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Centre for Augmentative & Alternative Communication

Centre for AAC visits Sweden

By Dr Dana Donohue

Posted on 02 July 2012

Prof Juan Bornman and Dr Dana Donohue with some of the PhD students at the airport on their way to attend the intensive course on Environmental Assessment and Intervention in Early Childhood at the Jönköping University in Sweden
Prof Juan Bornman and Dr Dana Donohue with some of the PhD students at the airport on their way to attend the intensive course on Environmental Assessment and Intervention in Early Childhood at the Jönköping University in Sweden

Staff and PhD students from the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) visited Jönköping University in Sweden for three weeks in June to participate in the Global Education and Developmental Studies (GEDS) course.

The GEDS course focused on research on the development of both typically developing children and children with disabilities, and centred on themes such as risk factors, family environments, educational inclusion and pre-school. The course was attended by staff and student participants from countries around the world, including Germany, Portugal, Sweden, the USA and South Africa.
 
Prof Juan Bornman presented the preliminary results of a collaborative project undertaken between the Centre for AAC and the CHILD group from Jönköping University, which examined whether the rights of South African children with intellectual disabilities were being met.

Dr Dana Donohue, a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for AAC, presented research based on her PhD work, which examined how risk factors and adaptive behaviours influenced reading and language growth in children with intellectual disabilities over a period of one school year.

At the end of the three-week seminar, the PhD students gave presentations on what they had learnt and explained how that knowledge related to their own research.
 
Overall the PhD students from the Centre reported that it had been an intense three weeks, but one of the best learning experiences that they have ever had. They are all incredibly grateful to have had this opportunity to learn from international experts in the fields of child development, disability and education.


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