I spent some concentrated time with the group of physiotherapists that identify themselves as "Speech Therapists" at the hospital. As I think I've mentioned, a number of them have participated in the Australian effort to set up a certificate program to provide some basic training in speech-language pathology. These therapists are trying hard to soak up any and all information about treating children with a wide range of issues that affect children's feeding and communication development, including cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, learning disabilities, hearing impairments, Autism Spectrum Disorders, sensory integration problems, and a number of other congenital syndromes and malformations.
For the most part, children with cognitive and/or physical differences do not attend school in Vietnam. There are no specialized programs for them within traditional schools. The Pediatric Hospital has a child care center for kids with developmental differences, and I worked with some therapists during lunch time to offer some ideas for feeding:
Then it was time for the kids to nap:
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| Most of the kids are popped into these sleep sacks for naptime. Depending on your sensory preferences, you might like this or think it is pure torture. I did catch this little guy in the middle trying to make a break for it! |
The model for speech-language intervention at the hospital is rather traditional. The therapists typically work with kids in rooms reminiscent of the broom closet in a school setting. We saw a number of kids together-- Typically 5-6 therapists, the child, their parent(s), and me in a closet:
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| Yen, leader of the speech therapists! |
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| This is how we fit 8-10 people in here-- tiny chairs! |
Stacy and I were also asked to present some formal lectures-- Stacy taught about Brachial Plexus Injuries, and I spoke about Pre-Linguistic Development and Early Communication Development. I included some video clips from my experiences working with some children with Autism in Can Tho the week before, as well as some video examples shared with me by Sherri Cawn, a super-powered speech-language pathologist in Chicago (thank you, You Send It!).
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| Not typically 2 topics that go together, but there we were... |
The lectures ended up attracting a larger crowd than we expected from throughout the city and beyond:
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| I wish I could tell you that I wrote this slide in Vietnamese, but I did not. Thanks to Quyen for his translation skills! |
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| After the lectures, we presented each attendee with their certificate of attendance. |
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| Yen is very relieved that the lecture that she organized is finished! |
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| inside the hospital compound |
One of the last things we did at the Pediatric Hospital was to present them with ALL the materials and equipment that Stacy and I purchased with generous donations from friends and family. It is definitely a fun show-and-tell time:
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| There was such a nice comment from the speech therapists about the puppets, dolls, etc. that we brought this year-- "All these materials look like us in Vietnam" (as opposed to generic or very non-Vietnamese looking blond baby dolls!)-- it made me very glad that there is a semi-decent multicultural selection of toys in the US. |
I always talk a lot about Yen, who continues to supervise the speech therapists group of physiotherapists at the HCMC Pediatric Hospital, despite her mandatory retirement a couple of years ago (women have to retire 5 years before men in Vietnam... hmmm..). Yen is very forward-thinking and sets admirably high expectations for her team at the hospital. Stacy and I were lucky enough to have her visit us a few years ago in Chicago, where she soaked up a wide range of pediatric therapy experiences.
The hospital staff is always very touched by the idea that private citizens in the US are interested enough to contribute to purchasing materials for their work in Vietnam. And here, Yen gets a chance to talk to all of you about that:
After a few weeks of working in Vietnam, I was lucky enough to have my boyfriend come over to Ho Chi Minh City, and we embarked on 10 days of traveling north to Hoi An, Hue, and Hanoi. If you'd like to see some random photos of that part of my trip, let me know! I can't recommend traveling in Vietnam enough-- I'm always happy to offer some tips and picks! Thanks again for all your interest and support.
