The Department of Speech & Hearing, Manipal College of Health Professions (MCHP), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), conducted an online seminar on the topic “Bilingualism and Its effects of Neurogenic Impairments - A focus on Indian Languages” on 19th & 20th of November 2021. The sessions were conducted from 2 pm to 5 pm on both days.

The seminar comprised of lectures by our adjunct faculty-Dr Arpita Bose and faculty members at our department. Dr. Bose, is an Associate Professor in School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK and an adjunct faculty, Dept. of Speech & Hearing, MCHP, MAHE, Manipal. The program commenced with a virtual inauguration function. The chief guest was Dr. Arun G. Maiya, Dean, MCHP.

The in-house speakers were Dr. Shivani Tiwari (Associate Professor), Dr. Sunila John (Associate Professor) and Dr. Gopeekrishnan (Associate Professor - Senior Scale)

Dr. Bose’s talk, comprised of the following topics- “How does Communication Disorders in Diverse Indian Context (linguistic, ethnic & cultural) help in Theoretical and Clinical Understanding” and the importance of “Language Specific measures in Aphasia, Dementia--Considering Bilingualism and Language Diversity.”

The audience consisted of post-graduate students accompanied by research associates and PhD scholars. The two-day seminar concluded with a virtual break out room sessions in which each group was assigned a discussion topic relevant to bilingualism research in India. Overall, it was an enlightening experience for all the participants of the seminar, the program was successful in kindling research interest in the minds of the attendees in addition to  providing a platform for discussion of queries regarding clinical practice.