218 LISTENING FOR SUCCESS: SPEECH-HEARING-LANGUAGE CLINIC TURNS 38

LISTENING FOR SUCCESS: SPEECH-HEARING-LANGUAGE CLINIC TURNS 38
Unique MTSU Facility Serves Community Needs While Training Undergrads

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Dec. 14, 2007
EDITORIAL CONTACTS: Elizabeth Smith, 615-898-2662 (elsmith@mtsu.edu),
Dr. Rebecca Fischer, 615-898-2641 (rfischer@mtsu.edu)

(MURFREESBORO)—Shelves crammed full of toys line the walls of a hallway behind one of the therapy rooms in the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic at Middle Tennessee State University.
Another room holds a bookshelf full of children’s books; yet another a small blackboard and a tiny table with little chairs. Closets and offices scattered along the second floor of the campus’s Boutwell Dramatic Arts Building hold more supplies and learning tools that will be used in therapy sessions with clients.
“We use every inch of space we have!” said Clinic Coordinator Elizabeth Smith.
The 22 clients attending the clinic, mostly children, use these facilities during their therapy sessions with the 24 student clinicians who currently are participating in the clinic’s practicum program.
In all, there are eight therapy rooms in the clinic, all of them equipped to allow parents and supervisors to observe.
“Guidelines set by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association state that our students’ therapy sessions with the clients must be observed by a supervisor at least 25 percent of the time,” Smith said. “Students also must have passed a prerequisite methods course and be at least a junior to participate in the program.”
The Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic has been serving clients and allowing student clinicians to gain valuable experience through its clinical practicum program for 38 years, but many at the university are not even aware of its existence.
The clinic allows students majoring in communication disorders, a pre-professional program for speech-language pathology and audiology, to receive hands-on experience with clients.
“We are the only school in the state of Tennessee that has an undergraduate clinical program,” Smith said. “We are preparing our majors for graduate school, and clinical experience makes them very competitive at the graduate level.”
For the last several years, at least 70 percent of MTSU’s communications disorders majors have been accepted into graduate school, said Dr. Kay Garrard, a professor in the discipline. In 2006, 100 percent were accepted.
“Our reputation is very strong in the community,” Garrard said.
The clinical practicum is a three-hour class; each week, students spend one hour in clinic class, one hour with supervisors and two hours working with clients.
Clients can be referred to the clinic from a variety of sources, including parents, physicians, school personnel, and self-referrals, said Smith.
“The number of clients we can serve depends on the number of students enrolled in the clinical practicum,” Smith said. “Right now, the waiting list for clients is about two years,” added Carolyne Shaw, an executive aide who has been with the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic for 29 years.
In addition to their work on campus, the clinical instructors provide speech-language-hearing screenings in the community as a public service, including hearing screenings for children in first through fourth grades in the Cannon County school system.
The communication disorders major, originally called the speech and hearing major, originated in 1966 as part of the Department of Speech and Theatre and had its first graduates in 1971.
The Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, located in BDA Room 232, is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 615-898-2661 or visit the communications disorders Web site at www.mtsu.edu/~comm_dis.


For MTSU news and information, visit www.mtsunews.com.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: This release was written by Bonnie Bailey, a junior majoring in journalism at MTSU. We encourage your use of her byline if you use the release in its entirety.

For color JPEGs of students and story principals working in the clinic, please contact Gina E. Fann in the Office of News and Public Affairs via e-mail at gfann@mtsu.edu or by calling 615-898-5385.

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