The European Clinical Specialization on Fluency Disorders (ECSF)

The European Clinical Specialization on Fluency Disorders (ECSF) project consists of one-year post-qualification fluency specialization training and a harmonized graduate fluency program. It was developed by eight European universities/colleges to provide the means whereby graduates would meet comparable standards of competence to practice in the field of fluency disorders. In this paper we describe criteria that guided the consortium in their decision making process to create an optimal learning environment for participants. A review of the first completed course cycle, with 23 international participants, is discussed.Educational objectives: After reading this article, the reader will be able to: (1) articulate the rationale for development of the ECSF-course; (2) summarize the content of both the harmonized undergraduate fluency course and the postgraduate fluency specialization course; (3) summarize the benefits of the suggested model for fluency specialization.

► There is a documented need for specialized education in fluency disorders.
► ECSF consists of a graduate fluency course and a post-qualification specialization.
► The one-year clinical specialization course is an advanced vocational training.
► ECSF includes lecturing, self-study, supervised clinical internship, and evaluation.
► External course evaluations averaged ‘very good’–‘excellent’.