U of A Students Provide Activities, Services for Children with Hearing Impairments
Children enjoy getting stickers to put on the bags they decorated.
University of Arkansas students studying speech-language pathology played games and provided activities for children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their siblings during a meeting March 8 of Arkansas Hands & Voices in Fayetteville.
The young adults helped the children decorate bags to take home with them, read stories to them, played cards and other games with them. A couple of the U of A students spoke using sign language so that everyone could join in the fun. Activities were designed to enhance language and listening skills of the children.
Parents of the children gathered in a classroom at the Epley Center for Health Professions to hear from educators and other professionals who work with children with hearing loss. Meanwhile, the children spent their time with the U of A students in the Speech and Hearing Clinic, which shares the building with the U of A nursing program. The meeting lasted about half a day.
The students included graduate students in the communication disorders program and undergraduates who are involved in the U of A chapter of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association.
Hands & Voices is a nationwide, nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting families and their children who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as the professionals who serve them. Arkansas Children’s Hospital also sponsored the meeting.
It wasn’t all fun and games, though. The graduate students assisted U of A faculty and staff with checking hearing equipment for families at the beginning of the day’s meeting. Several students also provided interpretation services, translating English to Spanish for some parents and using sign language to communicate with some of the day’s participants.
The parents, who are members of Hands & Voices, learned information about individualized education programs for students during a panel made up of educators. Another presentation focused on improving sibling relationships, and a third featured audiologist Amy Hunter talking about assistive hearing technologies such as alarm clocks, telephones and fire alarms. Hunter is a clinical assistant professor of audiology.
The U of A Speech and Hearing Clinic offers evaluation and treatment of speech, language, swallowing and hearing disorders for children and adults. Graduate students conduct evaluation and treatment sessions under the direct supervision of licensed and certified audiologists and speech-language pathologists on the faculty and staff of the communication disorders program.
Arkansas Children’s Hospital has partnered with the Speech and Hearing Clinic since 2011 when the hospital established a need to serve children and adults with hearing loss from a satellite clinic in Northwest Arkansas. Rachel Glade, one of two practicing auditory-verbal therapists in Arkansas, coordinates the clinic.
The working relationship between the U of A and Arkansas Children’s Hospital has provided U of A graduate students in the speech-pathology program the opportunity to gain experience in working with children with hearing loss with Glade. She and Hunter also work together to provide audiology and aural rehabilitation services to adults with cochlear implants in Northwest Arkansas, providing another unique experience for graduate students.
Contacts
Heidi Wells, director of communications
College of Education and Health Professions
479-575-3138,
heidisw@uark.edu