Speech CEN North East Symposium at 20
About this course
SYMPOSIUM DETAILS
SCENNE AT 20 – Education, Inspiration, Celebration – Monday 3rd November 2025
At Geoff Cook Suite, Durham Cricket, Seat Unique Riverside, Chester-le-Street, DH3 3QR
To celebrate twenty years as a thriving CEN, Speech CEN North East (SCENNE) warmly welcomes others who share their passion for speech sound disorder (SSD) to join them for a very special day of celebration. This ‘in person’ day event is an opportunity to learn, network and reflect on SSD. This will be a dynamic day of insights, bringing together expert speakers and informal voices to explore the subject of speech sound disorders. Formal speakers provide the evidence, while informal presentations bring lived experiences to life.
Accommodation
On a first-come, first-served basis, delegates attending Speech CEN North East’s event are invited to take advantage of the special conference hotel, bed and breakfast deal at the spectacular Lumley Castle Hotel. This could be a perfect treat for the night before the event! Mention you are a delegate at Seat Unique Riverside to take advantage of the £99 bed and breakfast deal (for single occupancy). Get your networking off to a luxurious and relaxing start! Alternatively, there are plenty of other local options to suit every budget.
Resources
The symposium will blend digitisation (view, download or print your handouts from the Course Beetle Academy during or before the event) with some good old-fashioned add-ons to pick up on the day. Representatives of Speech CEN North East (SCENNE) will be on hand to ensure the warmest of welcomes and perhaps persuade you to join them! This celebratory event promises to be a stimulating and enjoyable day with people who share your passion for speech sound disorders. We’ll keep you fuelled with refreshments and lunch too.
Early bird offer – now extended to 17th July!
Reserve your place NOW while you find out if your employer will fund your place. Reserve or book your place before 17th July 2025 to take advantage of the lowest rates for this event. As with all Course Beetle-hosted events, speech and language therapy students and speech and language therapy returners to practice can access generously discounted booking rates.
What are you waiting for…?
Course pricing
| Book and pay online | Organisational payment | Student / Returner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early Bird Prices (before 17th July) | £75 | £92 | £60 |
| Standard Prices (from 17th July) | £90 | £107 | £75 |
Please book your place here or alternatively, you can contact us if you are you would like to make a block booking for a group.
Course presenters
Dr Jill Titterington
Consultant Speech and Language Therapist/Researcher
Dr Jill Titterington is a consultant Speech and Language Therapist/Researcher https://www.thespeechdoctorni.co.uk/ a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and one of the International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders’ Editor-in-Chiefs. Jill has ~20 years of clinical experience, and ~17 years working for Ulster University’s Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) department. Jill is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and her speciality area of teaching is in child speech sound disorder: both phonetic transcription skills, and clinical management (particularly of phonological delay and disorder). Jill provides ongoing CPD teaching and learning opportunities for qualified SLTs in these areas. Jill’s research focuses on supporting implementation of evidence to Speech and Language Therapy practice for children with speech and language difficulties. She has a particular interest in supporting the delivery of evidence-based dosage/intensity of intervention for children with moderate to severe speech sound disorder. Driven by this interest, Jill established a group of academics, researchers, and clinical/managerial SLTs (Raising Awareness of Dosage in Speech Sound Disorder (RADiSSD)) in 2023 which is working to drive change to practice across the UK and Ireland. Recent publications include a chapter on the pedagogy of clinical phonetics for students of SLT, and journal articles on applying evidence on dosage to practice for children with severe speech sound disorder, and how to work effectively with parents to increase dosage of intervention. See here for recent publications.
Joanne Cleland
/ʤoˈan ˈklɛlənd/ is a professor of speech and language therapy at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK. Her research and teaching focus on assessment and diagnosis of childhood speech sound disorders and innovative approaches to intervention for articulatory and motor speech sound disorders. Over the last decade she has focused her research on clinical and research applications of ultrasound tongue imaging, for both theoretical research and for biofeedback interventions in children with persistent speech sound disorders and cleft palate +/- lip.
Mikey Akers
Mikey Akers is the founder of Mikey’s Wish Foundation, a registered charity that raises awareness of and supports people with speech, language and communication needs with an interest in Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Mikey was diagnosed with CAS when he was just 2 years old and has spent the last 10 years actively raising awareness of the diagnosis. He has travelled to America to speak at conferences, is an ‘Expert by Experience’ at Birmingham City University, travels England giving talks at conferences and schools. He has appeared in the documentary, Chris Kamara: Lost for Words. Mikey is working with a number of MPs to secure more funding for speech and language services after his petition was debated in Parliament earlier this year.
Shonette Bason
Shonette Bason is Guinness World Record Holder, mother of four, International Speaker and award-winning author. Shonette is different in style and content, from her look to her ability to lift an audience to a whole new level of thinking. She has created a positive global community within education in which educators put their own happiness first to impact on the children they work with. Famous for her fine muscle exercise Dough Disco, Shonette works Internationally with over 26 countries with Spread the Happiness Educators.
Shonette’s passion for the welfare of children both academically and physically led her to start her own charity Spreading the Happiness, which provides hampers through schools to address the issue of Holiday Hunger.
Shonette has now taken her Inspirational work into the Corporate Sector and delivers keynotes and training on professionalism and honesty in the workforce and for each person to take responsibility for their own behaviours.
Course topics
Symposium Programme: Monday 3rd November 2025
| 08.15 am | Registration | |
| 09.25 am | Opening remarks | |
| 09.30 am | Dr Jill Titterington presents:
“If not us, who? If not now, when?” Applying evidence-based dosage to practice for children with SSD |
Jill’s presentation aims to share the challenges (and potential solutions) of applying evidence to practice for children with speech sound disorder receiving speech and language therapy (SLT) when considering optimal dosage (intervention intensity). She will review the concept of evidence-based practice, and the challenges of applying this within everyday clinical practice for SLTs and other healthcare professionals. She will then unpack what is meant by the term dosage (intervention intensity) and consider its different components in light of current evidence. How this evidence is applied (or not) in current practice will be evaluated. Potential solutions to the current gap between evidence and practice will then be considered, and a quality improvement initiative applying evidence-based dosage to practice will be shared. Finally, learning from ongoing work considering what works for which parents and how, to support intensive parent-implemented intervention at home for children with severe SSD is discussed. |
| 10.30 am | Refreshments | |
| 11.15 am | Professor Joanne Cleland presents:
The benefits and challenges of using ultrasound in research and practice. |
Speech articulation is largely hidden from view, with the main articulator, the tongue mostly invisible during speech production. Since around the 1980s, speech and language therapists have been able to unlock these hidden articulations using instruments that image the articulators- revealing different complex underlying causes to speech difficulties.
Tools such as magnetic resonance imaging, electropalatography, and ultrasound tongue imaging are powerful techniques for revealing these hidden articulations and, in the case of electropalatography and ultrasound, remediating the same errors by revealing to speakers how to change their articulation. This presentation will outline the insights such tools has given us into articulation in children with persistent speech sound disorders. The presenter will explain how this instrumentation can change our thinking about both the nature of speech errors and speech interventions and discuss the barriers and enablers to implementing ultrasound tongue imaging in NHS contexts. |
| 12.15 pm | Lunch | |
| 1.30 pm | Mikey Akers describes:
His experiences of growing up with Childhood Apraxia of Speech |
Mikey’s talk will be about the lived experience of growing up with Childhood Apraxia of Speech, the affect it had on his schooling, all aspects of his life and how he turned his struggle into his passion. There will be some audience participation. |
| 2.30 pm | Refreshments | |
| 3.15 pm | Shonette Bason presents:
Keep It Simple: Finding Joy, Connection, and Motivation in a Complicated World |
After everything we’ve been through – the isolation, uncertainty, and non-stop noise – it’s no wonder many of us feel disconnected and drained. But what if the key to feeling better isn’t about doing more, but doing less—and doing it simply? Keep It Simple is a hilarious, high-energy keynote that cuts through the overcomplication of modern life with laughter, practical insights, and refreshingly simple techniques to boost your mood, motivation, and human connection. Shonette will help you shake off the heaviness, find joy in the everyday, and rediscover how small, intentional actions can create a massive ripple effect in your life and work. The world feels psychologically overwhelming—but it doesn’t have to. Let’s press reset with Shonette, reconnect ourselves with laughter, and in the future keep our wellbeing simple. |
| 4.15 pm | Closing remarks | |
| 4.30 pm | Close |
Who this course is suitable for
Booking information
The Speech CEN North East (SCENNE) last held a symposium 10 years ago… this is a once-in-a-decade opportunity! To book click here.
Want to help spread the word? Click here to download our SCENNE at 20 promotional flyer.
During the booking process, you can select to reserve a place instead (while you confirm you can attend or to organise payment through your employer for example). We can hold your place for up to four weeks. If we have not heard from you after this time, we may need to cancel your reservation so other people can attend the training.
Click here for more information about the venue and accommodation options.
Course Beetle is an approved supplier for NHS Trusts, Local Authorities and Schools.
conference, Durham, SSD, speech sound disorder, SCENNE, SCENNE20