Imagine not being understood when you try to talk. What would it be like to have people ask you to repeat a word or phrase over and over again because they missed what you said?
“There isn’t an individual you could meet who doesn’t feel that the need to communicate is vital,” says Christie Needham, director of clinical education, Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, Baldwin Wallace Speech Clinic. “When something is wrong, or you are having trouble making yourself understood, it becomes a really critical hurdle. It’s not necessarily something that goes away on its own. You’ll need the intervention of a therapist.”
The Baldwin Wallace Speech Clinic, on the campus of Baldwin Wallace University (BW) in Berea, has been helping adults and children overcome those obstacles since the early 1970s. Today, the Clinic offers speech, language and hearing services free of charge to anyone in Ohio. It is the only free clinic of its kind in Northeast Ohio and provides free-standing treatment plans or supplemental plans to existing treatment, based on a patient’s needs. The Clinic provides individual and small group therapy on campus to about 200 patients a week, with an additional 900 in community locations. Some virtual sessions are offered.
“We are a teaching faculty, and we have nine full-time faculty members,” says Professor Needham. “They supervise 70 undergraduate and graduate students.”
Student clinicians are enrolled in the school’s communication sciences and disorders undergraduate major and speech language pathology graduate program. Licensed speech-language pathologists, certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and licensed by the Ohio Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, are supervisors.
BW students begin their clinical work as sophomores and, as they advance, also visit schools, senior living facilities and other locations off campus. Students have “two solid years” in real-world settings, so “they feel comfortable and confident” about their skills, according to Needham. That helps if they plan to attend graduate school or decide where they will seek employment, she says.
The Clinic provides diagnostic evaluations plus a wide-ranging array of services covering: articulation disorders, stuttering, voice disorders, vocal nodules, language disorders and language-based reading disorders. Also, ADD/ADHD, autism, Asperger syndrome, Down syndrome, pediatric feeding disorders, traumatic brain injury, concussion, Parkinson’s, rehab after stroke, plus memory, organizational and social skills.
“One of the biggest misconceptions people have is that speech and language therapy is just for children,” says Needham, noting that the Clinic features 11 therapy rooms.
Needham is pleased that many patients become “invested in the students.”
“Our patients often want to know when their student therapist will graduate, and they want to attend commencement. The University is really good at making sure they get tickets,” says Needham, who adds that it has only been the steady support of BW that the Speech Clinic remains free.
The Clinic’s sessions are held weekly throughout the year. That consistency fosters strong patient/therapist relationships. The arrangement also avoids long breaks in treatment when progress can stall or fall backward, and when patients may become depressed or frustrated.
“We urge anyone who is interested in our free services to call us at 440-826-2149 or email us at bwspeechclinic@bw.edu. We will fit you into the schedule,” says Needham.
