Delivering truly inspirational work focused on enhancing the quality of life of children with diverse abilities, Dr Kathleen Tait from the Macquarie School of Education is currently working on a project to identify First Nation children who are missing out on important early-age interventions.

How did you originally become interested in your area of research?

My area of research is the communication assessment and intervention for children with diverse abilities. From a very early age, I wanted to be a teacher. As a high school student, I taught Sunday School at my local church. Easter was approaching and the craft activity was to make an origami plant (reed) cross. Lots of verbal instructions and modelling were required to teach the children how to fold their pieces of reed into a cross. One new family came to me and asked if their daughter who had a significant visual impairment could join my group. I was speechless. I felt so useless and so embarrassed because I had no idea how I was going to teach this little girl a craft task that was so highly focused on being able to ‘see’ me model the steps of making the cross. I really wanted to know how I could engage this child in group. That was it. That was the pivotal moment when I decided I was going to become a teacher of children with special education needs.

Unfortunately, a ‘fear of the unknown’ is frequently cited as an explanation for novice teachers’ resistance to inclusive education. This is one of the reasons that I became, and remain, interested in teaching at the tertiary level. I wanted to be instrumental in training pre and post graduate teachers and allied health professionals to be able to cater for students with special education needs, in particular children with severe impact disabilities (such as cerebral palsy).

For the families, teachers and therapists of individuals who are totally dependent on others and whose disabilities are such that they are frequently passive, research projects designed to investigate methods that increase these individuals’ interaction with their environment are very important for skill acquisition training. Working with people and being able to offer them a successful naturalistic intervention program that offers the potential for a better quality of life is incredibly rewarding and that is what keeps me motivated to research in this field.

Why is your research important?

I specialise in the education domains of learners with high impact, complex and challenging conditions. The children whom I work with are frequently on palliative care lists. Educators commonly withhold training from students with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD). Instead, children with severe impact disabilities are often cared for (fed, toileted, medicated and interacted with) by school support staff or teacher’s aides. This is based on the premise that these children are unengaged and unable to communicate their preferences.

On the whole, research with this population has received far less attention than any other developmental variable. One of the most heart-breaking aspects of my educational, clinical, and research work is coming across individuals who were diagnosed with limited life conditions at birth, yet years later, have never received any type of intervention to enhance or advance their skills and abilities. The fact that there has been very little research conducted with children with PIMD reflects the expensive and practical difficulties of testing this population.

The focus of my research is to enhance the quality of life of individuals with complex and challenging conditions by identifying and ameliorating the impact of disabilities through assessment and intervention. There is no cure for children with limited life conditions. Yet, they still have the right to develop in ways that are typical of other children.

What is your proudest achievement?

In 2018, I presented two papers on my research projects at the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD) conference that was held in Athens, Greece. IASSIDD is the first and only world-wide group dedicated to the scientific study of intellectual disability.

Upon my return to Australia, I received an email from Professor Shigeru Suemitsu M.D. who had attended my conference presentations. Professor Suemitsu offered me a Travel Fellowship from the Kawasaki University of Medical-Welfare to work with a group of his medical colleagues in Tokyo, Japan in 2019.

Professor Suemitsu arranged for me to speak to several groups of professionals who are dedicated to improving the lives of people with PIMD in Tokyo and Okayama. As an outcome of this amazing opportunity, I lead a research project with a delegation from the Kawasaki University of Medical-Welfare and the Tokyo Metropolitan Tobu (Ryoiku) Medical Center for People with developmental disabilities. Several joint publications have since been published in both English and Japanese. I was extremely proud of the opportunity to share my expertise with a group of like-minded allied health professionals from another culture. We hope to continue our joint research collaborations post-COVID.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

I met Princess Diana when she was on tour in Australia in 1983. As part of her first tour of the Commonwealth countries and during one of her public royal ‘walkabout’ engagements, I was lucky enough to have a chat with her.

Like most of the world, I was devastated when she died. I attended one of the memorial services and while lined up with hundreds of others waiting to sign the memorial book, I was selected to be interviewed for Channel 10 News.

What is on your agenda for the remainder of 2020?

I am an academic mentor with Macquarie’s Waranara Mentoring Program and the MURI Research Program. The MURI Internship Program offers undergraduate First Nation students a 6-month paid research opportunity funded by the Australian Government. In 2020, my project: Investigating the communication ability of young Indigenous children at risk for language disorders was selected for this initiative. Several Sydney-based Aboriginal-led early intervention centres have indicated their strong support to be involved in this project. It is my greatest hope that this 2020 pilot project will be the first step towards a successful NHMRC grant in 2021.