Easter Seals Northern Ohio was awarded a grant of $2,720 from the Rotary Club of Toledo Foundation recently. Funds from this grant were used to purchase new Speech & Language testing and therapy materials to identify and be responsive to the specific needs of each child. Their office in Toledo was in desperate need of updated speech and language tests and materials so they could not only expand the program, but also accurately diagnose the needs of each child and help him/her build communication skills in fun and educational ways.  The items purchased through this grant were used immediately and will continue to be used for multiple years so that children with special needs will continue to benefit long after grant funding is complete. To date, 44 children have benefited from this grant.  However, the tests and materials were carefully selected so that they can be used repeatedly for multiple years . . . ultimately benefiting hundreds of children.

Jessica Timpe, the Speech & Language pathologist (who works directly with the kids), shared the following two success stories to show the positive impact the grant is having on local children:

1. The kids really love the Chipper Chat game and are extremely motivated to use the magnet wands to pick up chips after they complete their work.  They also have fun trying to find metal objects around the room to stick them to, which has lead to discussions about magnets and how they work and predicting whether or not they think the wands will stick to something.  They seem to like the variety with the boards purchased through the grant, too. Clients working on improving language skills like using the articulation boards and pointing out all of the crazy pictures they can find on the one they chose.
2. I’ve found the Mighty Mouth model to be very useful for the kids working on articulation who have previously had trouble with accurate tongue placement.  It gives a good physical model that they can see and manipulate to help them get the sounds.  Using this helped one of my 5th graders working on “ch” and “j” sounds finally find the right way to make those sounds.  That was an exciting day for both of us!