Marjon Speech and Language Therapy Award winners announced

Released: 10.09.18

Plymouth Marjon University is pleased to announce the winners of the two annual Speech and Language Therapy Student Prizes for 2018.

Fourth-year student Stephanie Blanks has been awarded the Tavistock Trust Prize for Aphasia while India Howard, who is entering her third year, has won the Innovative Practice in Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) Award.

Stephanie’s award comes after her excellent performance in the year three clinical viva exam where she demonstrated exceptional knowledge and understanding in the field of aphasia. The examiners were particularly impressed with how Stephanie kept the client and his needs at the centre of her clinical decision making.

India’s prize was awarded for her excellent work while on her second year placement. India independently designed and produced an AAC resource to support a bilingual client and her proactive and creative approach has been instrumental in getting her this award.

Dr Julia Stewart, Programme Lead for the Speech and Language Therapy degree, said she was delighted with the work of both Marjon students.

“We’re extremely proud of the work both students have done in working with people with significant communication disorders. They have demonstrated specialist knowledge in understanding the nature of the clients’ difficulties and supporting those people to communicate,” said Dr Stewart.

Stephanie undertook an assessment where her treatment of a client with aphasia was scrutinised by experts and Dr Stewart was impressed with how she handled the pressure.

“Stephanie was awarded a prize for an exceptional performance in a clinical exam. This is a demanding assessment where students have to discuss a client with 2 examining tutors. Stephanie demonstrated in depth understanding of aphasia and applied that knowledge to the client that she observed during the exam.”

The Innovative Practice in AAC Award was given to India who showed great innovation in her work with a bilingual client during her second year at Marjon.

Dr Stewart continued: “India impressed the panel with her hard work in researching how to work with a bilingual client at this early stage in her studies. She was able to devise therapy materials in Lithuanian to ensure her client received the best care. “

The prizes will be formally presented to both students at the SLT Student Conference in January 2019.

Find out more about Speech and Language Therapy at Marjon on our course page.