Special Summer Programs | Holy Family |
Voice and Swallowing
Special Summer Programs
Thanks to the Kansas Scottish Rite Foundation, Language and Literacy groups were offered to 28 children ranging in age from 3-11. The groups were:
The Playful Preschoolers (10 children) group emphasized listening, speaking, pre-reading, and pre-writing. Sessions included circle time, books, games, music, and art.
The Rising Readers (9 children) and The Elementary Group (9 children) focused on reading, spelling, listening comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary skills. Sessions included activities in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.
Fifteen graduate clinicians had an opportunity to plan and implement language and literacy activities in group settings as they also learned strategies for collaboration and teaming. Interaction with parents was also embedded in the program.
Holy Family
Speech and language services at Holy Family Elementary continue to grow as the enrollment of the school increases to its current number of 332 students. Clinical services are provided by two part-time supervisors, Jana Johnson on Mondays and Wednesdays and Anne Bemis on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each semester 8-10 student clinicians provide a wide range of speech and language services to students in preschool through 6th grade.
Voice and Swallowing
Evaluation and treatment services are increasing steadily at our clinic. Increased numbers of procedures such as videostroboscopic laryngeal examinations, modified fiberoptic swallowing evaluations, and acoustic voice analysis using the computerized speech lab have been occurring. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, clients who have received our service have made astonishing gains in alleviating their voice and swallowing problems and are spreading the word about their positive experiences. Second, local, state, and even nationally based physicians are referring more clients because they are realizing what a tremendous resource the Geneva Herndon Clinic is for their patients requiring voice or swallowing evaluation or intervention. Local ENTs, internal medicine doctors, pulmonologists, and general practitioners have been steadily increasing referrals. We have seen an increase of referrals from KU Medical Center physicians, specifically for services to those who have underwent total laryngectomy or other types of surgeries for head and neck cancer. We can and do provide those who have undergone total laryngectomy with tracheoesophageal voice restoration services. Additionally, we offer transcutaneous neuromuscular stimulation (TNMES) for swallowing problems with the VitalStimTM equipment. Given our abilities and equipment at the Geneva Herndon Clinic, we expect we will be seeing even more clients for these specialized services in the future. As an added bonus, students graduating from this program will be more than equipped to begin their medical externships and entry level positions as they move out of the academic setting into the "real world."
