Julie Hughes
B.S.- SALT; MA – Audiology, CCC-A (ASHA), NCFE – Level 2 certificate in
counselling skills
Roles
- Director of Intervention and Support
- Resources Editor, Down Syndrome Research and Practice
Responsibilities
Julie's primary responsibilities include intervention and advisory
services strategy and leadership. This includes organising and taking part
in the Early
Development Groups that take place at The Sarah Duffen Centre in
Portsmouth as well as organising and taking part in
Advice Days. She also takes part in
workshops, training days and consultancy work in this country and abroad. Julie is also
responsible for reviewing new resources for Down Syndrome Online and Down
Syndrome Research and Practice.
Background
Julie was born and brought up in Philadelphia, USA, coming to
England in 1994. Julie studied Speech-Language Pathology at Trenton State College, NJ
(USA) with extra study in Education of the Deaf. She then went on to
earn a Master's Degree in Audiology from Temple University, PA (USA),
and holds her Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology from the
American Speech, Language and Hearing Association.
Julie spent 12 years
working for a UK charity for pre-school deaf children before coming to Down
Syndrome Education International in 2005. Since working at the
charity, Julie has helped to run and co-ordinate the Early
Development Groups. Among her roles, Julie was on the Advisory Team for the development
of the Early Support materials – 'The Developmental Journal for children
with Down syndrome'. She has also
worked on the development of a training programme for the use of the Early
Support materials. In addition, Julie
has taken a lead role in making two videos – 'Activities for Babies with
Down syndrome' and 'Speech and Language Activities for preschool children with Down
syndrome'. She has travelled in this
country and abroad providing training to professionals and parents,
particularly in the areas of Speech, Language and Literacy Development and
Early Years Development.
In her spare time, Julie enjoys running and walking and has
completed The BUPA Great South Run in aid of DownsEd
for three consecutive years.
Key Achievements
- Presented at a 3-week lecture tour in New Zealand
and Australia – focusing on speech, language,
communication, literacy, memory and early
development
- Presented a 4-day conference on Language, Learning
and Down Syndrome – Educational Series in
Charleston, USA
- Contributed to the
development of the Early Support materials –
The Developmental Journal for
Children with Down Syndrome
- Developed and implemented
training for Early Support materials
- Advisory Partner for
Parent Point – part of the I Can Talking Point website which provides
a comprehensive information service for those working with and caring for
children with a communication disability
- Presented at the 9th Down
Syndrome World Congress – Speech and Language Activities for Toddlers with
Down Syndrome; Activities for Babies with Down Syndrome
- Provided training and consultancy for
professionals at Downside Up, a charity in
Moscow, Russia that is providing much-needed
services to children and families in that area.
- Worked in collaboration with the UK charity IDEAL and the Indian charity Mathru Mandir to provide training and consultancy to professionals and families in Chennai, India.
- Provided consultancy
service and education for parents and professionals in Oslo, Norway
- Provided consultancy services to families and organisations in the UK
- Presented training workshops
for parents and professionals on a variety of topics including:
speech, language and communication development, literacy development, memory
development, early social and emotional development, development of
cognition and play, and school inclusion
Publications
I Can – Parent Point information service –
www.ican.org.uk :