Narrative Stories- French Version

Bonjour.  Je m’appelle Catherine Crowley. Je suis maître de conférences à Teachers College Columbia University.  Ceci est un tutoriel vidéo sur la façon de créer des histoires narratives pour traiter de comportements socialement inadmissibles.  Il s’agit essentiellement d’une série d’images et de textes écrits qui aident l’enfant à comprendre: 1) Quel est le comportement qui doit être éliminé (identifier le comportement précis qui doit être traité, 2) Pourquoi ce comportement doit-il être éliminé (Comment ce comportement agit sur la famille et/ou la communauté de l’élève), 3) Ce que l’enfant peut faire à la place (y compris comment mieux communiquer ses besoins) et 4) Les avantages du changement de ce comportement, en faisant différemment. Read More

International Resources: Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Approaches Pamphlet

internaAAC Pamphlet Ghana.pdf

This pamphlet was created for a professional development retreat in Ghana, West Africa, by Dr. Cate Crowley, Lindsay Milgram, El’licia Price and the TC SLP Ghana team. It offers several augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies that have been adapted for people with communication disabilities in Ghana, and have been implemented successfully there and in other countries in Africa to facilitate their participation at home, in school and in the community.  Read More

Ghana January 2014: Insights through Collaborations: Sunyani Professional Development Retreat part I

PD GhanaEn route to Sunyani for our Professional Development Retreat weekend, we made a few stops and learned some more about Ghanaian culture and history. First we stopped to see some coffins on the side of the road. Sounds bizarre right?! Well not in Ghana! In Ghana, funerals are a celebration and the coffins reflect that! For example, if a man spends his life as a priest he may be buried in a coffin that is shaped as a bible, or if he spends his life as a farmer he may be buried in a coffin that looks like a piece of corn. We were able to see a few examples of such coffins and it really was a cool insight into the Ghanaian culture. Then we stopped at Ancestral River Park which is where the slaves took their last bath before they were moved to the slave forts and then later sold. It was so moving to see this place that has now become a museum.

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Ghana 2013: First Day at Korle Bu Hospital

KBHToday, on African Union Day, we began our week at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. Every Friday for approximately 6 years so far, Albert Osei Bagyina, the one and only speech therapist in Kumasi, travels on an overnight bus to get to Accra to conduct evaluations and follow-up visits with clients who come to Korle Bu. Albert makes the 6-hour trip back to Kumasi when his day is finished. This week, however, Albert joined us the whole time. It was great to continue collaborating with him.Today at the hospital, we saw a variety of different clients regarding speech, language, and hearing.

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Cleft palate at Komfo Anoyke Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana

cleft palate dentistsAfter a brief, but thorough cleft palate lesson last night, we dove in head first and spent the morning at the weekly cleft palate clinic at Komfo Anokye hospital in Kumasi run by Dr. Peter Donkor.  Patients travel from all over Ghana to come and see Dr. Donkor for cleft palate repair. Cleft palates are caused by a malformation of the palate during embryological development and, depending on the extent of the cleft, they can impact infant feeding as well as later speech development. Even after cleft palate repair, it is difficult without training to relearn how to say certain sounds, which are impossible to make when there is a cleft in the palate. As speech pathologists, our job is to work with mothers to guide and train them in proper feeding techniques for infants born with cleft palates. We also work with children and even adults who have had cleft palate repair to train them on proper production of many speech sounds.

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