Adelphi Offers Speech, Hearing, Language Therapy for Long Islanders of All Ages
Help Also Offered for Arabic- and Spanish-Speaking Families, Transgendered Individuals
Garden City, NY (07/19/2022) — Adelphi University's Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) program provides a broad range of treatment, care and support to people of myriad linguistic backgrounds across Long Island - from toddlers to seniors. Run by Adelphi faculty, students and staff, the program provides speech, language and hearing therapies, free of charge, to people across the region with plans for expansion.
"People often cannot afford these services, and speech therapy is not something that's readily covered by insurance," said Anne Marie Skvarla, director of Adelphi's Hy Weinberg Center for Communication Disorders. "So the Hy Weinberg Center's speech and hearing clinic provides services that may otherwise be inaccessible."
At Adelphi's Hy Weinberg Center, graduate and undergraduate CSD students deliver speech therapy services to clients of all cultural and language backgrounds and ages under the guidance of certified and licensed clinical supervisors. Pre-pandemic, they also provided speech and hearing outreach to schools, libraries and senior centers. This service is tentatively scheduled to resume in fall 2022
The CSD also helps Arabic- and Spanish-speaking parents maintain use of their native language with their children. Reem Khamis, PhD, professor of communication sciences and disorders, established Adelphi's Language Environment Analysis (LENA) Start program in 2019.
"With LENA Start, families are empowered to value their native languages and maintain them across generations," Dr. Khamis said. "Our work must always be centered around the targeted families and their children within a strengths-based approach.
Voice therapy can be a vital and gender-affirming resource for individuals who identify as transgender. To better serve the trans community, Adelphi's CSD now offers a Transgender Voice Program at its Manhattan Center that includes individual and group training at no cost to clients.
Speech pathology services are also provided by Adelphi's CSD program beyond the region, reaching as far as Kingston, Jamaica. Adelphi is participating in the Mustard Seed Communities program, providing virtual speech pathology support to children with disabilities on the outskirts of Kingston. They have also provided vital hearing services in El Salvador.
Starting this fall, Skvarla looks forward to expanding Adelphi's outreach to more communities in need and resuming various in-person services in the wake of the pandemic. The CSD program's own diversity, equity and inclusion task force is also developing new resources for off-campus clinical supervisors, which they'll share through email, on-campus workshops and training.
Learn more about all of Adelphi's speech and hearing services at adelphi.edu/education/community-engagement/hy-weinberg-center.
About Adelphi: A modern metropolitan university with a personalized approach to higher learning
Adelphi University, New York, is a highly awarded, nationally ranked, powerfully connected doctoral research university dedicated to transforming students' lives through small classes with world-class faculty, hands-on learning and innovative ways to support academic and career success. Adelphi offers exceptional liberal arts and sciences programs and professional training, with particular strength in our Core Four: Arts and Humanities, STEM and Social Sciences, the Business and Education Professions, and Health and Wellness.
Recognized as a Best College by U.S. News & World Report, Adelphi is Long Island's oldest private coeducational university. It serves more than 7,500 students at its beautiful main campus in Garden City, New York -- just 23 miles from New York City's cultural and internship opportunities -- and at dynamic learning hubs in Manhattan, the Hudson Valley and Suffolk County, as well as online.
More than 118,000 Adelphi graduates have gained the skills to thrive professionally as active, engaged citizens, making their mark on the University, their communities and the world.
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Professor of communication sciences and disorders Reem Khamis, PhD, right working closely with speech and hearing students at Adelphi