Stella Maris:Day 2

               Luckily we were able to finish the training for the teachers this morning and the rest of the day was spent in the classrooms, which was very exciting as well as informative and educational. We were paired with an undergraduate and each of the pairs was assigned to a classroom. My partner and I are in a classroom with 11-18 year olds. We screened 10 of the 12 children using the Fluharty and everything was relatively smooth. The teacher in my classroom was very grateful to have us and eager to learn what she could do to help the children better communicate. The class was a mixture of disorders and the teachers had explained to us that the students are generally divided by age rather than disorders except for a few specialized classrooms for autistic and deaf children.

There are two teachers in each classroom but before lunch only one teacher works with the children. When we walked in, the teacher immediately pointed out the several children that were a concern but she believed one girl in particular had a lot of potential to communicate more effectively if only she was able to receive some speech therapy. After screening her articulation, I was able to understand the teacher concerns. I did a trial therapy run with her after lunch to see if she

would be a good candidate for articulation therapy. Success! The teacher was very interested to see how I conduct therapy as well as interested to find out what she could do to help as well.

I am very excited about the work we are doing and at our end-of-the-day meeting with our professors and colleagues I heard so many stories of success in just the first day. We were all bouncing ideas off of one another about the children in our individual classrooms and so much learning was happening and it was a beautiful thing to see and be a part of.

Adina Gray
Founding Board Member, Students for Global Communication