The Center for AAC and Autism

Cindy Halloran, OTR/L

Cindy Halloran is an occupational therapist with over 20 years experience working exclusively in the field of pediatrics. She obtained a Bachelor of Science from the University of Central Arkansas, and has received additional training in the area of sensory integration. She is also NDT certified and a NAHRA registered therapist. She has worked in school, home health, and private clinic settings; was co-owner of Integrated Therapy for Kids, a private clinic in North Little Rock, for seven years; and has also served as the therapy department head for Arkansas Easter Seals. She also has a wealth of experience treating children with autism. She is currently serving as the Director of The Center for AAC and Autism.

John D Halloran, M.S., CCC-SLP

John Halloran, a speech-language pathologist, is the Senior Clinical Associate for The Center for AAC and Autism. John has worked in the field of AAC since 1994. He has a special interest in children who are challenged by severe physical or cognitive disabilities. He also finds much reward in exploring ways to best implement assistive technology with children who have autism.

John Halloran graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in Communication Disorders. He received his masters in Communicative Disorders from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1992. After graduation, he worked at Arkansas Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center, specializing in assistive technology. He has also owned a pediatric therapy clinic and after-school care for children with disabilities. He has taught augmentative communication at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

John maintains membership in several professional organizations, including the American Speech Language Hearing Association and the Arkansas Speech Language Hearing Association.

Christine Grubbs, M.S., CCC-SLP

Christine received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and worked as a speech pathologist in the Pennsylvania public school system for 21 years. She has worked extensively with communication disorders in students K-12, including children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, AAC and multiple disabilities. Christine is member of the American Speech Language Hearing Association and the Pennsylvania Speech and Hearing Association.

Teresa Parrill, M.S., CCC-SLP

Teresa acquired her undergraduate degree in speech pathology from the University of Northern Iowa in 1995, and her Master's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1997.

Teresa Parrill is a speech-language pathologist employed in several areas of her field. She works with local companies in Colorado to provide speech and language services for children ages 0-16. Her first love is augmentative communication, and she enjoys consulting with individuals around the state on providing the most appropriate means to enhance their communicative abilities.

Lindsey Cargill, M.A., CCC-SLP

Lindsey Cargill is a speech-language pathologist and the Speech Department Supervisor at Helping Hands Center for Special Needs, an education and therapy center for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Columbus, Ohio. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Florida. Lindsey has worked with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, cleft palate/craniofacial anomalies, hearing impairments and global delays in out-patient clinics and school-based settings. She is enthusiastic about applying research and best practices to the facilitation of language development through Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Lindsey maintains membership in the American Speech-Language Hearing Association and with the Ohio Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology.

Lynn P. McConnell, M.S., CCC/SLP

Lynn is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist with a certificate of clinical competence (CCC) from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Texas and Masters of Science from Texas Woman's University in Speech-Language Pathology. Lynn's experience includes over 14 years in public schools, rehabilitation settings and university settings, including early intervention, elementary and secondary school-age students. She finds augmentative and alternative communication most rewarding by giving others a "voice".

Janie Cirlot-New, M.S., CCC-SLP

Janie is the Director of the T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability at Mississippi State University. Janie has a Master's Degree in Speech Pathology from the University of South Alabama and holds the Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech Language Hearing Association. Janie is licensed as a Speech Language Pathologist in the state of Mississippi. Janie has provided augmentative and alternative communication services to individuals of all ages. She developed the augmentative and alternative communication evaluation and training program at the T.K. Martin Center and continues to provide evaluations, intervention and training in the area of augmentative communication. She served as principal investigator on a U.S. Department of Education funded project to assist local education agency teams in utilizing assistive technology to allow students access to the general curriculum and to improve literacy skills of students with expressive communication disorders.

Julie Adkins, MCD, CCC-SLP, BCBA

Julie Adkins is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist at The Learning Center of Northeast AR, a non-profit (501c3) pediatric program. She graduated with her Bachelor’s of Science and Master’s degrees in communicative disorders at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro AR. She received her certification as a BCBA from Florida Institute of Technology. Julie was co-owner of SPARC of AR (Specialty Pediatric & Autism Resource Center of AR), a large pediatric clinic providing speech, physical, occupational, and behavioral therapies to children and adults of all ages. She was also co-founder of SPARC (Social Pragmatic Awareness Resource and Consulting) Center, Inc. a 501c3 non-profit to provide services not covered by insurance such as social skills and ABA. Julie has also served on the board for AANEA (Autism Awareness of Northeast Arkansas). Julie has been involved in working with children with autism spectrum disorders implementing LAMP strategies for many years. She is very passionate about her work and the children she serves. Julie has been fortunate to be in many different settings such as early intervention, home, school, private school, and clinical. She had the opportunity to follow several children using AAC for many years, allowing her to share the difficulties and triumphs along the way.

Sara Honey, BSc (Hons), MRCSLT

Sara is a Speech and Language Therapist, specialising in working with children and young people with autism. Since March 2011, she has been working with young people using the LAMP approach; this has included working with the young people and their families and providing training for school staff in order for the LAMP approach to become established.

Additionally, she has been working closely with John and Cindy Halloran from the Center for AAC and Autism, USA and staff at Liberator to develop her skills. This included a trip to the USA to attend the LAMP Conference and learning from other therapists using the approach.

“I have been really excited by the progress the young people I work with have made using this approach, and can’t wait to help other across the UK to have similar success!”

Andrea McGuinness, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist (AAC)

Since qualifying as a Speech and Language Therapist in 1993, Andrea has held a number of posts. All have included working with a wide range of individuals to aid in the development of their communication skills.

Her main focus has been working with children and adults with physical and/or communication impairments in a range of settings, including mainstream schools, special schools, further education establishments and the home environment. Through this work, she has gained experience of a wide range of both low and high tech augmentative communication systems. She is also experienced in linking communication aims into pupils’ Individual Educational Programs, curriculum work and the individual’s functional communication environment. Working within an interdisciplinary team has always been an important aspect of developing each individual’s communication skills. Developing and delivering training packages to teachers, therapists, support workers and parents have also formed a large part of the work.

She has been a member of the assessment and training team at the ACE Centre-North since October 1999, and as a Senior Development Officer and later as the Project Manager. Within this role, she managed the implementation of the National Communication Aids Project on behalf of the ACE Centre North, and managed a number of other projects relating to Assistive Technology on behalf of ACE North.

She is currently working with the ACE Centre North in addition to working as a an Independent Speech and Language Therapist as this allows her to provide support linked more closely to families’ needs. She also works at Access Summit, a centre that assesses students with disabilities who attend the Manchester Universities in relation to their needs in order for them to access their course.

She is registered with the Health Professions Council (HPC) and with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT).

Laura Hatton, BSc (Hons), MRCSLT

Laura is a qualified speech & language therapist and specialises in working with children and young people with autism and challenging behaviour. Since March 2011, she has been lucky enough to be involved in using the LAMP approach with a number of young people. She has been able to take part in LAMP consultations, trials and training as well as working alongside the young people, their staff teams and families to implement the approach in the most successful way possible.

She has also worked alongside John and Cindy Halloran of the Center for AAC and Autism, USA over the past year to learn more about LAMP, which has included jointly working at consultations, attending numerous training days, attending the LAMP conference in New Orleans and also visiting and meeting established LAMP trainers and facilities in the USA.

“Since using the LAMP approach with a number of young people across a wide variety of settings, I have seen very exciting progress being made and I am looking forward to supporting others to use LAMP to develop and achieve their communication potential too!”

Hayley Power, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist (AAC)

Haley qualified from the University of Manchester in 1998 and her first job was working within special schools, including a school for children with a physical disability in Rochdale. Over the years, she has gained specialist skills in the area of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) working predominantly with children aged 0-19 with a wide variety of individual needs.

In 2009, she joined the ACE Centre North which is a specialist centre for assistive technology/ AAC and has been part of the assessment and training team there, working alongside occupational therapists, other speech and language therapists, specialist teachers and technicians. At ACE, she gained extended experience of working with children and also adults with both learning difficulties, and acquired neurological conditions such as strokes and MND.

She has completed post graduate courses in a variety of areas including communication and dysphagia. She is trained in a variety of assessment and implementation strategies including Signalong, PECS, SCERTS, and LAMP.

She is currently employed by Pennine Care, (Heywood, Rochdale and Middleton) as the lead therapist working with children who benefit from use of AAC. She works within nurseries, schools, both mainstream and special and other specialist environments, e.g. CDC. She has recently left the ACE Centre to pursue more independent practice.

She is registered with the Health Professions Council (HPC) and with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT).

“I am passionate about the field I work within and am really looking forward to supporting the LAMP approach within the UK.”