Sally Millar

Specialist Speech and Language Therapist and Joint Coordinator, CALL Centre

Having undertaken a first degree in Linguistics, followed by experience teaching English and Linguistics abroad, Sally became a speech and language therapist, originally working in mainstream schools. She gained specialist experience and carried out pioneering work in augmentative communication and the use of technology in a Scottish Council for Spastics (now Capability Scotland) school, from 1978. She was one of the founder members of the Communication Aids for Language and Learning (CALL) Centre in Edinburgh University, established in 1982, and completed an M.Ed degree (Psychology) during this period. Since 1991, she has been one of the joint Coordinators of CALL, with Paul Nisbet. And somewhere along the line she became as much - if not more - of an educationalist as a speech and language therapist!

Sally's CALL Centre work spans three areas: assessment and support of individual pupils with special educational needs, provision of information, advice and training, and research and development work. She is regularly involved in developing and delivering training materials and documentation for software and communication systems. With CALL colleagues, Sally travels all over Scotland, from Shetland to Stranraer, to carry out specialist assessments of individual pupils with a wide variety of type and severity of special educational needs, all with severe communication and/or writing difficulties. CALL then provides follow-up and support to staff and parents through development work where appropriate, loans of equipment, and in-service training. Sally focuses particularly on the integration of the development of communication with teaching and learning and the curriculum.

In 1992, Sally presented and published her innovative work on 'Personal Passports' which has since been taken up by many schools and adult services across the UK. She was a member of a research team studying 'The Role of Speech and Language Therapists in the Education of Children with Special Educational Needs'. Her most recent project, in collaboration with Janet Larcher, has been the development of a dynamic screen voice output communication vocabulary (CALLTalk). Alone and in collaboration with various colleagues, she has authored, edited and published many articles, research reports and books (eg. Accelerated Writing, Symbol Software, Augmentative Communication in Practice). She is the Editor of the Communication Matters Journal.

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