Janet O'Keefe

We are delighted that Sue Madraszek of Symbol UK will be presenting at the Towards a Positive Future Conference on 16th June 2012 http://www.wordswell.co.uk/

Sue’s presentation will give information about the typical communication profile of children and young people with Down syndrome. It will explore the implications this has on how parents, health care staff and educators should interact with these children and young people in order to develop their full potential in the field of communication and thus enable them to access educational and other settings successfully.  Participants will gain knowledge about this population of children and young people and be shown some very simple ways of making interaction with the children and young people more effective as well as learning about how to encourage these children and young people to communicate effectively, thus achieving their communication potential and supporting them in reaching their potential educationally and socially.

Louise is Training Manager at the charity Child Brain Injury Trust; her role is to raise awareness about the issues that children, young people and their families face following the devastation of childhood acquired brain injury.  She has trained over 2,000 professionals across Education, Healthcare, Social Services and more recently with those working with young offenders and those at risk of offending. The aim of the training is to highlight that 90% of those affected by childhood acquired brain injury (ABI) have no physical sign of their disability and because of the hidden nature and lack of knowledge of ABI there injury is often unnoticed or even misdiagnosed.  Louise has also spoken at many conferences on this subject including SEN, Youth Offending and ABI conferences.  Since joining the Child Brain Injury Trust  in 2008 Louise’s passion for ensuring that these children and young people receive the appropriate support to enable them to achieve their full potential in life, has helped raise the profile of this hidden disability.

Book your place to hear Louise at http://www.wordswell.co.uk/conference/

Charlie was the youngest Headteacher in the West Midlands to run SEBD schools for teenagers who been excluded from the mainstream system. Twenty five years later he is now a Consultant Child and Educational Psychologist providing hands-on services to the National Autistic Society,  Mainstream Academies and Health and Prison services on working effectively with students with complex needs – especially those with Autism and damaging behaviour difficulties.

We are delighted that Sue Madraszek of Symbol UK will be presenting at the Towards a Positive Future Conference on 14/15 October 2011 http://www.wordswell.co.uk/conference/

Sue’s presentation will give information about the typical communication profile of children and young people with Down syndrome. It will explore the implications this has on how parents, health care staff and educators should interact with these children and young people in order to develop their full potential in the field of communication and thus enable them to access educational and other settings successfully.  Participants will gain knowledge about this population of children and young people and be shown some very simple ways of making interaction with the children and young people more effective as well as learning about how to encourage these children and young people to communicate effectively, thus achieving their communication potential and supporting them in reaching their potential educationally and socially.