By: Colette Ellis M.Ed., CCC-SLP, BCS-S, Tara Ellis M.S., CCC-SLP & Lisa Scott M.S., CCC-SLP

Continued….Read TalkTools® Goes Global: A Recipe For Success! PART 1 to learn how the women began their journey to the Maldives.

Day 5: Ferry boat to Male, the capital city of the Maldives with interesting, yet efficient transportation that delivered us from the ferry dock. We then taxied to present to eager educators, parents and therapists at Beautiful Eyes, the Down syndrome association of Male. Special thanks go to our student volunteer, Juman, who allowed me to do a live demonstration!  We were treated to a late lunch afterwards!

I gave a 2 hour lecture and introduction to oral placement therapy; Tara was my model for demonstrations. Lisa Scott presented general information pertaining to speech pathology. Lisa then introduced PECS and did a mock demonstration for level one for those in attendance. Our wonderful USAO students (Jodi Butler, Massie Sullivan & Makenzie Thompson) then rounded out our afternoon with a demonstration of American Sign Language (ASL). Participants were given color handouts of practical words and phrases parents and educators could immediately access to help build a language system whether hearing impaired or not. After this, a sweet young man named Juman volunteered to allow me to demonstrate an evaluation for airflow and straw drinking.

-Meet Preema Dsouza a speech-language

pathologist from Growing Minds Autism

Learning Center, who attended our lecture

and demonstrations. We were happy to

share some supplies with her!                                                                           

 -Lisa Scott Demonstrating the benefits of AAC to develop a language system