Kristin was recently chosen as the private practice SLP to highlight on www.speechpathology.com.   

Jen and Karen were thrilled to meet with speech-language pathologists from all over the country last week.  In beautiful San Antonio, they networked with other SLP's who are in private practice and learned a great deal from them as well as related professionals. 

Jen and Karen are both members of the American Academy of Private Practice in Speech Pathology and Audiology and they could not be happier about joining this group of knowledgeable women for their annual conference.

Karen is attending the three day Wilson Language Training in Lisle, IL this week.  Wilson, a multi-sensory, structured reading and spelling curricula, has been proven to be highly effective in helping students become fluent, independent readers.

Karen is looking forward to bringing this knowledge back to the clinic and we are all looking forward to learning from her.  We plan to add the Wilson Reading Program beginning this summer.

In this last week, Susie has furthered her knowledge by attending two separate training workshops.  The first was for Lindamood's Phoneme Sequencing Program (LiPS).   We have been using this multi-sensory approach, with great success, in conjunction with language therapy to help our young school-age children with phonological skills for improved reading and spelling.

Susie also attended a workshop by Pam Marshalla called,  "Practical Therapy Techniques for Apraxia and Dysarthria: Innovative Strategies for Developing More Intelligible Speech."  Pam Marshalla is co-chair on the board of the Oral Motor Institute and a respected lecturer and author in the area of apraxia, oral motor, and articulation therapy. 

Susie found both of these experiences to be valuable and is excited to share with all of us back at CSLC.

On behalf of the Fluency Center at Central Speech & Language Clinic, Kristin Chmela is thrilled to collaborate with the WDRSA, the SRACLC, and the Stuttering Foundation of America as the director of clinical programs for the first overnight school-age stuttering camp in our area!  The idea for the camp came from Nancy and Ron Graham, mother and step-father of Billy, a fourth grader who attends therapy at CSLC Fluency Center.  The camp offers a day and overnight option and will be limited in size in order to best serve the children attending.  It is located at Camp Duncan in Volo, IL and will provide children, ages 7 to 14, the opportunity to participate in a multitude of fun, recreational activities and also engage in making positive speech changes.  Please see our flier for more details.

Kristin Chmela, director of the Chmela Fluency Center, recently returned from Centro Medico de Foniatria in Padova, Italy, where she presented a workshop on the diagnosis and treatment of school-age children who stuttered for Italian speech-language pathologists.  In June, 2009, she is looking forward to returning to Centro Medico de Foniatria to direct the first 5 day intensive program for school-age children who stutter in addition to presenting a basic workshop about stuttering.