Diane Slonim, a qualified speech-language pathologist, Ph.D., and special educator, from the United States is an advocate of Chinese assistive technology and hopes to bring more awareness to the need and use of assistive technology equipment in China.
Diane has a wealth of experience in the field of speech-language pathology. She is currently in private practice in Tarrytown, New York, US, serving children and adults with varying abilities and is a Westchester County Advisory Council, Council on Autism member. She has provided evaluations for Westchester Institute for Human Development in Valhalla, New York and has supervised graduate students and been an adjunct professor at New York Medical College and Manhattan College of Social Education.
During her 8th May visit to Olivia’s Place, she provided professional training in the areas of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and reading acquisition and dyslexia. In attendance were Olivia’s Place staff and local doctors and therapists who serve Mandarin-speaking individuals.
Dr. Slonim introduced various types of high-tech assistive technology that successfully serve people with learning and communication difficulties according to her working experience, specifically focused on writing, reading, and speech generating devices. Dr. Slonim also shared several clinical techniques that she feels are successful in helping people learn to read. During the training, local doctors and therapists discussed the differences between English and Chinese language systems and how they could apply the techniques Dr. Slonim introduced when working with people who speak Mandarin.