32nd World Congress of the IALP

The International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) held its 32nd World Congress from the 20th-24th of August in Auckland New Zealand. This year's theme was "Together Towards Tomorrow" and brought together approximately 1000 researchers and clinicians from across the world. The conference provided TFA SALT graduates with the opportunity to share the research being conducted in Vietnam, network and learn from colleagues in the field. TFA Directors Professor Emerita Lindy McAllister and Kate Margetson also attended on behalf of the organisation. 

MSc. Luong Thi Cam Vân, a lecturer from the Rehabilitation Department at Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy and MSc. Doctor Dang Thi Thu Hằng, a lecturer from the Rehabilitation Department at Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy were invited by the IALP Organizing Committee to report on their research.  

Mrs Vân shared she felt extremely honored to have attended the IALP World Congress on behalf of the research team.  

"I presented the findings from our work Knowledge, Experience and Training Needs of CBR Workers for People with Communication and Swallowing Disabilities in Vietnam that was carried out from 2019 - 2021. This was conducted under the guidance of TFA Directors Professor Emerita Lindy McAllister and Dr Marie Atherton from Australia as well as professors from HCMC University of Medicine and Pharmacy,” she said. 

Mrs Hằng said the conference was a highly valuable opportunity for Vietnam's young speech therapists to interact, meet, share expertise and network with SLT's from all over the world. 

"I presented the topic, Developing Normative Data for Vietnamese Language Assessment (VLA) for four-year-old Children in Thua Thien Hue. It is our aim to better serve the needs of people in Vietnam with language, communication and swallowing disorders. The conference gave us the opportunity to share with colleagues from around the global the progress of speech therapy in Vietnam as well as being able to learn more scientific evidence in the field of language skills, to further develop speech therapy in our country. This will help to inform our development plans in the future and provide the knowledge to our colleagues in Vietnam,” she said.