NASHVILLE (TSU News Service) – “What did you do today,” a teacher asks a child. “It is raining outside,” the child answers.
If this conversation seems odd, visit the Tennessee State University Summer Speech, Language and Fluency Camp on the Avon Williams campus and see what experts are dong to help improve the skills of children with communication problems.
Speech clinician and Tennessee State University graduate student Amy Clifft helps a student identify stuttering patterns during the TSU Summer Speech, Language and Fluency camp. (Photo by Rick DelaHaya/Media Relations)
“This is clearly an example of a child who responded inappropriately to a question,” said Dr. Tina Smith, head of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, referring to the conversation with the teacher. “In this case our focus would be to help that child learn to respond correctly to ‘wh’ (who, what, etc.) questions.”
The three-week camp is serving 45 children ages 5-12, with communication impairments. They are referred to the camp by speech-language pathologists, teachers and parents. The focus of the camp is to improve the children’s articulation, fluency and language skills.
“Children in the articulation camp work on improving their ability to produce sounds correctly, while those in the language camp work on vocabulary, grammar, turn-taking and conversational discourse,” Dr. Smith said. “The emphasis of the fluency camp is to improve the flow, rate and/or rhythm of the child’s speech.”
According to Dr. Terrie Gibson, director of the camp, although the program is for the children, it is specifically designed to train speech and hearing science graduate students to diagnose and treat children with articulation, language and fluency problems. The students, who are enrolled in the TSU Distance Education Master of Science Program, work in the camp under the guidance of clinical supervisors who have their Certificate of Clinical Competence.
“The camp is providing real hands-on clinical training for these graduate students,” Gibson said. “They begin as novice clinicians but by the end of their overall academic and clinical training, they will be ready to begin work as speech pathologists as they engage in their Clinical Fellowship Year.”
“To ensure continuity of service, the student clinicians use a team-based model while providing intensive therapy to the children in the camp,” Smith said. “The children use iPads and computers as well as engage in hands-on activities to help improve their communication skills. The key is to make the camp fun and exciting for the children.”
The TSU Summer Speech, Language and Fluency camp is free and in its ninth year.
Department of Media Relations
Rick DelaHaya: 615.963.5312
Tennessee State University
3500 John A. Merritt Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
615.963.5331
About Tennessee State University
With more than 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university and is a comprehensive, urban, coeducational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as the Number One University in the state by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912 Tennessee State University celebrates 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.
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