Judy King
B.Sc. Cert HCPC MRCSLT MASLTIP
Independent Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
I am a qualified Speech and Language Therapist, registered with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, Health Professionals Council and the Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice. I have over 25 years experience in the field of physical / learning disability and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Having worked in the NHS for 5 years, I then worked for 5 years as the Speech and Language Therapy Manager at a Shaftesbury Society residential school and FE college for children and young people with physical disabilities.
In 1995 I started working independently with children and young people with physical disabilities using AAC, around Hertfordshire, Essex, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and North London. I also worked for the SCOPE Assessment Advisory service and developed The Core AAC Curriculum and City & Guilds Certificate in AAC. I have presented papers at several conferences both in the UK and in America including, Communication Matters, Minspeak, ISAAC, Penhurst PMLD and in June 2009 the first AAC conference in Arkhangelsk, Russia. Currently, I work individually with people developing their AAC in their own homes, residential settings, mainstream and special schools and have contracts with Local Education Authorities. I also run courses and workshops on developing AAC from PMLD (Profound Multiple Learning Difficulties) to Degree. I attend the AAC SIG and I have close links with most of the companies involved in AAC and regularly attend courses and conferences to keep up-to-date with the latest technology and developments in the field of AAC.
It is very important to me to assist my clients in achieving their communication potential. At every level of learning ability, language skills are essential and need to be developed in structured incremental steps from simple words and phrases to creating novel complex grammatical sentences.
I currently work with a range of people on an individual 1:1, weekly / fortnightly / monthly / review / basis developing their communication skills on a range of devices including the DynaVox / Liberator / ECO2 / Accent 1000 / Mobi2 / Tobii i-series / Vantage and the iPad (with switchboxes and apps Chatable / GoTalk Now / Grid Player / Scene and Heard). I also have intensive experience working with a range of accessing methods from delayed direct touch input to switching, tracker, and eye gaze.
