Cleft Palate Training Day 2: Getting To Know You

1/10/15 Gregorian – – – – 5/2/2007 Julian

Greetings! Early this morning we met with our Ethiopian, Kenyan, Nigerian, and Ghanaian colleagues to initiate day 2 of cleft palate training and clinic. Josh, Lisa, and Jayne began by creating video tutorials with two of Ethiopia’s finest SLPs. These SLPs discussed how a variety of speech sounds are impacted by cleft palate, in simple, easy to understand language. Once complete, the videos will be added to those already on the leaders project website (leadersproject.org), so that SLPs with limited training in cleft palate and parents/guardians of children with no access to SLPs, can access the information and initiate a successful treatment program.

Meanwhile in the classroom….

Cate led an extremely interactive lecture on anatomy, during which students morphed into oral and pharyngeal musculature to pantomime movements of the vocal tract. An informative lecture for all!

     

Lunch was again delicious, catered by the hospital. The time was spent getting to know our non-TC colleagues, sharing diverse cultural norms including cuisine, style, and of course speech and language concepts.

We cleaned up lunch and prepped the treatment rooms for therapy. Two therapy sessions were conducted within each room! As such, preparation was strategic. As the patients arrived treatment groups rapidly assembled and treatment began! Students immediately implemented techniques learned earlier in the day; sometimes finding difficulty generalizing from the classroom to the treatment setting, however ultimately finding success and gaining confidence!

During stimulability testing, the students all reveled in watching patient’s faces light up in pride and amazement, as they listened to themselves produce certain sounds for the first time. Truly heartwarming and fulfilling, one reason we do what we do!