Communicating with Confidence: A Piece of Cake?
How many times have you made a “communicative act” today? Did you order a coffee from your local barista? Text a loved one? Call someone on the phone? How confidently can you communicate?
On the sunny, soon-to-be-spring morning of Friday 30th August 2019, the Speech Pathology Students’ Society’s (SPSS) Community and Wellbeing team held the annual bake sale to celebrate Speech Pathology Week 2019 (25–31 August 2019). This year, the theme was “Communicating with Confidence”.
Through the bake sale, we aimed to raise awareness of what speech pathology is and how speech pathologists help people to indeed communicate more confidently. Students and staff of the university’s Speech Pathology department generously volunteered to bake scrumptious, home-made goodies to sell at the stall. All funds raised are to be donated to the Australian Aphasia Association.
Aphasia is a language difficulty that results from injury to the language areas of the brain, after incidents such as a stroke, infection or tumours. Individuals with aphasia may have difficulty finding the words to say what they want to say, understand what others are saying to them, read, write, use numbers or use gestures. While communicating is, for many of us, a natural and easy skill (a “piece of cake”, as it were!), the loss of ability to do so can be devastating. Beyond affecting the act of communicating itself, aphasia can have an impact on the person’s relationships and their everyday living activities. The Australian Aphasia Association helps people with aphasia, their families and the professionals who look after them communicate more successfully.
At the stall, it was lovely to meet people eager to learn about speech pathology and aphasia, or otherwise share their personal stories about how speech pathology has played a role in their lives. We raised a total of $341.60, a brilliant effort on everybody’s part!
The Community and Wellbeing team would like to express our thanks to all the bakers: Rachel Masin, Julia Gorton, Annabel Rodway, Holly Murgatroyd, Georgie McAuley, Betty La, Sallyanne Muller, Crystal Wang, Yi-An Chiu, Chong Xie, Yanjun Li, Wei Gu and Rob Frewin. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to the staff, students and guests who stopped by our stall for your purchases and generous donations.
The ability to confidently communication is everybody’s right. Thank you for making that happen!
The Community & Wellbeing Team, SPSS
(Betty La, Naomi Sellman, Annabel Rodway, Wei Lin Ooi & Sarah Lim)
Students of the Master of Speech Pathology