Homer Central Schools is pleased to announce the celebration of
BETTER SPEECH / LANGUAGE / HEARING MONTH!

Homer Central School promotes having good communication skills at all times, whether in school, at home or in the community. During the month of May, we especially want to credit our speech/language therapy department. When we all encourage positive communication skills, this leads to being successful at:

• Speaking
• Thinking
• Reading
• Writing
• Learning

Homer is proud to have knowledgeable Speech/Language Pathologists working with our children who have communication problems. Our speech/language pathologists are: Wendy Duell, Linda Priest and Victoria Thornton. Each speech/language pathologist services two buildings at Homer schools. Mrs. Duell is at the Elementary school and Jr. High school. Mrs. Priest is at the Elementary school and the Hartnett Elementary school. Mrs. Thornton is at the Intermediate school and the High school.

If a child has speech/language weaknesses, this may affect success in:

• Classroom activities
• Literacy
• Written Language
• Learning
• Social interaction.

Our speech/language pathologists work with the following disorders at our schools:

• Language Disorders. Slow development of vocabulary, concepts, grammar, verbal reasoning, and sentence formulation, word retrieval - the "building" blocks for expressing or understanding ideas, social development, learning, reading, and writing.
• Auditory Processing. Includes auditory memory, auditory comprehension, direction following, phonemic awareness - necessary for academic success!
• Articulation. Saying one sound for another, omitting a sound in a word, or distorting a sound.
• Hearing Disorders. Children with varying degrees of hearing loss, use of technology, hearing aids, cochlear implants.
• Voice Disorders. Speech that is too high, low, or monotonous in pitch; interrupted by breaks, too loud or too soft; or sounds harsh, hoarse, breathy or nasal.
• Fluency or stuttering problems. Interruption in the flow or rhythm of speech; can include hesitations, repetitions or prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases.

Mrs. Duell, Mrs. Priest and Mrs. Thornton have specific roles and responsibilities as speech/language pathologists. These services include:

• Identify, with the help of parents and school teams, students who may need communication assessments or who may be at risk for later problems.
• Assess students' communication skills. This may include interviewing parents and teachers, taking a history of communication development, relating language needs to classroom learning and social development, observing the student in class and at play, and giving formal speech and language assessments.
• Evaluate, with parents and the school team, the results of a comprehensive assessment to determine if the findings qualify students for speech-language or other services.
• Develop and implement individualized educational programs for students who qualify for services under current federal and state regulations and local policies, in collaboration with parents and school teams.
• Document outcomes for students with communication disorders.
• Collaborate with teachers and other school staff in developing and providing intervention strategies that foster students' understanding, speaking, reading and writing skills that meet the demands of general school activities.

Mrs. Duell, Mrs. Priest and Mrs. Thornton provide activities for our Homer children, in a variety of ways:

• Combine communication goals with academic and social goals

• Integrate classroom objectives
• Help students understand and use basic language concepts
• Support reading and writing
• Increase students' understanding of texts and lessons

• Services can vary depending on students' needs

• Monitoring or periodic screening
• Collaborating and consulting
• Classroom based services
• Small group or individual sessions

Our pathologists succeed at providing these activities to our children in a wide variety of therapeutic options.

Please contact our speech/language pathologists, if you suspect your child is showing the following signs of communication disorders:

• Late talker or unintelligible speech
• Below expectations in classroom
• Difficulty learning to read and write
• Unable to express thoughts and ideas
• Problems understanding others and following directions
• Doesn't get along with others
• Problems taking tests.

Please join Homer Central School in celebrating "Better Speech and Hearing Month," during May.