Occasional Lecturer Fund

As a speech and hearing specialist pursuing research on the prevention of language-based learning disabilities, I was offered the opportunity to visit the University of Washington in Seattle through the Occasional Lecturer Fund during my Fulbright grant. There, I addressed two separate audiences; one comprising of students and faculty, and the other consisting of research scientists. I gave two talks entitled "Bilingualism—The challenges for Assessment and Management," and "Reading Acquisition and Disorders—Does East meet West?" These two topics attracted the interest of many of my colleagues and; therefore, was quite a challenge as well as a refreshing experience to prepare for.

As I am representing India, I projected my country in its varied facets—the culture, the languages and the educational system—all of which were quite surprising and informative to the audience. During my talks, I attempted to place India's clinical and research needs in a global perspective, especially highlighting the need for international collaboration. The second talk, in particular, raised a lot of pertinent questions on the incidence of reading disability, the types of reading disabilities, the teaching methodologies, and the influence of language and script. Discussion was centered on how "universality" in reading theories and models is not acceptable given the differences in languages and scripts. A few of the scientists from South Asian countries realized that it is crucial to investigate these issues. Hopefully, continued networking with interested researchers will pave way for international collaboration and research; thus fulfilling the mission of Senator J. William Fulbright.