KinderFrogs
Undergraduate and graduate students may have the opportunity to provide individual or group speech and language therapy to children attending TCU’s KinderFrogs Laboratory School. The KinderFrogs School is a preschool for children ages 18 months to 6 years who have diagnoses of Down syndrome or other developmental disorders. Learning to use key word signing and working in collaboration with special education teachers and an occupational therapist are highlights of this placement.
Starpoint School
Starpoint School is a laboratory school for children with learning disabilities. It is located on the TCU campus. Each semester a number of speech pathology graduate students are assigned to Starpoint to provide language intervention. This collaboration between the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the Starpoint School (School of Education) provides a unique training opportunity for graduate students.
Early Childhood Speech and Language Programs Levels I, II, & III
The Miller Speech and Hearing Clinic is the site of a unique training program for working with preschool children with a variety of communication disorders. These preschool classrooms serve the needs of many families in the community with children who require more intense speech and language therapy than is provided in an individual setting. The preschool program has a long history of successfully training students in group speech and language therapy with young children and in meeting the communication needs for many families.
The Early Childhood Speech and Language Programs Levels I, II, and III are taught by both undergraduate and graduate student clinicians under the close supervision of Certified Speech-Language Pathologists. Through the programs, the children receive both group and individual therapy that is tailored to their particular communication needs. The Miller Speech and Hearing clinic is set up for observation and parents are encouraged to observe the therapy. Parent meetings associated with the preschool groups also provide helpful information and instruction for home carryover.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Location:
Miller Speech and Hearing Clinic, Texas Christian University
Phone: 817-257-7620
Supervisor: Janet R. Lanza, M. S., CCC-SLP
Calendar:
Based on the academic year – thirteen weeks in the fall and thirteen weeks in the spring
Insurance:
Insurance is not filed, but families can request the documentation necessary to do so.
Clients:
Groups have consisted of children with the following disorders: speech and language delays, articulation, phonological and language disorders, deaf and hard of hearing, Down Syndrome, PDD, Autism, fluency disorders, bilingual speech and language disorders
Level I
Predominantly age 3. These children vary from nonverbal with emerging single words to children with appropriate length of utterance with articulation or phonological disorders. They meet as a group from 9:15-10:45 on Tuesday mornings and also attend two other times a week for half-hour individual therapy sessions. The group therapy is play-based and thematic and the clinician-client ratio is 1 to 1 or 1 to 2. New vocabulary is taught with specific work on nouns, adjectives, prepositions, verbs, turn-taking and a variety of pragmatic skills. Phonological awareness and other emergent literacy skills are included in the therapy. Individual therapy goals are also emphasized. Most children who are enrolled have some form of verbal communication, but some have started the program using signs, a picture exchange system or other forms of augmentative communication.
Level I Fees
For one semester:
13 group sessions, 25 individual sessions
$768.00
Level II
Predominantly age 4. This group meets from 1:00-2:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays. Both group and individual therapy are included during this time. The group therapy is more structured than in Level I and consists of 30 minutes of a structured phonics-based speech and language program, Children’s Early Intervention for Speech-Language-Reading. The other 30 minutes of group therapy is vocabulary development, language development and articulation carryover based on themes or children’s literature.
Level II Fees
For one semester:
25 sessions
$900.00
Level III
Predominantly ages 5 and 6. This Kindergarten level group meets from 9:00-12:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays. It includes both individual and group therapy. Part of the session is based on the Children’s Early Intervention for Speech-Language-Reading. Basic concepts, literacy skills, phonological awareness, pragmatics, answering questions, grammar, syntax, vocabulary, articulation and carryover of individual therapy goals and objectives are targets for Level III. Some of the children attend this Level and public or private school simultaneously. Others attend Level III and then begin Kindergarten the following year or participate in home-school.
Level III Fees
For one semester:
25 sessions
$1800.00
Parents who are interested need to contact the Miller Speech and Hearing Clinic and ask for a Case History form in order to start a file for the client. Parents can also contact Janet Lanza and arrange to observe one of the groups.
