The Central Maryland Speech Therapy Program: Highlight

When a local University closed its speech and language clinic that served many people with Down syndrome, the Down Syndrome Association of Maryland knew it had to act. We jumped in to continue providing low and no-cost communication therapy to DSAmd families -- and to help the next generation of speech-language pathologists learn about people who have Down syndrome outside of a textbook.
Generous donations and sponsorships make this program possible. Many thanks to our partners:
Sunflower Speech Therapy, LLC: sunflowerspeec...
Loyola University of Maryland
Howard County CSP grant support
And the amazing videographer and storyteller: Shoot Her Productions - Tranise Foster: www.shootherpr...
If you would like to get involved as a sponsor, a donor, or a volunteer - please visit our website: DSAmd.org
Transcript: I worked in the school system for a long time, and I just felt that the biggest thing missing was the family connection. I had so many students and just not enough time to connect with families so I said I need to I need to change this what can I do. Owning my own private practice absolutely terrified me, but now I can’t imagine NOT doing this. When a University closed one of its clinics - A lot of the population being served at that clinic was individuals with Down syndrome. That's actually where I did most of my clinical experience, and it's also where I fell back in love with Down syndrome and Pediatrics in general. So when we heard that it closed down, Amanda and I were like: what can we do. how can we reach the community again? We do play-based therapy for the little ones so that's something where the clients lead and we see whichever toys are most engaging, or if they want bubbles in the moment. And then for adult clients, it's following the client's interests and putting some functional communication therapy. Just seeing communication grow from little ones - and our oldest in the program right now, she is 38 [years old.] And it's just been really great to see everybody connect and also to see my graduate students be able to experience how different it can be. We see our work almost across a lifetime - so there's so many benefits. We do ice cream shops and like roleplay ordering and taking the orders - and one client went to Baskin-Robbins after speech and on his own, gave his order. It was an amazing moment to see a smile and the mom sharing how happy that made them. Communication when we think about it is really everything it is how we connect with the world all the time. And the cool thing is that communication isn't always in spoken format, we go beyond just focusing on using spoken language - we provide different modes of communication and different ways to access communication having them be able to have a backpack full of options it's just it's a cool experience to see at the end of the day it all comes back down connection. and that's what communication helps us do - connect. We make this program as cost effective as possible. I feel like private therapy is not in the cards for families. But now for 20 plus weeks out of the year, we’re able to deliver low and no cost help. None of this would be possible without DSAmd - the fundraisers and things like that make , they make this program possible So in supporting DSAmd, you are supporting this therapy for our community.