Champaign/Urbana

Clinical Services

Additional Programs

Quarterly Parent Education Meetings
St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf at Carle sponsors quarterly parent education meetings for parent of children with hearing loss in our community. Meetings occur on weekday evenings four times a year. Child care and meals are provided to make it easier for families to attend. Typically, a guest speaker comes to talk on a subject matter of interest to parents of children with hearing loss for the first hour and families have time to enjoy dinner and interact with each other during the second hour. Guest lectures are videotaped and made available to families who could not attend the meeting.

The first meeting featured Dr. Susan Randich and Verna Blevens-Wright from SJI - St. Louis talking about discipline issues in families of children with hearing loss. 35 parents and 26 children participated in the event.

Last year's meetings featured Cheryl Broekelmann and Mary Daniels from SJI - ST. Louis talking about helping children with hearing loss to develop a love and appreciation of books and Danielle Edmondson talking about diaries and daily opportunities to develop language at home.

Offerings during the 2004 - 2005 school year include:

• August 5, 2004 - Positive Discipline. . .presented by Certified Positive Discipline Associate, Dina Emser. Open to community
• September 30, 2004 - Reading With Your Child. . . presented by SJIC staff
• January 27, 2005 - Planning and Participating in Your Child's IEP. . . presented by Family Matters, PTIC. Open to community
• May 19, 2005 - Interacting through Music. . . presented by Jim Gill. Open to community

Please contact Shawnda Fuller to learn about future offerings.

Parent Support Group

ECHO sponsors the support group for Parents of Children with Hearing Loss. Organized and run by parents, this group meets on the third Thursday of each month to discuss a variety of topics related to children with hearing loss. Meetings are held at the school (810 University, Urbana) and child care is available for $2 per child.

Summer Sessions

St. Joseph Institute at Carle will offer a summer session from June 1 through June 30, 2005. Developmentally appropriate activities to develop spoken language and listening skills will focus on a theme. Daily individual speech, language and listening therapy will be provided. Please contact Danielle Edmondson for additional information.

Graduate Training

St. Joseph Institute at Carle works closely with several university programs that prepare Deaf Education, Speech Language Pathology and Audiology students for their professions. We provide an observation, practicum and student teaching site for these individuals. Additionally, St. Joseph Institute at Carle staff members go out to the university programs several times each semester to share information on hearing loss, hearing testing, hearing aids, cochlear implants, FM systems, aural habilitation, aural rehabilitation, auditory-oral education and research on the development of spoken language and listening skills in young children with hearing loss.