Tag: Speech Pathologist

Marshall University Receives Grant To Create Remote Speech Therapy Program

Marshall University’s Speech and Hearing Center is receiving funding for a statewide speech therapy program for those with Parkinson’s Disease.

Marshall University’s Speech and Hearing Center is receiving funding for a statewide speech therapy program for those with Parkinson’s Disease.

The $280,000 grant from the nonprofit Parkinson Voice Project will help provide the resources to provide speech therapy to patients remotely.

It’s part of an initiative called Speak Out, which aims to help those with Parkinson’s who are struggling with speech or swallowing. Marshall University is one of 16 schools nationwide chosen for the program.

“We have been training speech language pathologists for several years,” project founder Samantha Elandary said. “Speak Out therapy is available in many hospitals, universities, private practices, other rehab organizations all across America and the world. But there are still a group of patients who cannot access the treatment.”

Marshall program lead Ernay Adams said the center will be able to better reach out to patients who live in rural areas, are disabled or are otherwise inaccessible.

“We’ve kind of been limited up to this point, to people who live within about a 30 minute drive,” Adams said. “We’ve done some telemedicine, but not to the extent that we plan to or will be doing with this.”

Adams said the Speak Out program in place at Marshall is ready to accept referrals, with a tentative start date to begin speech therapy with individual placements on June 1 as the semester winds down and training begins for graduate students.

Individual speech therapy provided through the Speak Out program will also be free of charge to anyone with Parkinson’s disease.
More than 7,000 West Virginians currently live with Parkinson’s Disease.

The nonprofit Michael J. Fox Foundation estimates West Virginia has the third highest population with Parkinson’s in the nation.

Listen: W.Va. Speech Pathologist Shares Her Experience Reaching Students In Time Of Coronavirus

Christine Nichols is a speech pathologist at Winfield Elementary School in Putnam County. In this audio postcard she talks about the challenges of trying to do speech therapy remotely with young kids who may not have access to the internet – even if they have caregivers who can help them. 

When Gov. Jim Justice issued a stay at home order in late March, teachers across the state rushed to set up ways to continue teaching, despite students being unable to come to the classroom.

Nichols was one of those educators.

“We made packets for all of our kids,” she said. “And we were under the gun a little bit because we only had a day to do it, and then we weren’t allowed to be back in the schools at all.”

In addition to making paper packets, Nichols and her colleagues were given other options to keep working with students, including talking by video chat and over the phone. But video chat only works if both parties have reliable internet, which can be a challenge in parts of West Virginia. The video platforms also need to comply with federal health privacy laws.

It also soon became apparent that not all students would be able to approach remote learning in the same ways.

“Some parents don’t have access to the internet, so that would make teletherapy impossible,” she said. “Some of our kids are staying with relatives that we didn’t know that they were with, or foster families — that made it difficult.”

As a speech pathologist, Nichols works with students to help them learn to better communicate. She said she often relies on visually assessing clients in order to help them, and that’s hard to do over the phone.

“Like if a child has trouble saying the ‘S’ sound, that could sound like the ‘F’ sound over the phone,” she said. “If I can’t see what that kid’s doing with their mouth, then I can’t give the feedback to say, ‘Oh, you need to put your teeth together.'”

Nichols said she also knows some parents are juggling working from home and teaching multiple kids.

“So, it’s a little bit unrealistic for me to say, ‘OK, you need to sit down with your one child for 30 minutes twice a week and do this,'” she said. “I want to be compassionate with our parents, and I want to make sure I’m not giving them something that [they] can’t handle, but I’m also trying to stay within the [Individualized Education Program] guidelines.” (IEPs are developed for each student receiving special education.)

 

She said, overall, some learning is still happening. Educators, parents and students are adapting as best they can, but the coronavirus pandemic unleashed a set of circumstances few could have imagined.

“We’re just now starting to get a handle on this and we will make it work,” she said, “but it’s just going to look really different than anything we’ve ever done.”

Exit mobile version