Desert Voices grant from Thunderbirds Charities has funded two Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) positions. SLPs provide direct instructional services to students. A part-time SLP will be responsible for toddler pull-out and parent coaching. The full-time SLPA gives us flexibility in staffing as they can handle classroom teaching, too. This not only strengthens the school’s ability to work with children individually on their language skills but also provides flexibility in covering for teachers of the deaf when needed and as numbers of students increase during the school year. SLPs provide Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) instruction to support the child’s educational goals and supports them in reaching their goals. The direct instructional services include language, speech, fluency, literacy, and articulation to name a few areas. They also provide educational diagnostic services for their students, support services to parents of toddler and preschool students, and take the lead as case manager for families in Parent Coaching. Executive Director, Scott Smith commented: “We are grateful to Thunderbirds Charities for funding two critical positions. Our students, who are all deaf or hard of hearing, will receive from our LSL professionals the required skills needed to meet age-appropriate language, literacy, and social-emotional milestones. We are able to hire two bilingual providers allowing us to connect with more families. This grant is a game-changer as Desert Voices will be able to serve more families while maintaining the low student to LSL professional ratio that has proven so successful in achieving excellent outcomes.”
This grant is part of the Fall 2022 cycle. View a list of all Recent Grantees.