession must work to ensure better participation of AAC users.

Introduction: Visual Scene Displays (VSD) are a relatively new form of speech-generating device that offer to facilitate communication and learning for children and adolescents with complex communication needs (CCN). A critical component in the evaluation of VSD interventions is their social validity.

Aim: To identify how VSD interventions that facilitate communication for children and adolescents with CCN have been socially validated in the literature.

Methods: A systematised search of terms was undertaken across 13 databases. Subsequently, forwards and backwards citation searching was carried out. Study selection, critical appraisal and data extraction were completed successively per the scoping review methods described in the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis (Peters et al., 2020). Fifteen articles were included in the review. Schlosser’s AAC Social Validation Framework (1999) was applied to analyse social validation.

Results: Five of the 15 studies included social validation measures. Those five used various subjective evaluation methods, including questionnaires, interviewing, and talking mats. Studies sought subjective evaluation of the intervention from different arrays of direct and indirect stakeholders, including participants with CCN, peer communication partners, teachers, and parents. The aspects of social validity measured (i.e., goals, methods, and effects) varied and were limited by the evaluation procedures.

Conclusions: Some procedures for the social validation of VSD interventions have been demonstrated in the literature. However, current knowledge of the social validity of VSD interventions is limited. More research is required to investigate the social validity of VSD interventions from a variety of stakeholder perspectives.

Keywords - Augmentative and alternative communication; Social validity; Visual scene display; Speech generating device; Complex communication needs; Children and adolescents

Submission Statement:
Social validation is key in ensuring that new interventions in the field of AAC (such as Visual Scene Displays) reflect, respect, and respond to the points of view of consumers with complex communication needs and the important people in their lives.

Introduction
Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently experience communication breakdown which manifests as behaviours of concern, which present challenges to support services. Currently, services spend significant funding to train staff to manage challenging behaviour, often with moderate success. An alternative approach would be to view the client’s behaviour as an automatic stress/threat response and train staff as co-regulated communication partners (CP) responding to trauma.
Aim
To create a staff training module to increase support for a client’s regulation by teaching staff (1) to understand the calming response of our brains to the use of nonverbal communication, (2) to ‘attune’ to the client, and (3) the impact of CP interactions demonstrating an imbalance of questions/instructions leading to a stress response.
Method
This presentation describes a single case study whose behaviour had escalated to assault and property damage. A novel approach to training was developed for 5 support workers including understanding of underlying needs which remain unmet over time, understanding of the neural response to stress, use of key word sign as a nonverbal means to support regulation instead of verbal speech and developing staff awareness of their own interaction styles by teaching a ‘declarative language’ approach.
Results
All training participants reported improvements in their communication interactions with the client and that behaviour escalations had been more frequently averted.
Conclusion
This presentation illustrates the impact of this novel approach which has potential benefit to improve the quality of life and safe community access and participation for adults with ASD.

KWS, declarative language, adults, ASD, trauma, support workers

This presentation encourages delegates to reflect on the impact of repeated communication breakdown for adults with ASD and complex communication needs, leading to trauma stress responses. Delegates can respond by understanding how KWS and ‘declarative language’ can help a CP support regulation, and by implementing similar training for support workers.

Background. Limited data exists regarding the development of handshapes in Auslan and past research has typically described linguistic development for single case studies and sign languages such as British Sign Language (BSL) or American Sign Language (ASL) which differ from Auslan.

Aim. To describe the prevalence and accuracy of handshape use in a group of young children learning Auslan.

Method. A novel template was created and implemented to enable Deaf Auslan users in educational settings to document spontaneous signs used within the classroom. This yielded 3166 signs from 44 children aged 3-6 years who were enrolled in a bilingual Auslan/English program between 2014 and 2016. The majority of children had a congenital onset of hearing loss and their experience with Auslan ranged from six months to five years.

Results. Coding the 3166 signs demonstrated higher frequency of handshapes; 1, B, 5, and S shapes, which was consistent with past BSL and ASL research. These shapes were not used with complete accuracy; only the B shape was produced with accuracy above 95%. Complex handshapes such as Irish T, F, gC and flat gC were produced with greater than 95% accuracy in the current study, despite past research suggesting that these handshapes are ‘late’ developing. Possible reasons for differences between Auslan, BSL and ASL handshapes will be discussed.

Conclusions. The results of this study may be used to inform expectations for expressive development when children begin using Auslan. These preliminary data could be used to develop a standardised test for handshape acquisition.

Keywords: Sign language; Development; Auslan; deaf children

Introduction
Communication partners wishing to learn key word sign often attend a formal workshop in which up to 100 manual signs and gestures are taught. Research shows that while participants do learn signs during such workshops, retention deteriorates over time (Smidt et al., 2018). Rarely do KWS presenters maintain ongoing connection with participants after workshops, limiting opportunity for ongoing structured practice and follow up. As participants learn new patterns of manual motor execution for known lexical items, it follows that instructional and learning activities informed by the principles of motor learning (PML) and experience dependent neuroplasticity, should be evident within workshop design.

Evidence
A brief review of the motor learning and control evidence base was conducted and a custom framework, based on PML, developed. The framework was used to evaluate manual sign learning opportunities within the existing KWS Basic Workshop structure and opportunities to better reflect best practice.

Main Outcomes
Within the current KWS workshop, both pre-practice and practice elements were evident, however each lacked distinction. Opportunities to refine the structure of practice, including order, variability, complexity, intensity and distribution of target signs, were identified. Feedback structure adhered closely to best practice principles within pre-practice activities, however less so within practice tasks. Initial examples and redesigned activities will be presented to illustrate outcomes of the evaluation.

Conclusion
Within group KWS training models, it is important to optimise manual sign learning through nuanced application of evidence-based principles of motor learning. Using a systematic evaluative approach, opportunities for specific enhancements can be identified and applied.

Key words: manual sign, principles of motor learning

Submission statement
This paper outlines a process of critical reflection on best available evidence related to principles of motor learning and application of the same to enhance manual sign acquisition within a KWS workshop.

Background:
Key Word Sign (KWS) is a form of manual signing used as an intervention for people with complex communication needs (CCN) to express themselves and understand others. To use KWS, communication partners of people with CCN require training; however, access to KWS training can be difficult due to familial and geographical barriers. Particularly since COVID-19 online training for families of children with a disability is more common however, there is no research investigating online KWS training. Online training can be delivered in different modes including synchronous, asynchronous or hybrid

Aims(s):
This study compared sign knowledge and retention following attendance at synchronous, asynchronous or hybrid training with that following face-to-face attendance.

Methods:
Thirty-two participants were randomly allocated to different modes of online KWS training workshop. Participants’ receptive and expressive sign skills were collected pre-training, immediately post-training, 6-weeks and 12-weeks following training and compared to results from face-to-face training.

Result(s):
Preliminary results indicate that participants were able to learn and retain signs through online workshops similarly to those of face-to-face training. All modes showed similar or better retention than face-to-face however, the asynchronous mode appears to have the best retention of signs over time.

Conclusion:
Findings of this study provide preliminary evidence to inform the design of future online KWS training workshops. For rural families in Australia or those who aren’t able to attend an in-person KWS workshop, online modes of training delivery offer a convenient and effective alternative option.

Keywords:
Key Word Sign; Online Training

Submission Statement: This presentation will reflect on the effectiveness of online KWS training in terms of knowledge and retention of signs taught. SLPs need to understand and respect consumer choice but also to respond to current evidence when designing services for families and carers who learn KWS online or in person.

Introduction: Key Word Sign (KWS) is an unaided form of augmentative and alternative communication. Given the current availability of many services and training online, it is unsurprising that there are requests for online KWS training. Online training can be delivered in a variety of modes including live online via zoom (synchronous), entirely self-directed online (asynchronous) or a combination of live and self-directed (hybrid).

Aim(s): The aim of this study was to gather the perspectives of KWS learners about their experiences of learning KWS online via one of three modes of online training.

Methods: Thematic analysis was used to analyse focus groups of 13 people who had been randomly allocated to one of three modes of online KWS training. Three focus groups included participants who were parents, teachers or allied health workers who lived or worked with someone for whom KWS had been recommended.

Results: Thematic Network Analysis generated two global themes – “the learning process” and “the learning experience” which enabled explorations of the participants’ views on the acceptability and utility of the online training. Participants described their experiences learning KWS including available resources, the teaching style and the need to “use it or lose it”. They described the convenience of attending online as well as the benefits of being able to integrate training within their everyday lives.

Conclusions: This presentation will explore the findings and provide practical recommendations for future online KWS training design.
Keywords: Key Word Sign, Online training acceptability
Submission Statement: This presentation will reflect on communication partner training and what makes it successful in a post COVID world where many aspects of life can be conducted online. SLPs need to understand and respect consumer choice and respond to their views about the acceptability and utility of an online KWS training.