ICTS Trainers and Administrators : Profiles
 Sally Millar
Email address:
sally.millar@inclusive.net
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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