In the summer of 2016, 12 students from our division visited Zhongnan Hospital, Hubei Province Rehabilitation Center in Wuhan and two more rehabilitation centers in the satellite areas of Wuhan.
During the visit, they provided seminars, demonstration sessions to teachers, rehabilitation practitioners, students from the School of Nursing of Wuhan University and parents of children with special needs. In return, they also observed the clinical sessions of some of the rehabilitation practitioners, who had attended their seminars and workshops, to see how well they have translated the skills learnt previously. On top of these, the students paid home visits to children from the Hubei Province Rehabilitation Center. During home visits, we investigated the feeding ability and communication needs of children during their daily routines. Intervention skills applicable in a home environment were demonstrated and recommended. This visit provided our students with opportunities to apply the knowledge about speech and language development, speech therapy skills, information counselling skills and service management skills in a community where the official language and dialect, infrastructure of rehabilitation services, education background of their collaborators and availability of service are all different from those in Hong Kong. The visit has also enabled our students to consider and realize the importance of service sustainability and consequently motivated them to develop realistic therapeutic plans and materials that are understandable, functional and applicable in the community where their clients stay. Our students had demonstrated a strong ability to adapt and lead. They have also learned to see speech therapy from a different perspective.