Below is a transcript of our conversation with Amy Durkin, Summer Specialty Clinics Coordinator and Master Clinical Educator:
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty.
A long-standing tradition at CMU marks 80 years this week. The Summer Speech-Language Specialty Clinic wraps up its month-long camp on Thursday the 30th. Taking the reins of managing a staff and working with over 80 kids between the ages of 3 and 13, is Amy Durkin in her first year as CMU's summer specialty clinics coordinator and master clinical educator.
She stopped in early Tuesday morning to talk with me before rushing off to another busy day with the campers…
At its founding, I read that it goes back to Wilbur E. Moore. The founding mission, how much historical record do you all have today of the early years, what the first ideas were, structure, and so forth as to how all of this got started?
Amy Durkin:
I have some records. One of the earliest ones that I could find was from 1957. I know at that time they were working on having a clinical practicum for the SLP graduate students as well as servicing children and young adults who needed speech therapy services that were not having their needs met at their public school or through their school-based system.
DN:
The mission today, we know a lot more about speech and learning issues and the challenges that our youngsters can face. What are some of the challenges and new trends as it were that you've had to adapt to?
AD:
Children are having more complex needs. With our camp currently, there's nine, what we call the big nine areas of speech therapy, and we have campers who are falling within each of those categories. So, we have campers who have feeding and swallowing concerns, voice concerns, social pragmatic concerns on top of speech sound productions, Alternative means of communication, expressive and receptive language delays, cognitive impairments. So, we have a much wider variety, including fluency impairments. I believe the summer camp was originally designed to be a fluency-based camp. And so now we've branched well beyond that.
DN:
Who makes up the workers, the staff that you have?
AD:
So right now, we have four master clinical educators who are faculty and staff at CMU. This year we have 40 graduate students who are the camp clinicians. They get paired with one or more campers. And then I have 6 undergraduate students who are helping with some of the more day-to-day operations like prepping snack, helping the graduate clinicians prep materials for camp. helping tidy up the facility, making sure that the materials are organized and things like that. So we have quite the variety in our team.
DN:
What have you found even in this first year about the relationship with families? And I'm not certainly indicting anyone, but we know that in regular learning situations in the schools, you have the parents that are very much involved and some sadly that are not. With these children with these special needs that they face, what do the families bring to the table as you are working with their children?
AD:
I'd say the families are absolutely phenomenal. During the summer one semester, that's when the campers get evaluated by the graduate student clinicians. And during that time, I make time out of my day to make sure I meet every single family who's going to be enrolled in camp. And all of the returning families have said about how excited they are to be back at camp again this year. I hear people raving about camp all the time. Even when I was transitioning from my previous job, letting them know that I was coming to CMU to do this role, several of them had personal experiences with SSC and they also raved about the program. So, the families that are involved are absolutely phenomenal. They love the program. They're happy to be back year after year.
DN:
Amy Durkin, thank you so much. Again, congratulations to you and all the staff and good luck as the camp winds up and I'm sure the planning for next year begins almost right away!
AD:
It does, it does, yep!
DN:
We appreciate you being here. Thanks so much.
AD:
Thank you.
