The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine’s Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences (SHS) launched its first intensive bilingual speech therapy and early literacy summer camp at Trios Care Center in Kennewick, Washington, in June.
Camp I Can Say It!/Campamento ¡Puedo decirlo! was held in collaboration with community speech-language pathologists. The week-long camp was offered to children aged 5–7 with childhood apraxia of speech or other severe speech disorders who speak Spanish and English at home.
“The camp went exceptionally well,” said department Chair Amy Meredith, PhD, CCC-SLP. “We accomplished everything we aimed to with the children to help them with their motor speech and expressive language skills.”
The camp uses the same model as the department’s Camp Candoo in Spokane but extends it to bilingual children. Each child worked one-on-one with a SHS graduate student under the supervision of a certified speech-language pathologist, receiving individual and group therapy in Spanish and English, based on each child’s preferred language, and participating in other activities.
Children often make more progress in an intensive camp alongside peers with the same speech disorder than in traditional speech therapy, progress they can build on by continuing therapy throughout the year.
Aretha Vasconcelos’ son was not making progress with traditional therapy before participating in the camp but spoke several words he had never said before in his very first session.
“The professionalism, care, and dedication of Dr. Amy and her team gave us hope and made my son improve his speech as I never imagined possible in just one week,” Vasconcelos said. “As a mother, I will forever be grateful for everything they did.”
Therapy employed approaches such as dynamic tactile temporal cueing, which aims to improve the brain’s ability to plan movements for speech. Clinicians focused on practicing functional phrases like “Do you want to play?” in both languages that will improve campers’ socialization skills.
All children made progress on their functional phrases and using them with peers, Meredith said.
“It’s amazing how well they do because they’re surrounded by kids like them,” she said. “This camp is all about creating an environment that they’re willing to take risks in, and creating momentum for when they go back to speech therapy with their regular therapists.”
The camp used dynamic bilingual assessment tools, such as the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA) for phonological and language delays. Dynamic assessments are designed to keep children’s attention more than traditional standardized speech and language tests. Meredith also worked with a graduate student to adapt an existing English motor speech exam for Spanish, which they tested at the camp and hope to refine next year.
Camp graduate student clinicians were all bilingual or paired with a bilingual speech-language pathologist, community practitioners who volunteered their time. The camp was made possible through partnerships with Trios Care Center and the Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland school districts.