SOUND BENEFITS: SEMO'S SPEECH AND HEARING CLINIC SEES ABOUT 150 CLIENTS DURING THE ACADEMIC YEAR

Tabitha Elfrink, left, worked with graduate clinician Rholanda Cleveland with grammar exercises as well as language therapy.

Japanese students discussed slang phrases and practiced English pronunciation at the University Speech and Hearing Clinic. From left are graduate clinician Ann Lumsden, Kyoko Taliguchi, Ryoichi Hagimoto, Satoshi Kuroki and student clinician Regina Ruebel.

Kyoko Taliguchi no longer looks skyward when Americans greet her with "what's up?"

The Japanese woman is one of 15 to 20 international students this semester who are learning the meanings of American slang and improving their English pronunciations and social language skills thanks to the help of Southeast Missouri State University's Speech and Hearing Clinic.

That's just one of the services offered by the clinic.

The clinic staff also evaluates and treats speech and language and hearing disorders.

"We provide group and individual therapy. We serve infants through senior citizens," said Joyce Renaud, clinic coordinator.

Counting both evaluation and treatment sessions, the clinic sees about 150 clients during the academic year. About 60 of those come to the clinic for therapy.

Sometimes the therapy is offered solely by the clinic. At other times, the therapy is in addition to treatment offered by other agencies.

The clinic receives referrals from area doctors, hospitals, rehabilitation agencies and schools. Other clients seek out the clinic on their own.

The clinic provides services to parochial and home schools. "We do get some referrals from the local school districts," Renaud said, but the public schools have their own specialists who typically work with students who have speech and hearing problems.

"Most of our referrals come from former clients," she said.

Renaud said clients don't have to have a doctor's referral to receive the clinic's services.

Fees range from $20 to $100 a semester. "We have a sliding fee scale," said Renaud.

Some clients don't pay anything. "We have never turned away a client for an inability to pay," she said.

Housed in the Grauel Building at Southeast, the clinic has been in existence since the mid-1960s.

It occupies several rooms on the main floor of the Grauel Building. It is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The clinic is staffed by seven faculty members, including Renaud. They all are licensed speech and language pathologists.

They supervise senior-level students and graduate students who work directly with the clients.

While students may come and go, a client typically is under the supervision of a single faculty member throughout the course of treatment.

The clinic has one audiologist on staff who supervises all hearing evaluations.

The clinic doesn't fit people for hearing aids.

Clients receiving therapy typically are seen twice a week for 50 minutes a session.

"We do have clients we receive four times a week," Renaud said. Some clients visit the clinic only once a week.

Some clients have received treatment for a couple of years.

Renaud said the clinic staff works with clients with varied speech and hearing problems, including those who have suffered strokes or brain injuries.

"We work with parents and family members and educators regarding speech and hearing development," she said.

Among other things, the clinic does screenings and evaluations of clients who have difficulty blocking out distractions and processing auditory messages.

Renaud said the clinic is one of the few facilities in the region that provides central auditory processing screenings and evaluations.

Tabitha Elfrink, 16, of Cape Girardeau has been coming to the clinic twice a week for language therapy since she was in sixth grade. She is in ninth grade.

These days, Tabitha works with a graduate clinician on improving her grammar. She wants to be a teacher.

"The clinicians are all nice," she said. "They are not mean."

Through a one-way mirror, Southeast students and faculty can watch therapy sessions that are also monitored through closed-circuit television.

The clinic has seven therapy rooms and three audiology booths.

While Tabitha worked on her grammar one afternoon, 5-year-old Jon Winkler of Cape Girardeau worked on his speech sounds.

He worked on the "r" sound while putting a toy basketball through a small basketball hoop.

The clinic's shelves are crowded with games. Renaud said therapy for preschool children is based on play.

While the clinic has been in operation some three decades, the university only recently began marketing the clinic's services, Renaud said.

"We see there is a great need in this area," she said.