NIU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic joins
with Easter Seals, T.E.A.M., Two Rivers

by Mark McGowan

NIU's Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic is joining with Easter Seals Jayne Shover Center of Elgin, T.E.A.M. for Families and Two Rivers Head Start to provide local therapy services at Two Rivers Head Start, 2425 Bethany Road in Sycamore.

For parents of children with special needs, or adults who need therapy, the integration of services under one roof can spell the end of driving long distances on multiple days of the week.

"Easter Seals is a wonderful addition to the excellent services already existing in our area. Working together, we can provide quality, innovative services to more people," said Anne Davidson, director of the NIU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic, an operation of the Department of Communicative Disorders in the College of Health and Human Sciences.

"It's good for DeKalb County," she added. "Right now, we have parents who drive to Easter Seals in Elgin."

The expansion also is good for the clinic, which has outgrown its space on campus.

"We have a waiting list here," she said. "Now we can offer state-of-the-art service from our experts off-campus. This also will provide us space for group treatments and joint treatments with other therapies."

Other benefits include increased staffing, more diverse clinical experiences for NIU students and expanded opportunities for research and grant funding, Davidson said.

Since 1952, Easter Seals Jayne Shover Center has served children and adults with disabilities and their families. The center serves clients with a wide range of disabilities, including spina bifida, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism, speech-language disorders and development delays. Center staff also assist family members who need support, educational guidance and encouragement.

NIU's Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic is open year-round and annually provides speech-language assessments and family-based treatment to more than 1,000 patients as well as hearing evaluations and hearing aid evaluations and fittings to more than 1,000 individuals.

Outreach speech-language and hearing screenings reach more than 2,000 people living in DeKalb, Boone, DuPage, Kane, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties.

The clinic also provides clinical education for 125 graduate students and in-service learning activities for between 120 and 140 undergraduate students.

10/21/02