Cognition & Communication

[loml]

Geraldine Sparks sees the value of her son Bill's cochlear implant every time a new season of American Idol airs. She loves to watch him dance and sing along with the contestants on the show. The words he sings are fuzzy and not always intelligible (his volume drowns out the singer anyway), but the melody is perfect.

The road to helping Bill, 34, who has multiple disabilities, reach his full communication potential was a long one for Sparks, but she remained undaunted in her quest. She was finally successful when she found someone who believed in that potential as much as she did-Judith Curtin, AuD, CCC-SLP/A, coordinator of the Speech and Hearing Clinic at West Chester University (WCU) in West Chester, PA.

In 1973, when Bill was 8 months old, he contracted haemophilus influenza spinal meningitis. "After two weeks in the hospital, the doctors handed my baby to me to take home," Sparks recalled.

Cognition & Communication on ADVANCE for Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists

 

[jillio]

"He does not freely communicate with others," Sparks explained. "If you show him a flash card, he will make the sign. If you point to his mouth, he will verbalize his spoken version, but he does not freely open up to people."

Finding programs and therapists to support her son's needs was difficult. When they relocated to West Chester, Sparks visited the WCU Speech and Hearing Clinic. Dr. Curtin put Bill's social communication challenges at the forefront of her aural rehabilitation protocol.

"I focus on whatever we can do to have him be an independent participating person in society, regardless of disabilities," Dr. Curtin said. "The goal is the same for all patients, according to the level of their cognitive potential."

Cognitively, Bill functions at the level of a 3-year-old, but his communication function is slightly lower. When he first began receiving services at the WCU Clinic, he did not wear his external speech processor continually during the day, relying mainly on signing to communicate.

From the same article referenced above.