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Children's speech and feeding therapist
Hi there,
I am possibly moving to Belgium from the United States. I am a pediatric speech and feeding therapist who has a lot of experience with children on the autism spectrum. English is the only language that I speak fluently at this time. I would appreciate the names of any clinics or schools in Belgium that are working with children with any of these concerns - feeding, autism, sensory processing disorder
and (English) speech therapy,
Many thanks!
(To mention you may find this post twice as I just reposted this question because it did not come up the first time.)
You'd have to check for qualifications first. In general the therapie field in Belgium seems to be quite strongly regulated and in order to practice under specific titles you have to have your diploma certified. However I do not know for sure how speech therapie is handled. You can start searching for more info in here: http://www.belgium.be/fr/formation/international/diplomes/equivalence
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For educational sector, in Belgium the special education is separated as per the type of handicap. The children with problems with language development are normally directed to so called type 7 schools, the children with autism to type 2 (mental handicap) or 8 (behavioral issues). The schools can be very specific on accepting children with handical not fitting a specific diagnostic, for example type 7 schools often do not accept children who have any additional handicap in addition of the delay in language development.
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Since you only speak English you best bet would be the Brussels international schools; the European schools (there are several, search for he English section), British school of Brussels, Brussels international catholic school, Brussels international school, Bogaerts international school, St. John international school and maybe Lycee Francais which gives also English-French bilingual courses. I might be forgetting some, you should find lists easily by Google. Interntional schools are not very open to children with special needs, so I'm not sure how much need would they have for your qualifications.
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You could also try Brussels Community Help Service, which is a non-profit offering mental health services to English speakers. Another idea is to search for research position in one of Belgian universities. I know at least the French catholic university in Louvain-La-Neuve has a specific professorship for research of language development problems.
Irrespective of whether your qualifications are acceptable here, I doubt that you will be able to find work in mainstream Belgian healthcare without fluency in one or more of the official languages.
Gasthuisberg in Leuven is the largest hospital in the country and, whilst Dutch is the working language, all the professional staff are English-speaking. The website is in English and it may be that you will be able to contact someone there who can give you some advice as to how you might find the help that you need.
http://www.uzleuven.be/en
ingerntaional school of bruseels has a special ed unit but maybe not much work but worth looking At thief website
Also maybe ask Joanne Norris from the ADHD group she may know of something http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=aaa69186d9e22629b9aa7951c&id=c5f3387...
Hi there, did you end up moving? I would be very interested in your services. Regards, Anne
Hi there, we are very interested in your services, too. We have a 4 years old son with speech delay and feeding difficulties. We hope to hear from you if you are in Brussels.
