Speak Out December 2019 V2 DIGITAL EDITION

From Kenya to Australia

David Rochus enjoyed many learning experiences during his time in Australia including networking at the National Conference dinner (below).

My learning experience By David Rochus

There is an old African proverb that says, "birds sing not because they have answers but because they have songs.” My name is David, I’m a speech-language pathologist trained in Uganda and currently practising in Kenya. In June 2019, I attended my first SPA conference – and it was such an exciting learning experience. So, likening to that African bird, that experience is my song! Speech pathologists in East Africa are sporadically spread out across the 2,467,202 square kilometre region. The profession is currently seeing a boost with the establishment of new training programs at regional universities. There are limited chances of CPD for the local, practising SLPs. I’ve utilised online CPD platforms to get the latest information but the question might be, what cost or quality are such CPDs? I’ll refer to my experience as "learning visit" rather than just "attending a conference" because it was exponentially beneficial. Here I’ll summarise some of the impacts that information has had on my practise: • Better integration of reading and writing support in management plans: when working with toddlers and pre-schoolers, I now demonstrate and suggest activities that would give them foundational knowledge towards acquisition of reading and writing skills. For example, reading to and with children in homes is something that

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December 2019 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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