B Hlth Sc (SpPath) (Honours), PhD Candidate Caitlin Slaney brings a diverse range of experience and skills to her position as a clinical educator and lecturer in speech pathology at Charles Sturt. Since completing her undergraduate degree in speech pathology with Honours at Charles Sturt in 2015, she has specialised in working in a transdisciplinary model while providing early intervention services for children with disabilities. She is passionate about collaboratively supporting children in their natural environment while working within a family-centred, strengths-based approach. Caitlin is committed to critically reflecting on her skills and experiences to ensure ongoing high-quality clinical and teaching practices. She is passionate about helping shape the next generation of speech pathologists so that their future clients are empowered to achieve the best possible functional and meaningful outcomes. In 2022, Caitlin started a PhD focusing on community participation for preschool children with Complex Communication Needs. Caitlin has increasing experience in university teaching. Her subject areas focus on communication disabilities, multimodal communication, augmentative and alternative communication, communication accessibility, and ethnography. She has taught this content in both undergraduate and Master-level speech pathology programs at Charles Sturt. She is committed to facilitating innovative, engaging hands-on learning. Since beginning at Charles Sturt, Caitlin has undertaken the Teaching First program, established strong mentoring relationships, and sought support from DLT to further her teaching skills. Further developing learning experiences and assessment items that reflect her commitment to supporting functional and meaningful outcomes for individuals with disabilities. A valuable strength Caitlin brings to her teaching is sharing her critical reflection and evaluation skills of the latest research and providing students with new insights and real-life examples from her clinical speech pathology practice. Caitlin’s research interests have grown out of her work supporting people with disabilities with a focus on functional and meaningful outcomes. Caitlin’s Honours explored communication in a dance class for adults with intellectual disabilities. The research outcomes included a clinical tool for assessing communication accessibility in everyday environments. Foundational to Caitlin’s research is her aim to decrease the power imbalance between researchers and participants so that a collaborative approach is fostered to highlight participants’ voices. Recently, Caitlin has started a PhD exploring community participation for young children with Complex Communication Needs. This includes exploring the perspectives of primary carers, early intervention therapists, and community activity leaders. Her current research interests in speech pathology practice include: supporting individuals with disabilities including those with complex communication needs, increasing community participation and communication accessibility, multimodal communication, and ethnography methodologies.
Community Engagement & Wellness Centre (CEW)
Caitlin Slaney
Clinical Educator (Speech Pathology)
Albury / Wodonga
CEW Building 715