Associate Professor Stuart Ekberg specialises in understanding how people communicate with one another in both face-to-face settings and via digital media. He has a particular interest in communication in healthcare, such as how therapists adapt play-based interventions with children to suit delivery via telehealth. Stuart will contribute to the Healthy Child program, examining how digital technologies intersect with children’s social interactions, especially in healthcare settings. By understanding how health communication is managed across digital media, Stuart hopes we will be better placed to ensure such technology is used in ways that maximise the health and wellbeing of children.

In 2017, Stuart’s expertise in health communication was recognised by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA). Stuart is widely published – recently, he co-authored a paper on the benefits of reading aloud while using digital technology (2020), and a chapter in Everyday Technologies in Healthcare (2020) on engaging young children in speech and language therapy via videoconferencing.

Earliest digital memory
Taking my Nintendo Game Boy, which I was given for Christmas, on my summer holiday to the beach. It was the only consolation for being called back to my tent after a long day of swimming.