Hearing help: Clinic celebrates 10 years of assisting children with language
By PAMELA J. PODGER of the Missoulian
Anna LaCroix, 2, marches purposefully toward the rocking horse in her sturdy orange boots.
About halfway to her goal, she encounters several women in the hallway of a language clinic on the University of Montana campus.
She wants the horse. But now, she has to navigate around adults.
Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. The pint-size girl, who was born deaf, advances toward the rocking horse.
Speech pathologist RoseMary Johnson kneels and tells Anna in sign language she likes her orange boots. And the toddler, being a toddler, forgets all about the horse.
Anna LaCroix, who was born deaf: mimics speech pathologist RoseMary Johnson on Thursday afternoon at the Western Montana RiteCare Language and Literacy Clinic. LaCroix is one of about 600 toddlers helped by the clinic in the past decade. Photo by KURT WILSON/Missoulian
Anna loves her boots. She has four pairs in different colors. She also owns 10 pairs of shoes, including her winter slippers.
“She's like Imelda Marcos,” quipped her father, Bill LaCroix, 55.
The Victor toddler is one of about 600 children helped in the past decade by the Western Montana RiteCare Language and Literacy Clinic. They help children with speech, reading, auditory processing and other language-based skills. On May 30, the clinic will celebrate 10 years of service with a picnic and fundraiser at Joker's Wild in Missoula.
“This is all to help children who face a challenge learning to talk or with literacy,” said Lucy Hart Paulson, a research assistant professor at the RiteCare clinic.
The Missoula clinic is one of three in the state. The others are in Great Falls and Billings. There are about 170 similar clinics across the country.
The clinic offers free services to families whose medical insurance doesn't provide coverage for speech therapy or who face significant co-payments.
It also writes grants and holds fundraisers to augment the $55,000 annual support from the Western Montana Scottish Rite Foundation, which is part of the Masonic fraternity. The university provides housing, parking and administrative services for the clinic.
On average, the clinic has a caseload of about 25 children and a waiting list of about nine kids, Paulson said. Predominantly, it helps children ages 3 to 4 years old. It's also worked with infants, several deaf children and even some college students.
She said language acquisition is pivotal for literacy and for schoolwork. Often, children who're struggling with reading have an underlying language issue, she said.
Paulson said she's been working for three years with a 6-year-old, who is now ready for kindergarten. When he first came to the clinic, he had difficulty pronouncing words. The staff helped him learn color and letter names. These days, the boy plays with rhymes and identifies sounds and syllables.
“Families participate in intervention,” she said. “We give them all kinds of activities to stimulate language concepts and vocabulary.”
She said the clinic will become the centerpiece of a speech pathology program beginning in the fall. The program, known as the Communicative Sciences and Disorders Program, will be offered at the university's School of Education. A graduate program is slated for 2009.
Paulson, who will be a professor in the program, said the clinic will offer practicums for undergraduates and graduates who need to gain specific amounts of supervised clinical hours.
“To me, language and community is the most important part of who we are,” she said. “When there is a challenge to that, we're here to help.”
Paulson watches Anna ride the rocking horse and don a cowboy hat. She said the toddler has a cochlear implant that gives her hearing and helps her figure out sounds. She comes for weekly sessions, where the therapists teach her sounds are valuable and have a purpose.
Audiologist Sue Toth points to the squeaking springs from the rocking horse as Anna jostles back-and-forth.
Moments later, Anna sits on the floor with a toy hammer and pounds on a block of wood. She also revs up a toy drill, gleefully making noise as she plays with Johnson, the speech and language pathologist.
Her father said Anna would play for hours at the clinic if she could. He said they had a “long, arduous process” obtaining her first implant last August and hope to get another one this summer.
“If she can hear out of both ears, she'll get the most out of it,” he said. “And when she's young, she's able to make greatest strides.”
He said the family helps Anna interpret her world through sound and gain an understanding of her environment. Anna recently indicated she heard birds chirping for the first time.
“Yesterday, we were standing outside talking about the birds,” he said. “I was thrilled.”
Reporter Pamela J. Podger can be reached at 523-5241 or at pamela.podger@missoulian.com.
