Special Section: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
CSD in the Community Providing excellent service to the community is a main priority of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD). Here, we highlight three recent endeavors by CSD faculty members, staff members, and students to reach out to community members with speech and hearing disorders.
Providing a Creative Outlet for People With Down Syndrome When a State College musical theatre group composed of children and young adults with Down syndrome gave its inaugural performance in April, it was to a packed house and a standing-ovation finale. “There are no words to describe the feeling of watching these young people perform,” said Krista Wilkinson, professor. “The standing ovation at the end of the show said it all. People were in tears.” After four months of rehearsals, the performance was held April 21 in Kern Building on Penn State’s University Park campus. Plans currently are under way to organize and perform another show this fall.
skills, such as those required to get up in front of a crowd and do something outside one’s comfort zone,” said Wilkinson. Whitney Schmutter, an undergraduate student and member of Omega Phi Alpha, was Wilkinson’s right hand, helping with everything from teaching participants the words to the songs, to making sure the troupe had a place to rehearse and perform. “I was interested in doing this because I love nothing more than to work with kids, and I think that working with them through music is an extremely powerful thing,” she said. “I watched these kids come out of their shells over the course of the semester and I am so proud of all that they accomplished.” Schmutter isn’t the only one who was positively affected by the experience. “Doing this made me realize I want to get involved in more performing activities in the future,” said a performer with Down syndrome.
Clinic Aids Charter-School Children
The “For Good Performance Troupe” was founded by Wilkinson as a nonwork-related endeavor, and is co-sponsored by the Centre County Down Syndrome Society (CCDSS) and the Omega Phi Alpha sorority at Penn State. The theme of the inaugural show was “friendship” and included the songs “Hakuna Matata” from “The Lion King”; “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from “Toy Story”; “We’re All in This Together” from “High School Musical”; and “For Good” from “Wicked.”
Singing and dancing aside, faculty members and students of the department help children with communication disorders in other ways as well.
“I started the troupe because, over the past twenty-five years, I have worked professionally with folks with Down syndrome and have heard again and again from them that they would like to be part of musical theater,” said Wilkinson, who is the current secretary for the CCDSS. “My efforts with the CCDSS reflect my ongoing commitment to serving individuals with Down syndrome, which is a commitment that also drives my research agenda.”
“As a charter school, Sugar Valley Rural is bound by the same obligations as public schools to provide support services to students with learning challenges,” said Barbara Roberts ’87g CMDIS, instructor, who coordinates and supervises the services. “The school contacted the clinic because they’d heard that we provide great services.”
Wilkinson’s research includes studies of early communication and language in learners with developmental and intellectual disabilities, including Down syndrome. “Clearly, the many benefits of musical theater experience extend to all participants—from improving reading abilities [to learn the song lyrics] to honing music and rhythm skills to refining social and self-advocacy
In October 2000, the Penn State Speech and Hearing Clinic began providing speech and language assessments and intervention services to K-12 students with speech and language needs at the Sugar Valley Rural Charter School in Loganton, Pa.
Now, twelve years later, graduate students continue to provide services to children at Sugar Valley Rural Charter School. Currently, about ten graduate students per semester provide therapy to nearly forty children on a weekly basis. In addition to providing therapy, the graduate students are responsible for writing lesson plans for each child, scheduling therapy sessions with the teachers, writing quarterly progress notes based on data collected during each session, working in teams, assessing new students, and writing evaluation reports. Photo Credit: Krista Wilkinson (2)