Yellow House

“the act of writing itself involves us in a quest”

Ely, Vinz, Downing & Anzul, 1997

There is a new publication out called S & L World http://www.slworldbulletin.com/

and what I realized yesterday is.. I would so much rather be writing informal articles for this kind of publication than writing papers for my university program. Alas. Today I am home ill and going to try and clear through this haze in my brain to work on some academic pursuits - a manuscript about speech therapy in Africa that I whave been working on for over a year now.

Writing is underemphasized in speech therapy programs. Yet, writing is an important method of communication. Writing is a public conversation. A story, a message. For me, I write to make sense of the world. I believe in the process.. But more importantly there are so many wonderful speech therapy related programs all over the world taking a myriad of forms that are appropriate for their setting. I think we need more of those stories, that may not come with references and may not be evidence based practice but nonetheless provide parents with hope, children with words and communities with education. I think we need these stories to inspire young therapists about what is possible, and help therapists working in places with limited support and resources think about alternative service delivery methods. I think we need these stories so we can get clinical feedback.  

So today I am forcing myself to sit and write. Its my second day in a row in my pyjamas at the kitchen table, trying to evacuate the fog with coffee, shun the internal cold with porridge, stewed fruit and much later soup. b x