The AAC market cards were created in response to a desire from the families that their children be able to participate in a typical activity for Ghanaian children: buying food for the family at the market. The AAC market cards have the name and picture of the item the students are to buy for their families. The cards also have the cost; that is how much of the item the family wants the student to buy. How to use the cards has been disseminated through annual professional development retreats so they are now used by students with autism, intellectual disabilities, and cerebral palsy throughout Ghana. The video tutorials are dubbed into several African languages including Swahili, Amharic, Kikuyu, and West African French.
Category: International Projects
(Spanish) Cleft Palate Practice for K, G, Ñ
Downloadable pdf: Cataron Los Gallos for website .pdf
(Spanish) Cleft Palate Practice for K
(Spanish) Cleft Palate Practice for T, D, N
Downloadble pdf: TDN.pdf
(Spanish) Cleft Palate Practice for P and B
Downloadable pdf: El Pollo Pepe.pdf
(Spanish) Cleft Palate Practice for S
Downloadable pdf: Sammy Sosa.pdf
Cleft Palate Speech Therapy Books in Spanish
Cate Crowley took a group of students and professionals to provide therapy and professional development with the Healing the Children cleft palate surgical mission in Neiva, Colombia. The Healing the Children mission differs from traditional cleft palate missions because the team returns every year to provide ongoing surgery, treatment and therapy to the same patients each year. During this last mission, 166 hours of therapy were provided in group and individual sessions to patients working with Healing the Children. This year Cate developed an idea to create books in Spanish that would help children with repaired cleft palates to improve their speech. Cate oversaw development and supported the books that were written by Angela Giraldo and illustrated by Tina Yeung. These books, in Spanish, focus on specific high pressure sounds that are at the same place of articulation. For example some books focus on t, d and n while others focus on p, b and m. These books were given to all the surgeons and fonoaudiologists (speech therapists) working with patients from the Healing the Children mission. In addition, small format versions of the books were given to all the patients so that they would have fun and interesting materials that they could use to practice their sounds.
Healing the Children Mission to Neiva, Colombia
This year Catherine Crowley and her team accompanied Healing the Children surgical mission to Neiva, Columbia. Healing the children is not a typical cleft palate repair mission. Traditionally, a cleft palate team would travel to a developing country and do many dozens of cleft lip and palate repairs and then return to their home country. However, a child with a repaired cleft lip or palate actually requires onoing therapy, monitoring and often further surgery in order for the repair to be successful. Without this type of long-term support, many children do not learn to talk intelligibly, despite the repair and can even develop fistulas (holes) as they grow. Healing the Children instead conducts annual trips back to Neiva. This was their 21st trip and Cate’s 2nd trip back. They work with the same patients each year while providing therapy and further surgery, including later revisions, bone augmentation and orthodonture.
Cate’s team was there for the second year and offered a 5 day training course for fonoaudiologists (speech therapists). The fonoaudiologists learned the specific knowledge and skills they will need to provide quality services to children with repaired cleft palate.Classes were given in the morning and then the clinicians provided services, including language stimulation, in the afternoon to patients.
