Simple message is best for award winner

Award-winning PhD student Shiree Heath
Award-winning PhD student Shiree Heath
UQ PhD student Shiree Heath’s award winning video that teaches children about the negative effects strokes can have on a person’s ability to communicate confirms the truism that simple things are often the best.

A recent winner of the Society for Neuroscience’s ‘Brain Awareness Video Contest’, Ms Heath’s story about post-stroke aphasia is told through a child who wonders why his grandfather can no longer read him bedtime stories like he used to.

Without the luxury of a big budget, Ms Heath, who studies within UQ’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said she kept her production simple, but the message clear.
 
“It is about people who have difficulty retrieving words, and producing words, following a stroke” Ms Heath said.
 
“It uses a poem to educate people, particularly children, as to what a stroke is and why those who have one can have problems communicating.”
 
“I created it using PowerPoint transitions for the visuals, I couldn’t get any video footage of someone with aphasia so I had to rely on audio, and in the end it worked well because now I think video footage would look out of place.”
 
While the video, called “The Treasure Hunt”, is pitched at children aged between eight and twelve years old, it has had a profound effect on many older viewers as well.
 
“I didn’t realise how much general appeal it would have. I have had a lot of grandparents emailing me saying that they read stories to their grandchildren all the time and the video really had an effect on them,” Ms Heath said.
 
“Some of them said it even made them cry, I am not happy about that, but it is wonderful to think it has had such an impact.”
 
The video not only resonated with its audience, but also with Ms Heath herself who said it opened her eyes to career opportunities she may not have previously considered.
 
“I always wanted to stay in research, and have been working towards getting a post-doc position somewhere, working in a similar area, and staying in neuroimaging,” Heath said.
 
“But making science accessible to the general community and children is something I am quite passionate about now. Winning this award and meeting people in that area has made me realize that researchers must be able to educate people about their area of science in an accessible way. So I am looking at more than one possible career option now.”
 
(by Mark Schroder, UQ Graduate School)

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