I now work as an independent speech and language therapist, mainly with children.

My Fellowship was to the United States in 1980. At that time I was working with stroke patients who had impaired speech and language skills. My subject was a signing system, called Amerind, based on Native American Sign Language – also called Hand Talk.

I trained in the system in the UK with its founder, Dr Madge Skelly, but I needed to see how it was being used in real situations. I visited clinics, schools and hospitals and saw how effective it was as a communication system for patients who, for example, had suffered a stroke, or a laryngectomee, or had a learning disability.

On returning to the UK, I immediately started using Amerind with adult patients on my caseload. It was a very useful tool because it used iconic signs that were easily recognised and the signs were fairly easy to make, even with the use of one hand only. Soon my colleagues wanted to train in the system, so for several years I taught Amerind to others and also organised a special-interest group which met regularly to share ideas and support.

My Fellowship was an extraordinary experience which helped many people, including myself.