Affiliate Highlight: ECU Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic

We’re continuing with our affiliate highlight series, this time turning our eye to ECU Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic in Greenville, North Carolina.

What Makes ECU Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic Unique?

Our aphasia group is supported by our university clinic. Graduate students plan activities and interact with the participants. Our university setting allows other disciplines to engage with the participants. For example, this semester we have a music therapy student coming to the group each week. In the past, we have had occupational therapy students also lead activities. Our participants and families also learn about other opportunities on our campus such as participating in research studies and volunteering for physical therapy assessments.

Great Success Stories

About 3 years ago, my client’s son was getting married. Five months before the wedding, I asked him if he would like to give a rehearsal dinner speech. He and his wife were enthusiastic but didn’t know how to make that happen as he was limited to 1-2 word verbalizations due to aphasia and apraxia of speech. However, he could follow written words on a page and imitate short phrases well and, with practice, he improved on those verbalizations.

He and his wife found meaningful pictures of their son, and we worked together to develop a sentence about each one. I downloaded the iMovie app for them, and they worked on recording the client saying the phrase for each picture. They played the movie at the rehearsal dinner, and then at the end, the client verbalized 2 short sentences, bringing their family to happy tears!

My other favorite moment of working with the people in the aphasia group occurred in December 2017 when they presented a holiday concert to the college of allied health sciences. One of the participants sang a solo, and we had to stop the song due to the applause by the crowd watching — family, friends, faculty, and students all got to see these amazing people!

They Love What They Do

I’m always continually learning from my clients and from my colleagues. I also appreciate that I can learn more about the specific needs of a family and provide the support they need and are seeking. I also enjoy working with health professionals from other disciplines.

Services and Support Groups

At our clinic, we offer speech-language services for all ages. Services include fluency/stuttering, language disorders, reading and written expression disorders, Scottish Rite language learning disorder and dyslexia program, voice and resonance disorders, cognitive communication disorders, articulation disorders, communication disorders related to hearing loss, accent modification – foreign and dialect re-training, and swallowing and feeding.

Special Services for Caregivers

At various times and through different groups, we may offer specific training for caregivers.

More Information

We are a teaching clinic in which graduate student clinicians are instructed by ASHA-certified, North Carolina Licensed faculty members. The clinical services are directed by clinical faculty and offer optimal teaching opportunities for the student clinicians in our program.

Do you live in the Greenville, North Carolina area? Contact the ECU Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic for speech services and support groups.

We’re spending 2018 highlighting our affiliates in order to make it easier for caregivers to find services for their loved ones.