Community Hospital is celebrating the opening of a new clinic that officials said is geared specifically toward children. According to Community Hospital, the new Grand Valley Pediatric Therapy clinic provides multiple therapy services in a safe, welcoming environment for children. The new clinic provides more space as well as resources for treatment than what was previously available.

Children diagnosed with autism often experience delays with speech and communication, leading to difficulties understanding and interacting with others. This is a sign of a speech or language disorder — Integrating speech services or therapy into ABA programs can allow children to practice language in a naturally occurring setting that can easily be translated to a child's natural environment such as a home or school setting. For this reason, Bierman Autism Centers is excited to announce the hiring of Julianne Trudeau, M.S. CCC-SLP as their Director of Speech Services. Julianne will lead the existing team of Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) across locations. Julianne's interests are in childhood apraxia of speech, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), social communication, and early language development.

Sabrina Chacon was relieved that her son Matthew, a Ho-Ho-Kus School District third grader, would receive speech therapy in person, after months of virtual sessions during the pandemic. Matthew had interacted with his therapist using a computer as he worked to articulate words and letter sounds on screen in fall 2020, before vaccinations were available.

Jenna Baratta, 38, said she saw firsthand how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic “left so many children displaced.” “Parents were nervous and worried for their children. I instantly felt the need to step in,” said Baratta, an Annadale resident who holds a master’s degree in speech-language pathology, with a concentration in special education, from St. John’s University.

The House of Representatives today passed legislation introduced by Rep. Joseph M. McNamara (D-Dist. 19, Warwick, Cranston) that would include speech pathology under the umbrella of special education. The bill (2022-H 7273) would provide that for purposes of providing special education services to students with disabilities, “special education” would include speech-language pathology services for students, and the provision of speech-language pathology services would not cease or be terminated solely because the child has attained 9 years of age or greater.

The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing agreed this week to create a new teaching credential for pre-kindergarten through third grade that will require teacher candidates to show they are trained in how to teach reading. The decision came after the commission addressed criticisms that a separate credential that lacked identical literacy instruction coursework and a reading performance test could undermine separate efforts to improve reading instruction in elementary grades.

When 64-year-old Ben Arikpo realised, in 2012, that his son has learning challenges, he was devastated. An applied psychologist, Mr Arikpo was then living in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, with his wife and their three children. Although his wife had complained to him years back about their son’s reading difficulty, he never paid any serious attention to the concern. “You are putting too much pressure on this boy!” Mr Akripo often told his wife instead. “He will outgrow it,” he would tell her whenever she talked about their son’s academic challenges. But the problem dawned on him during a reading exercise with the boy. “Now, spell house,” the father of three recalled asking the nine-year-old.

The Edwardsville Rotary Club recently presented a check for $2,620 to the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Speech-Hearing-Language Center. SLHC is a clinical learning environment for graduate students enrolled in the accredited Speech-language Pathology master's degree program at SIUE. SLHC serves individuals with speech, language, and hearing difficulties. SLHC evaluates and treats communication disorders in children from toddlers to adolescents and non-Medicare­ eligible adults.

When students get to middle and high school without strong reading skills, the results can be devastating. In response to a recent Chalkbeat survey, dozens of parents and educators described secondary students who refuse to read out loud for fear of being teased, who can’t understand math word problems or science vocabulary, and gradually give up on school altogether. They worried such students face poor job prospects and bleak futures. One mother called the distress faced by older struggling readers “astronomical.” But respondents also had lots of ideas for helping older struggling readers. It’s an area ripe for attention, since most states and districts have focused recent reading improvement on early elementary students.

A bill changing multiple K-12 education laws in Ohio is headed to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk. If signed, the bill would have a wide array of effects on families in the Miami Valley and across the state, from families who have EdChoice private-school scholarships to families who have dyslexic students. The bill also extends schools’ ability to hire substitute teachers who have just a high school diploma by two years, something districts began to do last year to combat a shortage of substitute teachers.