Allison Gaskin

Development Officer, The ACE Centre-North

Allison qualified as a Speech & Language Therapist at the National Hospitals College of Speech Sciences (University College London) in 1988. Since qualifying, she has worked in different specialist areas with people with a range of communication difficulties. Much of her clinical input has involved alternative/augmentative (AAC) input. She has gained valuable experience within this field, in both public and private sector organizations.

She started her career in London, on a rotational post, which allowed her to establish clinical skills within different client groups, including adult neurology, children with moderate learning difficulties, adults with moderate-to-severe learning disabilities and children/adolescents with physical disabilities. From this, she developed a specific interest in the field of special needs and specifically AAC.

Allison moved into a Specialist post co-ordinating the service delivery to children and adults with special needs. She was responsible for the assessment and ongoing clinical input for patients/clients and the training of professionals and carers. Her role involved extensive input with a range of communication systems - low-tech and high-tech - in schools & Day Centres. She played an active role in the support requirements for children with physical disabilities being integrated into mainstream schools and instigated the development of a resource bank of communication aids within the Trust's Speech & Language Therapy Department.

Allison left this post when personal circumstances sent her to Cheshire! Here she took on the Head of Service role for Adults with Learning Disabilities. She continued her clinical involvement with AAC and provided training input for Social Services & Health professionals working in this area.

Allison moved out of the Health Service in 1995 to take on the role of Consultant Speech & Language Therapist for Dynamic Abilities Ltd., the original UK distributor for DynaVox products, now Sunrise. Her role at Dynamic Abilities/Sunrise involved providing support to users, carers and professionals regarding the implementation of their devices. She developed resources and information to assist in the implementation process, including training packages for different areas of device use. She co-ordinated the overall training provision within the UK. During this time she completed her Masters Degree in Management, focusing her dissertation on evaluating the service quality of a communication aids company as perceived by users, carers and professionals.

Allison now works at the ACE Centre-North as part of the assessment and training team.

Training providers

This ICTS website is maintained by Inclusive Technology.