Since 2008, Dr. Crowley has brought TC CSD master’s students to Ghana in West Africa. There, the TC Team works with the two teaching hospitals to provide clinical assessment and treatment services to patients from the ENT Department and the Cranio-facial Unit. Additionally, the TC Team works with special education teachers in Ghana’s Ministry of Education “Unit Schools.”
These Unit Schools are located throughout Ghana on the main campuses of general education schools. They provide the opportunity for students with intellectual disabilities and autism to be seen and interact with students without disabilities. Over the years, the TC Team has developed close relationships with the Unit School teachers. Each year, the TC Team and the Unit School teachers collaborate to develop a weekend long professional development workshop focused on AAC and literacy.
The TC Team is also welcome at the Korle Bu Hospital monthly cleft palate team meetings. Before the meetings the TC Team meets with the patients. At the cleft palate team meeting, TC CSD students are called upon to report the results of their assessment and whatever treatment strategies were recommended. At Okomfo Anoyke Hospital in Kumasi, the TC Team works with the patients who come for the weekly cleft palate clinic in the morning and then joins the surgeons, pediatricians, and nurses in the afternoon clinic.
The AAC market cards were created in response to a desire from the families that their children be able to participate in a typical activity for Ghanaian children: buying food for the family at the market.