Innovations from the speech therapy profession in Viet Nam

On Thursday I was invited to give a 2.5 hour continuing professional development lecture to the graduate and student speech therapists in Viet Nam. I began the lecture outlining some of the innovations I had undertaken since I last saw them in 2011 (e.g., Multilingual Children's Speech website). Then I invited members of the audience to share their innovations. I was so thrilled to see how they had applied what they had learned during their lectures in 2011 to their professional practice. Graduates and students from Children's Hospital Number 1, Children's Hospital Number 2, the Ear Nose and Throat Hospital, and the Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospital all showcased their assessment and intervention resources (see photos below). Dr Ly Kha also described her normative research undertaken with teachers. We then outlined a plan to collaborate to develop one speech sampling assessment tool for Viet Nam, and collect  normative data by speech therapists using International Phonetic Alphabet transcription. The Vietnamese speech therapists are so hard working and dedicated, I look forward to seeing this important innovation come to fruition.

Vietnamese Speech Therapy Graduates and Students (Mr Dien on left)

Speech resources for children developed at Children's Hospital Number 1

Speech resources for children developed at Children's Hospital Number2

Speech resources for children developed at Ear Nose and Throat Hospital

Speech resources for children developed at Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospital