Speech & Language Clinics: Spring/Summer 2021 Newsletter
Spring/summer 2021 news and updates from the Speech and Language Clinics at Wayne State University.
Campus clinic updates
Campus return
The clinic will restart offering services on campus this spring/summer. Our return to campus will be gradual, but it is a start. We will continue to offer teletherapy appointments to many of our clients.
Simulation room
Tausha Moore and Sydney Bojrab are leading our efforts to establish an acute care simulation room in our campus clinic. The simulation room is funded by a generous gift to the Speech-Language Clinics by the Bairardi Family Foundation. Most of the technology has now arrived on campus so we will begin to assemble the room.
"The Wayne State University Speech and Language Clinics are excited about the development of our new acute care simulation room. This resource will assist in training student clinicians on specialized medically based SLP interventions, such as bedside swallowing assessments, Passy Muir Speaking Valve placement, trach and vent protocols for voicing and swallowing, improving familiarity with an acute care practice environment, and more. Relevant equipment, such as manikins, Tracheostomy T.O.M. heads, trach tubes, and equipment to create a mock acute care patient room have been ordered. This room will provide valuable simulated experiences to improve exposure and competency of our students for medically based placements and/or job prospects." – Tausha Moore
Thank you to the Baiardi Family Foundation for funding and to Tausha and Sydney for coordinating this training opportunity.
Baiardi Family Foundation Gift
The gift from the Baiardi Family Foundation will also support a "Sensory Room" and an exterior play area for our pediatric program. We are making progress with those new additions too.
Giving Day 2021
Thank you to the generous alumni who donated to our campus clinic. We reached our goal to purchase an interactive whiteboard to use with clients. The timing is exceptional since we are reopening this spring. A special thank you to Lori Shaffer of Metro EHS Pediatric Therapy and Nancy Kaufman from the Kaufman's Children's Center for providing some of the initial challenge gifts to help us meet our goal. Thank you to everyone who contributed and to Mari Vaydik from the College Development Office. We appreciate everyone's support.
Off-campus clinical placements
The community support for our students is the best! School districts, hospitals, private practices and community agencies provide part- and full-time experiences following the initial semesters of training in our campus clinic. Thank you.
We continue to enjoy wonderful support from the community. A larger than average number of students will participate in off-campus placements this spring/summer thanks to the support we receive from our community partners. This is a huge help to our spring/summer program.
We're contacting agencies for fall 2021 and winter 2022 placements and will be in touch. Thank you in advance for your support.
Faculty updates
We are welcoming Mrs. Keri Morgan to our clinical faculty this spring/summer. Keri and her husband recently relocated to the Detroit area from Virginia. Keri obtained her M.A. degree through Clarion University in Pennsylvania and brings 10 years of clinical experience to our faculty. She has clinical experience with adults and children with a wide range of communication disorders. Keri will be working with graduate and undergraduate students in our campus clinic and teaching several undergraduate courses.
Erika Squires, one of our Ph.D. students received a summer award to work on her dissertation. Erika has a new baby son born last February. We look forward to welcoming Erika back to campus this spring.
We're very grateful to Nancy Naperala, Ph.D., who will continue to assist us with clinical education this spring/summer. Nancy's creativity, humor and energy help keep all of us going.
Student updates
The Speech and Language Clinics are delighted to report that 39 students from our M.A. Speech-Language Pathology program are graduating this spring-summer semester. A major thank you to all the programs who provided off-campus placements to our second-year student interns this past winter semester. All 39 students will graduate this spring and summer thanks to the efforts of the faculty on and off campus and the student's persistence through the difficulties of the pandemic.
Students hosted an outdoor graduation reception and the CSD Department held a virtual graduation ceremony attended by 170.
Students are also active in volunteering efforts to support local agencies in our community. A group of students volunteered on a Saturday to support financial aid for families attending Bluestone Children's Center in Livonia. The event was coordinated by WSU Alumnus, Logan Vines (M.A. 2019). Please let us know if you're in need of student volunteers for community events. I can get you in touch with the advisor of our student association, WSSHLA.
Continuing education
A big thank you to Nan Liening for her coordination to offer our annual Kopp Lecture via a webinar format this spring. Attendance was outstanding and our speaker, Dr. Celeste Roseberry McKibbin provided a full day of information on the impact of poverty on language development.
Plans for a Fall Alumni/Community CEU are underway. We are planning for a late October presentation.
A 0.1 CEU is also available on "Ethics and Clinical Education" to meet the new ASHA Standard effective in January 2021.We're happy to provide the ethics CEU for individual agencies and will also offer the following evening dates in summer 2021: Thursday, May 13, 2021, and June 17, 2021. These will be offered via a Zoom webinar and both CEU events are scheduled for early evening.
2021 Speech-language pathology graduates and faculty
