Parents of students in grades sixth through 12th grade, who are experiencing speech difficulties, are encouraged to sign up for a Articulation Boot Camp. WBFO'S Focus on Education reporter Eileen Buckley says UB's Communicative Disorders and Sciences is currently screening for the program. She sat down with the director of an 'Articulation Boot Camp' that opens next month to correct speech impairments.
Susan Felsenfeld is Clinical Associate Professor at UB. We met in her office at UB's South Campus located in the lower-level of Bio-Medical Education building. It is where you will find patients are treated at the Speech and Hearing Clinics. We were not allow to record or speak with patients due to HIPAA privacy regulations. But inside the clinic is where children and adults receive help with speech therapy.
At the Articulation Boot Camp, students experience speech troubles with mispronouncing “r”, “l,” “s” and “th.”
"Correcting these kinds of problems does require a lot of motor drill and motor practice, very much like learning to play an instrument or serve a tennis ball -- it's the same thing with an articulation error. You've got to get tongue in the right place," said Felsenfeld.
Felsenfeld noted the older the person, the longer it takes to change a person's difficulty with those sounds.
Screening is underway for the boot camp for students in Grades 6th-8th and 9th-12th grades. The boot camp begins July 6th and runs until July 30th.