Speak Out October 2017

Branch News

ACT/ New south wales

ACT 83 NSW 2478 members as at September 2017

Building connections in South East Asia

Mandarin. This had real impacts on the care administered by the speech pathologists we observed. This diversity in spoken language made the way the speech pathologists work fascinating to watch, as they often only spoke two of the four official languages but provided treatment in whatever language the client could understand. The communication between the speech pathologist and client depended on gestures and, hopefully, a language that they could both partially speak and/or understand. This gave us a positive new perspective for the importance of communication with CALD populations, and some insight into how I can improve my own skills when working with this population. It wasn’t all serious though, we immersed ourselves in the Singaporean culture while there. The experience included some sightseeing, shopping, and the odd sneaky cocktail. I count myself to be extremely lucky to have been given the opportunity to travel to Singapore. Australia is such a multicultural country that is ever increasing in diversity, and it was invaluable to have experienced speech pathology in a country that truly epitomizes multiculturalism. Alison Kershaw University of Newcastle

THANKS TO THE Australian government’s New Colombo Plan funding, myself and five other students from the University of Newcastle travelled to Singapore. The aim of this trip was to build connections between students from the University of Newcastle and speech pathologists working in organisations in South East Asia. The New Colombo Plan is an initiative by the Australian government that allows undergraduates and young professionals to foster relationships with their peers in the Indo- Pacifc. The trip was an observation placement and was an exciting opportunity to dive into another culture. We learnt about the different ways speech pathology services are delivered in Asia, especially in a country with a diverse range of cultures and languages. Over the course of our week of observation in Singapore, we were warmly welcomed by the Speech Pathology Department of Singapore General Hospital, THK Charities, Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore, Techable and Auditory Verbal Department of the Centre for Hearing and Ear Implants. We walked away with a new perspective on our undergraduate studies. Singapore is incredibly diverse. One of the amazing things about Singapore is it has four official languages: English, Malay, Tamil, and

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October 2017 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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