Ellen Backman

About Ellen Backman

About Ellen Backman

Ellen Backman holds a PhD in health and lifestyle with a focus on disability research, and is a speech therapist with clinical experience from childhood-onset disabilities. She has also a professional background as a quality improvement officer within habilitation services and as a research and development (R&D) supervisor. Ellen has a great interest in children's participation in their healthcare and in everyday activities.

Teaching

For several years, Ellen has taught at undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Gothenburg, Halmstad University and Jönköping University. She has primarily participated in course work focusing on eating development in children and pediatric feeding disorders, communication development, and communication support strategies for people with speech and language impairments. Her teaching also includes qualitative methods and recurring supervision of master theses.

Research

Ellen's doctoral thesis is about children with feeding disorders who use a gastrostomy tube to get the nutrition they need. In the thesis, Ellen explored the meal as a shared activity and how social aspects of eating are addressed in healthcare. Following her PhD, Ellen has been involved as a researcher in the project “KomAlong Online, a self-managed parental web-resource to support communication”.

Ellen held a position as a postdoctoral fellow in the MOD research program at Marie Cederschiöld University, . The postdoctoral project “Transition to adulthood for people with cerebral palsy” aimed to broaden the knowledge about becoming an adult when having cerebral palsy, specifically focusing on communication and was funded by Bidragsstiftelsen DHR. The project was part of the larger project "Living as an adult with cerebral palsy in western Sweden" and was a collaboration between Marie Cedershiöld University and the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.

Current research

Ellen is project manager for the project "ComRight - Promoting communicative rights in children with disability: Implementation and evaluation of the ComBo program in short-term accommodations". Several laws and conventions emphasise communicative rights. However, Swedish reports show that social services for people with disabilities often lack staff education in communication supporting strategies and systematic methods to assure such rights. This applies particularly to children in need of AAC (augmentative and alternative communication).

This project aims to answer 1) how do children with developmental disabilities perceive and experience participation and self-determination?, 2) what attitudes towards child participation, communicative rights, and self-determination do short-term accommodation staff have and how are these rights operationalised?, and 3) what effects do the “ComBo” program have on assuring children’s rights to communication?. The group program ComBo aims to increase the staff's knowledge of communicative rights, communication supporting strategies and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).

This project will recruit children and staff members from short-term accommodations. As all children eligible for short-term accommodation have complex communication needs, various methods will support the children to share their experiences: photographs, individual interviews and participant observation. Focus groups will be conducted with staff members. Focus groups are chosen based on the method’s strength to provide in-depth insights and rich qualitative data in a short period of time. The interviews, observations, and focus groups is followed by the implementation of the ComBo (akktiv.se). The implementation is evaluated through a feasibility study and another set of interviews, observations, and focus groups after 6 months.

Communication is crucial to being involved in social and democratic contexts. Despite that, people with complex communication needs are often excluded from research. In this project, people with lived experiences (staff, parents, children) will be involved both as participants and as co- researchers. Thereby, findings will be more responsive to current needs and the dissemination of outcomes into policy and practice will be improved.

Outcomes include children’s experiences as well as implementation strategies and evidence to inform social work policy to optimise future scalability and sustainability of ComBo. The reimbursement for people involved in the co-production is included in the budget as an important signal of the shared responsibility of the project.

Publications

Backman, E. (2025). Mina möjligheter att leva det liv jag önskar : Om kommunikation och vuxenblivande för personer med cerebral pares. Marie Cederschiöld högskola arbetsrapportserie, E-ISSN 3035-8442

Backman, E., Andersz, C., & Tideman, M. (2025). Research Into Transition to Adulthood in Persons With Cerebral Palsy: A Scoping Review. Emerging Adulthood, 13(3), 748-767. doi: 10.1177/21676968251320226

Backman, E., Miniscalco, C., & Thunberg, G. (2024). Introducing a Self-Managed Early Communication Resource for Parents - A Mixed Methods Feasibility Study of the Swedish “ComAlong Online". Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology. 20(3), 598-610. doi: 10.1080/17483107.2024.2398606

Backman, E., Johnels Åsberg, J., & Thunberg, G. (2023). Parental Perceptions of Social Life Before and After Attending a Parent Training Program for Children with Complex Communication Needs: The ComAlong Example. Augmentative and Alternative Communication. 40(1), 46-56. doi: 10.1080/07434618.2023.2262036

Backman, E., Granlund, M. & Karlsson, A-K. (2021). Parental Perspectives on Family Mealtimes Related to Gastrostomy Tube Feeding in Children. Qualitative Health Research. 31(9), 1596-1608. doi:10.1177/1049732321997133. 

Backman, E. & Karlsson, A-K. (2020). Children's Perspectives on Mealtimes When Living with a Gastrostomy Tube: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 12(58), 53-59. doi:10.1016/j.pedn.2020.11.018. 

Backman, E. & Sjögreen, L. (2020). Gastrostomy Tube Insertion in Children With Developmental or Acquired Disorders: A Register‐Based Study. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 62(10), 1191-1197. doi:10.1111/dmcn.14634

Backman, E., Granlund, M. & Karlsson, A-K. (2020). Documentation of Everyday Life and Health Care following Gastrostomy Tube Placement in Children: A Content Analysis of Medical Records. Disability and Rehabilitation. 42(19), 2747-2755. doi:10.1080/09638288.2019.1573383

Backman, E., Karlsson, A-K. & Sjögreen, L. (2018). Gastrostomy Tube Feeding in Children with Developmental or Acquired Disorders: A Longitudinal Comparison on Healthcare Provision and Eating Outcomes 4 Years After Gastrostomy. Nutrition in Clinical Practice, 33(4), 576-583. doi:10.1002/ncp.10056.

Saldert, C., Backman, E. & Hartelius, L. (2013). Conversation Partner Training With Spouses of Persons With Aphasia: A Pilot Study Using a Protocol to Trace Relevant Characteristics. Aphasiology, 27(3), 271-292.