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, a 2-day ReLAB-HS clinical skills training on cerebral palsy rehabilitation was organised to address this. The training took place at the Mulago Cerebral Palsy Clinic on 20–21 June 2024 for 12 speech and language therapy professionals from the Uganda Speech And Language Therapy Association (USALTA). The meeting was hosted by Physiopedia team Herbert Omoding  and Sam Tukei (Uganda country representative) in Uganda and supported online by 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.  Participants also heard from Andrew Mubangizi, Commissioner Ministry of Health DAR, and were introduced to the International Rehabilitation Education and Training Toolkit (IRETT). The training was part of a broader hybrid programme – the in-person session followed online training using the comprehensive Physiopedia Plus (Plus) Cerebral Palsy Programme, which participants completed ahead of the workshop. This allowed them to improve their background technical knowledge prior to practising 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 to continue learning online and the participants are excited for 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.