By: Dieudonne Nsabimana
Florida Atlantic University Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders deliver speech and language services at a distance, via tele-therapy to the people who stutter in Rwanda and they bring therapy into areas where there has been no access to therapy
Florida Atlantic University Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders deliver speech and language services at a distance, via tele-therapy to the people who stutter in Rwanda and they bring therapy into areas where there has been no access to therapy
services.
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| Josph 29 year old a Rwandan stutter |
Kigali, Rwanda - June, 2015 - The service to People who Stutter (PWS) is provided through video telephone calls. It is delivered by students who are being supervised by clinicians that have a Masters or Doctoral level
Florida Atlantic University (FAU) works
closely with the African Stuttering Research Centre (ASRC), a non profit
organization which is based in Rwanda and helps to raise awareness of
tele-therapy and assist patients with the logistics.
Dr Dale F. Williams
Professor at Florida Atlantic University, where he also coordinates Distance
Therapy Program with Rwanda said” therapy include some kind of speech
modification and address secondary behaviours, speech attitudes, and negative
emotions caused by stuttering” he said
Stuttering or stammering
is a disorder of communication, which usually starts in the pre-school years.
It may feature sound and word repetitions, prolongations and blocking. It is
estimated that 110,000 Rwandans stutter.
Across Africa there is
just one therapist for every 37,483 people who stutter, according to statistics
from the African Stuttering Research Centre, and therefore the majority of
people do not get any professional support which could improve their ability to
communicate.
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| A member of African Stuttering Research Centre delivers training to a new patient about video telephone calls equipment |
”Distance Therapy Program with Rwanda is great relief.” said Dieudonne Nsabimana, coordinator of African Stuttering Research Centre “Those therapies are free of charge and first group had join in at the February, 2015 and second group will join this program in July, 2015” he said
The program has already
started to transform the lives of people who stutter. Francois, a 35 year old
who has been taking part in the program said” the treatment is perfect for me
and helping me a lot to improve my speech. It is also easy as to take part in as
I don’t need to move. We are doing it via Skype video calls and sharing
documents through e-mail.”
Barbara Dahm, Director at Communication Therapy Institute who has 40 years of clinical experience said“ Everything that can be accomplished in the clinic can be accomplished online. Since therapy does not require any need to touch the client"
Barbara Dahm, Director at Communication Therapy Institute who has 40 years of clinical experience said“ Everything that can be accomplished in the clinic can be accomplished online. Since therapy does not require any need to touch the client"
Distance Therapy Program with Rwanda is an outstanding
example of partnership between developed and developing countries. Tele-therapy
is a wonderful solution for Africa and involving students of speech-language
therapy is creative
Your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated,Either way ,we welcome an email from you at : africanstutteringcentre@gmail.com
