Speech and language professionals in Uganda refine clinical skills to support children with cerebral palsy

Speech and language professionals in Uganda last month improved their clinical skills in treating speech and feeding disorders in children with cerebral palsy during a 2-day ReLAB-HS clinical skills workshop.

Opportunities for in-person clinical training sessions for speech and language professionals are rare in Uganda. Thanks to USAID-funding the Uganda Speech And Language Therapy Association (USALTA), with the support of ReLAB-HS, organised a 2-day clinical skills training on cerebral palsy rehabilitation. The training took place at the Mulago Cerebral Palsy Clinic in June 2024 for 12 speech and language therapy professionals from USALTA. The meeting was facilitated by Physiopedia team members Herbert Omoding  and Angela Patterson. Local mentor Murungi Gamukama, a speech and language therapy expert in cerebral palsy from Uganda, was key in providing the training and connecting with clients to facilitate live case study sessions.

This meeting provided focused training to develop and advance speech and language therapy skills and knowledge in treating speech and feeding disorders in children with cerebral palsy.  The training was part of a broader hybrid programme where online training using the comprehensive Physiopedia Plus (Plus) Cerebral Palsy Programme was completed ahead of the in-person workshop. This allowed them to improve their background technical knowledge prior to practising context specific and hands-on skills as a group.

Through five paediatric live clinical case studies participants worked together to practice assessment and hands-on clinical interventions, which then prompted wider valuable discussion of the cases to continue the learning.

Key discussions during the workshop included a recognition of the importance of the different roles of rehabilitation professionals and how they can work together. Participants indicated they were eager to complete more speech and language-based online learning on Plus, as well as for future in-person meetings. Following this meeting plans are being made by the USALTA to provide more professional development events in Uganda for speech therapists and the participants are excited for these future training events.

As a result of this meeting, connections and collaborations were made between both the speech and language professionals and their local cerebral palsy families, which will strengthen speech and language interventions within their communities, as well as opening the door for more professional development activities through USALTA.