June 2007

Speech and Hearing Clinic Celebrates Six Decades in Foggy Bottom

By Jamie L. Freedman

In a bright, toy-filled room on the ground floor of the Hall of Government, a smiling preschooler works on his articulation skills. Next door, an 8-year-old diagnosed with autism practices eye contact, taking turns, and reading facial expressions. Down the hall, a retired schoolteacher is fitted for a hearing aid.

Since 1946, GW has provided quality speech, language, and hearing services to the Washington community through its highly regarded Speech and Hearing Center. Some 1,500 clients a year with communication and hearing disorders take advantage of the center’s comprehensive offerings. Utilizing the newest, most innovative techniques and equipment in the field, the clinic is a top-notch evaluation and treatment facility, as well as a valuable educational training tool for GW students in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science. The program’s 75 graduate students staff the center on a rotational basis under the supervision of certified speech-language pathologists and audiologists.

Some 250 clients—from infants to senior citizens—visit the center weekly for therapy. Clients run the gamut from children challenged with developmental language delays to people who have suffered strokes and brain injuries. Rounding out the center’s patient list are non-native English speakers seeking to reduce their foreign accents, clients with vocal chord paralysis or vocal nodules, patients wishing to overcome stuttering, and members of the transgender population requiring help with voice feminization or masculinization.

“We’re very proud of the quality and range of services that we offer,” says GW Senior Audiologist Linda Jacobs-Condit. “Our students who rotate through the clinics benefit from their exposure to such a wide variety of clientele. It’s a unique opportunity.”

The center, which moved into a new facility on the corner of 21st and G streets in 2004, boasts more than 20 therapy rooms—all equipped with the latest audio and video recording equipment and one-way observation windows—as well as a high-tech observation room.

“It’s a people-friendly, welcoming place, in addition to being a premier research and clinical facility,” says Assistant Professor Francys Subiaul, a psychologist and anthropologist who launched a program at the center this year to screen children for autism through the administration of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale—a new, four-module autism diagnostic assessment that identifies major areas of weakness and uses the results to develop targeted therapies for clients.

“In a sense, we’re like a teaching hospital,” says Melissa Bloomer Fichter, a clinical supervisor in charge of GW’s pediatric autism and social language track, who supervises 10 to 12 graduate students per semester at the clinic. “It’s very hands on,” she says of her work, explaining that supervisors are often in the room providing students with helpful information on various interventions and techniques.
“The center is designed to be a rewarding place for both students and clients,” says Subiaul. “Students get the unique opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients—applying special and innovative techniques in many cases—and clients clearly benefit as well.”

According to Fichter, one particularly innovative offering is the center’s augmentative and alternative communication lab, where non-
verbal clients—including autistic children, people with cerebral palsy, and stroke victims—utilize assistive speech devices, such as picture boards, to produce vocal output and enhance their communication skills. The clinic also offers auditory-verbal therapy for children who have undergone cochlear implant surgery. “There are only 300 certified auditory verbal therapists in the world, and Katie Montague, a clinical supervisor who joined the center last fall, is one of them,” says Jacobs-Condit.

At the other end of the spectrum, busy Washington professionals wishing to improve their presentation skills sometimes come in for vocal therapy. “We also screen GW teaching assistants to determine if they need accent reduction services,” says Jacobs-Condit, noting that the clinic provides them with complimentary sessions. “We teach them to speak more clearly so that their students can learn more effectively,” she says.

Another vital service that the center provides is an audiology clinic. “Some of our audiology patients have been coming to us for 25 years,” says Jacobs-Condit, noting that the center provides ongoing services for hearing aids and dispenses assistive devices like amplified phones and listening systems for the theater. In an effort to reach deep into the community, Jacobs-Condit launched a monthly “Lunch & Learn” pilot series in February aimed at “breaking down stereotypes” about hearing loss. “Oftentimes, people are afraid to admit that they’re having trouble hearing,” she explains. “At our hour-long lunchtime sessions, we answer participants’ questions about hearing loss and schedule complimentary hearing tests. Education is key for people to accept the need for amplification and better communication.”

For more information about the GW Speech and Hearing Center or
to schedule an appointment, visit www.gwu.edu/~sphr/ or call (202) 994-7360.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu