Maryville’s Walker Scottish Rite Clinic Transitions to Telepractice Therapy
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he Walker Scottish Rite Clinic, a program of Maryville University, provides certified speechlanguage pathologists to educate parents and caregivers of children 2 to 6 years old who are struggling with communication disorders. While most kids are eager to talk, some may have serious trouble expressing themselves. Those children are at risk of early school failure, including difficulties interacting in their peer groups and with language-based skills like reading and writing.
Clinic services are also available in seven convenient locations in St. Louis City and County, Jefferson County, Lincoln County and Franklin County in Missouri. Since 2015, when the Walker Clinic became an official program of Maryville University, 2,656 children have received nearly 35,000 sessions of speechlanguage intervention. The Walker Clinic was co-founded in 1988 by Earl and Myrtle Walker and Les Denney. Every clinic is funded by corporate and foundation grants, special fundraising events, and individual donations. The clinics receive no federal funding, and families are never charged for services, regardless of financial status or insurance coverage. Thanks to the generosity of many donors, clinic services continue to grow. Early on in the pandemic, the Walker Clinics transitioned chesterfieldmochamber.com
from in-person therapy sessions to telepractice, allowing for children to continue therapy and for caregivers to learn techniques to use at home. Within a matter of weeks, the majority of enrolled children began receiving remote services. Currently, more than 2,000 telepractice sessions have been conducted and the therapists are reaching families in new ways including Facebook live videos and YouTube trainings. “In today’s world, we focus on extending our reach in new ways to help children in underserved areas and communities. While we currently have a waiting list for telepractice sessions, the Facebook videos produced by our therapists offer an immediate alternative,” said Jacob Gutshall, director of the Walker Scottish Rite Clinic at Maryville University. “When children struggle to communicate, parents and caregivers become essential partners in the early intervention process.” Parents are invited to view parent training videos at: https:// www.facebook.com/pg/wsrclinic/
videos/ and learn more. Each child enrolled in the Walker Scottish Rite Clinic is served by a master’slevel speechlanguage pathologist, who is certified by the American Ebonee F. Shaw Speech-LanguageHearing Association, licensed by the Missouri State Board of Healing Arts, and trained in the Hanen Centre’s “It Takes Two to Talk.” Therapy sessions are tailored to each child’s special needs. Services include speech-language screenings and evaluations, individual and group therapy, audiological evaluations and caregiver training. To learn more about clinic services or providers in your area, call 314-529-9200. To learn more about the Walker Scottish Rite Clinic or to make a donation visit srclinic.org.
Ebonee F. Shaw is the development director of the Maryville University Walker Scottish Rite Clinic.
January-March 2021 | Out & About
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