Teaching Speech and Language Therapists in Sri Lanka: Issues in Curriculum, Culture and Language

Abstract

This paper draws on the experiences of the authors in designing and teaching a new course to educate speech and language therapists in Sri Lanka. This was the first speech and language therapist course in the country and was the result of collaboration between two universities, one in the UK and one in Sri Lanka. Rather than replicating established programmes elsewhere it was more appropriate to design a new course, suited to providing a comprehensive model of service, encompassing both social and medical approaches to rehabilitation. Issues about developing teaching and learning approaches to match pre-existing knowledge and experience of both staff and students are addressed. The particular ways of designing the programme to take account of cultural and language aspects of the Sri Lankan context are discussed.

International and Cross-Cultural Issues: Six Key Challenges for Our Professions

“…Wickenden et al [9] write about the establishment of SLT training in Sri Lanka and their work also has implications for the in-service training of SLTs and others. The Sri Lankan team identified transferring skills and multidisciplinary working as important parts of the SLT's role and thus ensured that students on the course were given opportunities to develop these skills.…”

“…Another benefit arising from the Sri Lankan experience concerns course content. As many SLT students across the world study internationally, Wickenden et al's [9] views regarding course content, for example learning about language universals and specifics, collecting local language data, adapting old as well as introducing new teaching styles, would be useful too for many SLT courses to consider.…”

“…The papers by Pickering [5], Pillay [6] and Westby and Hwa-Froelich [7] operate at a theoretical level, as they present either frameworks for developing more inclusive services or approaches to determining what an 'appropriate' service may look like. The papers by D'Antonio and Nagarajan [8], Wickenden et al [9] and Robinson et al [10] report on specific personal experiences of cross-cultural or international work, where the authors have been involved in developing a new service. In accordance with the original call for papers for this volume, the authors have considered how their work might influence clinical practice and, pre-and in-service education of SLTs and/or how their experiences may benefit other settings.…”

Conceptual Framework for Speech Language Pathologists to Work with Migrants: A Focus on Malta

“…Wickenden, Hartley, Kariyakaranawa, and Kodikara (2003) highlighted the need for equipping students with creativity, flexibility, reflection and evaluation when working with individuals with communication difficulties in contexts where mentoring is scarce and where diverse cultures prevail. It may also be considered crucial to work on the professional trainees' perceptions of diverse populations since stereotypical perceptions may negatively affect intervention with such populations.…”

Adopting Public Health Approaches to Communication Disability: Challenges for the Education of Speech-Language Pathologists

“…As in the Minority World countries, such programmes rely heavily on practitioners understanding the unique characteristics of their populations in order to maximize the equity of access. In recognition of the differing contexts in Majority World countries, some SLP training programmes in those countries have adopted a more population-based approach in some of their training, including foci on awareness raising, advocacy, policy development and skill transfer [20,21]. It remains to be seen whether the graduates from these programmes ultimately engage in more population-based activities.…”