McGill SCSD Teaching Clinics: Meeting the English-language needs of SLP students and Quebecers with communication disorders

McGill School of Communication Sciences and Disorders (SCSD) is the only English-language program training speech-language pathologists in Quebec. As such, we have a huge responsibility to contribute to the number of speech-language pathologists in Quebec who are able to provide services in English. Given the nature of our profession, the level of French proficiency required to complete an internship in a Quebec health institution is very high. At the time that they enter the program, many SCSD students are not sufficiently fluent in French to complete internships in these institutions. These students work on their French fluency throughout their time in the program in order to be licensed to work in Quebec after graduation, but their initial lower level of fluency puts them at a disadvantage: they have limited opportunities to work with certain specialized clinical populations.

In order to provide high quality training opportunities for these students, we intend to create internships where SLP students can work with an English-speaking clientele. These internships serve two purposes that align exactly with the mandate of Dialogue McGill:

1. Training English-speaking SLP students (future bilingual professionals).

2. Providing SLP services to underserved English-speaking Quebecers.

All clients will have the option of accessing services remotely (via telepractice). Services will be publicized in regions across Quebec through clinical organizations and English community groups, thus allowing our clinic to reach and serve English-speaking individuals across the province.