Therapy Abroad Inc.

I had a wonderful time of collaboration, learning and going back with materials that I can start on day 1.I would prefer if you could provide more information for AAC.I am looking forward to more such experiences.

Pros: This was a well-balanced experience. I thoroughly enjoyed that I was able to obtain over 20 hours of Continuing Education Units in partial fulfillment of my ASHA requirements, whilst getting all the classes in during the morning, having both breakfast and lunch meals provided DAILY (last day were 20 Euro voucher cards for the market instead of a sit-down meal, still fantastic), and there were a combo of planned excursions and some free time to do tasks with my family and guests. It was VERY family friendly. Only a few kids were present but they were able to engage with one another and enjoy the boat tour, the cultural show, the walking tour, the train ride to Cobh, and I loved that I could both learn and spend time with my family. Well worth the accrued PTO! Dr. Michael Martin was a fantastic historian, and a great choice for a speaker. He gave an established history of Cork and Ireland in general, explaining the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. He and the local Irish natives were so well-versed on the overlap of Irish indentured servants, Irish slaves, Irish free men and Irish slaveowners that he was able to share about the Black Irish and how the mixture of Cromwellian-persecuted Irish sent to the Caribbean and the Irish English they spoke alongside the remnant languages of the enslaved Africans, all contributed to Caribbean Patois/English and that Cork Irish has connected roots to islands such as Jamaica. Now knowing the connection, I would have liked to see a Jamaican Patois vs. Irish Language Venn Diagram to visually see the overlap in similarities in light of the history. It was very interesting to come across areas of Cork that even had Jamaican flags. The linguist guest speaker was also interesting as she shared about some of the largest home languages being spoken in Ireland including Polish and Ukranian. Regarding the academic lessons, Scott and Ellen were the primary SLP speakers and offered meaningful connections, examples and a few interactive group activities. I've been on a previous trip and I liked that they only recycled a few pieces of information and had new perspectives or added intricacies and comprehensive topics, offering new information and ideas that I could immediately apply to different patients. I liked that Scott walked the audience through step-by-step strategies on how to use re-evaluations to lessen workload and caseload. Ellen gave some very interesting information about interpretation services and I had no idea Vietnamese was so widely spoken in the state of Texas. Chad was very accommodating throughout the trip and made sure we were attended to as we made our way throughout the hotel. It is a challenge to keep track of 130 therapists! I had a great time and am very thankful I came. My husband is still thanking me for inviting him to come along, he had a great time. I liked the breakfast porridge, the Irish soda bread with Irish salt butter, I liked the location of the hotel and its proximity to the Dunnes Stores where I could grab some groceries, and I loved the staff at the Metropole Hotel. They treated us like royalty round the clock. Literally. I got ice when I needed it, tea, taxi called for me, towels, bathroom service, etc. It was as if I walked into a Netflix Princess Switch movie because it was truly royal. Cork is the friendliest place I've ever encountered a day in my life. As a native New Yorker, that's saying something. It felt familial walking around the city streets. Feedback: I would suggest offering a walking group and a small van/shared uber group for the less ambulatory SLPs who need to get from the hotel to the destination, because if they had a knee replacement or plantar fasciitis, for example, that could be a challenge to ask a clinician to walk 10 minutes to then get on a train and then complete a 1.5 hour walking tour. Great information, fantastic boat tour, and a wonderful cultural show. Those Irish dancers were AMAZING. But I do want to offer the consideration on offering an option because there were some SLPs I noticed taking cabs to our excursions instead of walking with the group, and that takes away from opportunities to build rapport or network along the way. I was able to get as many fans as I needed from the concierge to cool my room so the room not having modern-day ventilation was not an issue for me. I liked my little suite and slept soundly. Housekeeping was precious and very helpful. The piano player in the evening at the Met hotel restaurant was talented and the staff was immaculately friendly. I almost wanted to hug them, they provided such warmth. The bathrooms were so clean and I enjoyed the tea access all day during the trainings. I would suggest or recommend consideration of including a Bilingual Audiologist to the panel to discuss how that would look and offering assessments and interventions in both languages. I liked that were located on the same street as the Cork Deaf Association. I had an opportunity to speak with them and they gave me a handout about the Irish Sign Language Alphabet and Irish Remote Interpreting Services. There was also a Hearing clinic around the corner from the hotel. Ellen had some really cool slides about distinctive language features comparing English and Spanish. Due to where we were visiting, I would have liked to see another set of slides right afterwards breaking down both Irish and English. I was curious how they would compare, and I was hoping to glean from the linguist guest speaker, a little more on that subject. It was such a great time. I cannot say enough good things about it and I am so glad they had a format that allowed for families to spend time with us before and after our learning. Thank you so much for this learning opportunity.

What can I say? The content was inspiring, the food was delectable, and the cultural outings were mind-blowing. Scott, Ellen, and Chad did and amazing job. If you are on the fence about attending a Therapy Abroad conference, just do it! This won’t be my last.