Join An Exciting Speech Pathology Study Abroad Program!

Spend a week in another country with other professionals, your family and friends. 

This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience earning ASHA CEUs and learning how to serve diverse students on your caseload. 

The Speech Pathology Study Abroad Program offers SLPs an opportunity to travel to beautiful countries like Belize, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic and explore new places, cuisines, cultures, religions, ways of living, and approaches to supporting individuals with disabilities. Our 4-7 day programs offer 30 hours of continuing education and address all of the competencies in cultural and linguistic diversity outlined by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), and many more competencies that will advance your cultural competence and cultural humility.

Bilinguistics has partnered with the award-winning study abroad program Therapy Abroad to give you excellence in both professional development presentations and the logistics, health, safety, travel, lodging, and planning. We have worked together to create an event unlike anything being offered to speech language pathologists anywhere in the world. 


Which country is best for speech pathology internships and study abroad?

The best countries for speech language pathology experiences are safe, fun, and provide real-world interactions with the cultures, people, and languages that we encounter on our caseloads. We have developed partnerships with the governments and university systems in Belize, Thailand, Dominican Republic, Mexico (Oaxaca), and even Iceland and Bulgaria!

Can you study abroad for speech pathology and earn continuing education?

Speech language pathologists need 30 CE hours across three years. And yes, there are other speech and language therapy conferences to choose from. But, how much are you looking forward to going to those? How life-changing will the experience be?

Wouldn’t you rather earn up to 30 hours of CE in a single week? Wouldn’t you rather be in another country to do it?

Bilinguistics has been traveling internationally to present and work for two decades. SLPs routinely share that they would LOVE to study abroad for speech pathology so we were excited when we met Therapy Abroad because they have been putting together speech pathology summer study abroad programs for undergraduate students for years.

We asked a simple question:

Why do the undergrad SLP students get to have all the fun?

Add this to the fact that the diversity of SLPs’ caseloads is growing and they continually want training in this area.

Plus, SLPs often cringe every 3 years at the idea of finishing up their CEU requirements. Can we just knock out 30 hours of CEUs at once?

Sooo…

Can we help SLPs quickly become proficient serving diverse students? Can we provide 30 ASHA CEU hours? Can we meet professionals in other countries and both learn from and share knowledge with them? Can we study abroad? Can we bring our families?

Can we do it all at once?

The answer now is YES!

Speech Therapy Study Abroad Program attendees will receive a Certificate in Cultural and Linguistic Diversity showing completion of courses with all the information you need to confidently diagnose and treat diverse populations. Plus, you’ll earn all or most of your ASHA CEUs you need for your 3-year earning period.

As an example, here is a snapshot of what our CLD Immersion weeklong program looks like:

Speech Pathology Study Abroad curriculum

Earn CEUs in Another Country – Become an Expert at Serving Your Students at Home

3 global trends are making all western countries become diverse faster than any time in history.

Environmental Disasters

Hurricanes and floods cause huge populations to relocate almost overnight. We saw this recently as Caribbean Nationals lost their homes and towns.

Political Upheaval

Just a few short years ago, it was rare for SLPs to encounter languages like Khmer and Igbo on their caseloads, or students from Myanmar or Nigeria. And who knew that there were such enormous differences in the different dialects of Arabic? With political upheaval all over the globe, the variety of less common languages on our caseload is astounding.

Economic Opportunity

One decision by a chamber of commerce or city council can cause the need for an entirely new labor force in your area. That means an expansion of healthcare and education to support our new neighbors. States that typically had very homogeneous communities are now growing in diversity as they are growing their economy.

speech therapy study abroad trip

Where does this leave us? In the perfect position to help!

At Bilinguistics, we love our jobs and some of our best days are meeting families from around the world and learning about their languages and traditions. But, we have been focused on working with diverse populations for 20 years and are comfortable and proficient at it.

We refer, test, treat, and dismiss students from diverse backgrounds confidently. And now, you can too. We will spend the first half of every day during each speech pathology study abroad program teaching you how to get there. We refer, test, treat, and dismiss students from diverse backgrounds confidently. And now, you can too. We will spend the first half of every day during each speech pathology study abroad program teaching you how to get there. Then, we’ll put our lessons into practice in the community in the afternoons.

Here’s is what we will focus on during each speech pathology study abroad program:

  • Identify the difference between disorder and native language influence
  • Effectively evaluate students from diverse language backgrounds
  • Improve your students’ success in therapy
  • Successfully treat all types of speech sound disorders
  • Reduce therapy planning with literacy-based intervention
  • Increase student interest with culturally-rich therapy
  • Improve your professional interactions with parents and teachers

When added to the cultural activities in the afternoon, you will walk away with 30 hours of ASHA CEUs and won’t have to sit on another Zoom workshop for 3 years!

speech therapy study abroad in Belize

Summer Speech and Language Therapy Conference FAQ

We do not know of any other speech pathology summer study abroad programs like this one so we are sure you have tons of questions. Thankfully, we have tons of answers! Bilinguistics is teaming up with Therapy Abroad to host this event. Bilinguistics has 20 years experience delivering highly impactful, culturally appropriate continuing education. If you have any question about the content, contact Bilinguistics.

Therapy Abroad has made its name creating speech language pathology internships abroad for students and their mentors. We built an extensive FAQ including information on health, safety, cost, and travel at TherapyAbroad.org. Start there and then reach out to them if you have any logistics related questions.

When are the SLP Study Abroad trips held?

We set one speech pathology conference in the summer so that school and clinic SLPs can take advantage of their summer schedule and vacation. Plus! very few speech language pathology conferences are attended by professionals from around the world. We wanted this event to be international in the sense that we go to another country but also international by having SLPs from all over the world attend.

Is there a refund policy and what about COVID?

Therapy Abroad has already traveled with students during the pandemic without incident. They choose countries that have been hyper-vigilant about health and safety because of their dependence on tourism. We are confident this speech pathology study abroad program will be successful based on each trip we have hosted so far.  If it is cancelled, you are guaranteed a full refund.

Who Can Earn CEUs?

 

We’ve had people reach out to clarify whether they can earn CEUs if they are in between these stages (e.g. out of graduate school but not yet started in a clinical fellowship). We consulted with ASHA on this and they shared that in order to get CEUs that go into the ASHA CE registry, you either have to be a graduate student, a Clinical Fellow, or a fully licensed SLP. If you do not meet one of those criteria, you can get a certificate showing that you completed the hours to share with your employer, however, the hours will not go toward your 3-year ASHA certification interval (the three-year period in which you need to earn 30 hours of credit). For those of you who are in a CF, your CE Interval will not start until you are fully licensed.

All that said, we encourage you to come even if you aren’t putting hours on your registry. You’ll have fun, learn a lot, and get an experience of a lifetime!

Can friends and family come along?

What has been one of the most common questions about the trip? Can I bring someone? The answer is yes. Not only that, but we are also putting together some plans for them while you attend the workshop (in case the amazing hotels and nearby attractions aren’t enough!).

And remember those grad school friends you never see enough of? Have them come too!

earn ASHA CEUs during speech pathology internshipsIntermediate Level
2.0- 3.0 ASHA CEUs

 

DISCLOSURE OF FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS: Ellen Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. Dr. Ellen Kester is the owner of Bilinguistics and receives a salary. Bilinguistics receives royalty payments for online courses. DISCLOSURE OF NONFINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS : Ellen Kester does not have any non-financial relationships to disclose related to the speech pathology summer study abroad programs.

DISCLOSURE OF FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS: Scott Prath, M.A., CCC-SLP is a salaried employee of Bilinguistics. Bilinguistics receives royalty payments for online courses.

DISCLOSURE OF NONFINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS: Scott Prath does not have any non-financial relationships to disclose related to the speech pathology summer study abroad programs.

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