USU club funded to teach children sign language
Utah State University’s Club of the Month has a hand in helping children learn to read.
The National Student Speech Language Hearing Association received a grant for 150 phonemic books, which help kids become more aware of the sounds in language.
Tuesday NSSLHA took these books to eight different Head Start centers around Cache Valley through the Bear River Health Department. The students signed the books and gave a copy to each child.
Sonia Manuel-Dupont, the club’s faculty adviser, said, “We want to encourage these kids to take these books home for their parents to read to them.”
Megan Poulsen, co-president of NSSLHA, said, “The kids who are a part of Head Start Programs are kids that are having some of these language development problems.
“Signing the books and donating them to the kids is a great way to serve the community and put into practice what we learn about in
classes.”
NSSLHA is the student professional organization for speech pathologists and audiologists.
The students transition from the organization to the American Speech and Hearing Association after finishing a master’s or doctorate degree in the field.
Manuel-Dupont said, “We usually do some activity for Dr. Seuss Day anyway, so this year we decided to put our philosophy in action and reach out to those children who would most benefit from a literacy experience and a personal book to take home.”
Dannelle Habel, a junior majoring in communicative disorders and a member of NSSLHA, read to the children and helped them make hats like Dr. Seuss’.
“I really enjoyed seeing the smiles that we made on their faces. I also enjoyed showing them the importance of reading,” she said.
The children seemed to be very receptive, and they made comments the entire time, Habel said.
Poulsen said, “Hopefully, this will also create awareness in parents of the importance of reading and get the kids excited about reading, too.”
The NSSLHA was selected USU Club of the Month by the Council of Student Clubs and Organizations.
Poulsen said her group filled out an application describing what types of things they have done as a club and service they have been involved in.
Manuel-Dupont said nearly all of NSSLHA’s activities are community outreach- and
volunteer-oriented.
“We organized the African American Read-In for local schools, preschools and libraries,” she said. “About 100 students participated in making posters and/or reading to school-aged children that day.”
Poulsen said, “We also helped out with a children’s Christmas party sponsored by the Center for Persons with Disabilities here on campus. Children with disabilities and their families were invited to frost cookies, make an ornament and visit with Santa.”
NSSLHA is also working with some faculty on an upcoming event called the Multicultural Messiah, which is a production of the Messiah that is interpreted in American Sign Language and performed in English, she said.
“The program for the production is written in Spanish,” Poulsen said. “One of the goals of this production is to involve everyone of every culture in the community.”
Manuel-Dupont said NSSLHA was established sometime in the 1970s and has been going ever since.
“We meet monthly as an official meeting, but we are usually in daily contact with each other because we have so many things going on,” she said.
–stacipete@cc.usu.edu