Dr. Candice Adams-Mitchell completed the UF Study Abroad Leadership Program (SALP). SALP is a semester-long program that provides a cohort of 5-10 UF faculty with the training, tools, and funding to develop new and innovative faculty-led study abroad programs. As part of this program, she designed a course for students participating in this study abroad program to Lusaka, Zambia. Students will:
- Learn about the delivery of communication sciences and disorder services to individuals with a wide variety of communication, feeding, and swallowing disorders.
- Learn how to provide therapy to individuals utilizing a culturally sensitive and family centered model.
- Participate in speech, language, and hearing screenings at a public day school and local hospitals in Lusaka, Zambia.
The school houses preschool aged children through 18 years of age. The benefit of this course is it will serve as an introduction to culturally and linguistically-diverse (CLD) populations served by speech-language pathologists, audiologists and support personnel. This class provides a global perspective on multicultural communication issues as they impact the communication professional including communication development, common disorders, and treatment and assessment considerations in CLD populations. This study abroad opportunity benefits University of Florida students and Zambia because the country of Zambia does not currently have speech language pathologists or audiologists. Because of this dilemma, students will gain knowledge of how the infrastructure of public health and education systems impact access to care. They will also gain an understanding of how history, tradition, and culture directly influence communication in a normal and disordered context.