The University of Arkansas Speech and Hearing Clinic honored a speech-language pathologist who works in the Fayetteville Public Schools as the inaugural Clinical Mentor of the Year for students studying communication disorders.

Faculty and staff of the clinic hosted an open house in late April for students and practitioners, during which Laura Baxter was honored for her work with the communication disorders program in the College of Education and Health Professions. Baxter provides services for children at Vandergriff and Butterfield elementary schools.

She is one of 61 off-campus supervisors in Northwest Arkansas, Fort Smith and Little Rock and in the nearby states of Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Georgia. They help students gain experience in evaluation, treatment, documentation and interdisciplinary teamwork. Experiences cover the lifespan and include articulation, voice and resonance, fluency, oral and written language disorders, swallowing, cognitive aspects, social aspects, alternative and augmentative aspects and hearing.

According to a nomination for the award, Baxter both encourages and challenges the graduate student interns.

"From leading group therapy on my own to IEP (individualized education program) conferences, Ms. Baxter has given me so many opportunities to figure out this whole speech therapy thing," the nomination said. "She knows each of her students so well and they LOVE that woman. Even the kids who don't get to see her for speech run up to her in the hallway to give her hugs. She's taught me to remain calm and that I really can handle anything. Besides just technical and therapeutic skill, she's taught me to see each student as an individual and to know and invest in them."

Students in the master's degree program are required to complete 25 hours of observation and 375 hours of direct contact with clients. Students gain clinical experience at the on-campus clinic in the Epley Center for Health Professions, and the communication disorders program has 66 available off-campus clinical sites in Northwest Arkansas.

Speech-language services provided by the U of A clinic include auditory and verbal therapy for aural rehabilitation, therapy for articulation, accent modification, apraxia, fluency, oral language, written language, social skills and augmentative and alternative communication. Voice and swallowing therapy is offered through cooperation with other local organizations. The clinic also offers audiology services including hearing screenings, comprehensive hearing evaluations and hearing aid exams.

The employment rate for master's students who graduated in May 2015, the most recent time for which data are available, is 100 percent with employment across all settings, including public schools, skilled-nursing facilities, outpatient rehabilitation, private practice and home health care.