Karen Vianc/o Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders
920 SE Cass Street, Suite 208 Roseburg, Oregon 97470–4910
Karen Vian
c/o Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders
920 SE Cass Street, Suite 208 Roseburg, Oregon 97470–4910
A Scottish
Rite clinic in Oregon helps a child overcome the problems associated
with cleft palate and lip.
My daughter, Ashley, is three years old and a bundle of smiles, sensitivity, and golden-blonde hair. Every late afternoon when I pick her up from day care to take her to her therapy session at the Scottish Rite Clinic, she meets me with a smile and the same one-word question, "Speech?" Ashley truly enjoys the one-on-one attention and instruction that she receives from her speech therapist at the Scottish Rite Clinic in Roseburg, Oregon. And although her one-word question may not say a whole lot, Ashley uses her eyes, smiles, and gestures to get her point across.
But Ashley's story begins much earlier. Her father was born with bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate. When I was pregnant, genetic counseling indicated our daughter would be born with these same conditions. With my being a registered nurse and Ashley's father having firsthand experience, we decided to do everything we could to help our newborn, including surgery and speech-language therapy.
Ashley began speech therapy with Early Intervention in 1998. This involved sessions during day care and at home. In June of 1999, Ashley's options included continuing speech therapy at her day care, placing her in Head Start preschool, or attending the Scottish Rite Clinic. The first options included interruption of Ashley's day care as well as considerable time and transportation. They were just too disruptive for a three-year-old who has already undergone eight surgeries.
So the Scottish Rite alternative was selected, and now Ashley has settled into the routine of late afternoon speech therapy at the Scottish Rite Clinic, and I expect her to remain there until she enters kindergarten. The one-on-one environment has provided the attention she and I both need to learn how to help her speech. Many thanks to the Scottish Rite for providing this service to families. Tomorrow, when I pick up Ashley from day care, chances are she will run up to me and say "Speech?" and I will remind her to say, "Mommy, are we going to speech today?"
Reprinted, edited for length, from the Oregon SRFCLD News (Spring 2000)