Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 36, Ed. 1 Friday, February 26, 1982 Page: 4 of 8
eight pages : ill. ; page 23 x 15 in.View a full description of this newspaper.
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UNIVERSITY PRESS February 26,1982*4
Treatment is available locally
Language problems remedied
at Speech, Hearing Center
By NANCY LAWRENCE
of the UP staff
The 5-year-old boy sat at the small
table across from his teacher and
watched intently as she placed three
wooden blocks in front of him.
“All right, Todd,” the speech clini-
cian said, “tell me about these
blocks.”
Todd reached over and picked them
up. He seemed a little tense, perhaps
worried that he wouldn’t give the
right answer.
“Are they the same Todd?” the
clinician asked.
“Nope,” the boy said hesitantly.
“What’s different about them,
Todd?” the clinician said.
““Well—these are square and this
one’s round,” he said with a little
,more confidence, but he watched her
for approval.
The clinician smiled and nodded.
“Are they the same color?” she ask-
ed.
“Yes,” he said this time, with more
certainty, “they’re purple.”
“You’re right, Todd,” the clinician
said.
Todd smiled and relaxed. “You
know what,” he said, “my Mama is
gonna be real happy with me.”
“Why,” the clinician asked.
“ ’Cause, I got it right.”
Todd is just one of the many
students attending therapy for
children with developmental
language problems at Lamar’s
Speech and Hearing Center.
Jayme Bickings, clinical super-
visor in speech pathology, explained
that some children have not
developed in their language usage as
rapidly as they should. Todd, she add-
ed, was working to develop his “same
and different” concept. When
children have missed the concept of
what is the same and what is dif-
ferent, they have missed a lot of
things that tie into that ability, she
said.
When Bickings talks about the
speech or language problems of the
children or adults who are attending
therapy at the clinic, one definitely
gets the feeling that she cares a great
deal about the patients, and that she
believes the clinic can help and is
helping them.
Bickings’ only complaint is that the
clinic doesn’t have enough student
clinicians. “We service about 35 to 40
individuals a week,” she said. “If we
had more clinicians, we could help
more people. This field is wide open;
a person trained in speech pathology
would have no trouble finding a job.”
Nevertheless, Bickings’ en-
thusiasm for her work seems to carry
over to the graduate students who are
in training at the clinic.
In the room next to Todd, three-and-
a-half-year-old Kawanda was work-
ing on her articulation. “Some
children,” Bickings explained, “leave
off the endings or final consonants of
words. They may say ‘duh’ when they
mean ‘duck.’ Kawanda is learning to
add the final consonant.”
Clinician Patty Gumbert placed
two small blocks on the table in front
of Kawanda. She guided the little
girl’s hand to touch the blocks one at a
time as she said the word “gum.”
“Guh mmm,” the clinician said.
“Guh mmm,” Kawanda repeated.
“Good,” the clinician said, and
Kawanda seemed pleased with
herself.
Down the hall, in another room,
clinician Cecile Bouillion was work-
ing with 4-year-old Amy, who is a
Down’s Syndrome child, and 3-year-
old Meredith, who was diagnosed as
aphasic childhood from birth. An
aphasic is a person who has had
damage to the left side of his
brain—the area which controls recep-
tive or expressive ability, Bickings
said.
Receptive language is what a per-
son understands, and expressive
language is what a person is able to
tell you. In Meredith’s case, the ex-
pressive area of the brain was
damaged at birth, and the purpose of
the therapy she is receiving is to re-
route her thought process from the
left side of the brain to the right side.
Most of the individuals undergoing
aphasic therapy at the clinic are
adults who became aphasic because
of damage to the brain through a
stroke or an accident. Since the
damaged brain cells are not
repairable, the adults must also
undergo the re-routing process.
Trying to reconstruct language pat-
terns is probably more frustrating for
adults, Bickings said, because they
know the words that they are
sometimes unable to express. They
may point to a pen, for example, and
call it a cup. Then they shake their
heads because they know they said it
wrong.
Some of the other developmental
language problems of children that
are treated at the clinic are “Making
words plural, or making complete
sentences. A child may say ‘Mommie
go,’ at the age of four or five when
they should be making complete
sentences,” Bickings said.
“Some children have not been ex-
posed enough to language,” she said.
“Some children have not been ex-
posed enough to language,” she said.
“In some cases people put their
children in front of a TV to entertain
them. Television is a very passive
act. A child merely watches, but does
not interact with what is taking place.
. “Language is learned through ac-
tive participation. ‘Sesame Street’ is
an exception because they do en-
courage the child to participate.”
For people who stutter, the speech
clinic has what is called “fluency”
therapy. The word used for stuttering
is fluency. The theory used in
therapy, Bickings said, is that there is
nothing that can make a person stop
stuttering completely; therefore,
they must learn to stutter fluently.
“It is a different approach, and we
have found success with it because
there is no gimmick,” she said. “Most
gimmicks wear off, such as the
‘sound-back’ theory. With this
method, they put sound in your ears
so that you can’t hear yourself speak-
ing. This keeps you from stuttering,
but after a time, six months or so, the
feedback does not carry over; the
acheivement wears off.
“What we do is help the person
become aware of what they are doing
when they stutter. If they are tensing,
they must learn to relax. In other
words, if there are certain words or
sounds that they have difficulty with,
we help them to anticipate the times
when this might occur so that they
may be prepared to relax and thereby
be fluent,” Bickings said.
The clinic also has therapy for peo-
ple who have voice problems that are
caused by vocal abuse, from scream-
ing, yelling or singing with improper
placement.
“Often, people do not use the pitch
that is best for their vocal chords,”
Bickings said. “While I’m teaching,
for example, I use an authority pitch,
Which is a little harsh. If I used that
all of my life, I would have nodules
because of the strain on the vocal
chords.
“At home, I use a little higher pitch
that is natural and more relaxed. The
pitch you hear when you sigh is usual-
ly the normal pitch range you should
use.”
In addition to the normal work day
at the Speech and Hearing Center,
Bickings said that some of the clini-
cians give speech therapy to children
in Headstart centers.
Jane Fudickar, a clinical super-
visor, and several clinicians travel
three times a week to the Headstart
centers at Southland in Beaumont,
and to Carver in Port Arthur.
“If a person feels that they have a
speech problem and would like to be
evaluated at the Lamar Center, they
can call, and they will be sent a case
history form to fill out,” Bickings
said.
There is a backlog on the center’s
diagnostic list, she said, but when the
center’s schedule permits, the person
will be evaluated, placed in therapy,
if it is needed, and given special in-
structions as to how they can over-
come their disorder.
“There is a slight charge,” Bick-
ings said, “which is based on a per-
son’s income, but it is minimal when
compared to the cost of private
therapy outside.”
There is an old saying, “Where
there’s a will, there’s a way. ”
After meeting Jayme Bickings and
the clinicians who work with her, one
knows there’s a “will,” and one can’t
help believing they’ll find a “way.”
Upper left —Kawanda works on her articulation with Patty Gumbert, clinician, at the Lamar Speech and Hear-
ing Center.
Above — Todd listens to sounds in a sea shell. He is working with clinicians on the "same and different1 concept. |_|
Right —Ron Hoffmann, clinician' works with a patient undergoing aphasic theraphy.
Photos by JAN COUVILLON
Deadline
scheduled
Blue Key, national
men’s honor fraternity,
has extended its deadline
for application to 4 p.m.,
Monday, Randy Degner,
president, said Thursday.
To qualify for member-
ship, a prospective appli-
cant must have at least a
3.0 grade point average,
be of junior or senior
standing and be an active
participant in at least two
campus organizations,
Degner said.
Applications may be
obtained from the office
of Blue Key adviser
Larry Markley, 212
Setzer Student Center,
between the hours of 8
a.m. and 4:30 p.m.,
Monday-Friday.
Applications must also
be returned to 212 SSC,
Degner said.
Items
wanted
The Heritage House
Museum is collecting flea
market items for its third
annual flea market and
fair to be held March 27
and 28, from noon until
dark, Marsha Presley,
museum spokesperson,
said.
The museum will be ac-
cepting items on Monday,
and every Monday
through March at the
Church of Christ Educa-
tion Building on 10th
Street between West
Sholars and West Hart.
toe mm is.
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Johnson, Renita. Lamar University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 58, No. 36, Ed. 1 Friday, February 26, 1982, newspaper, February 26, 1982; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500149/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.