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By Kate Hunger

A project to provide speech-language-hearing screenings for children in the San Antonio area has garnered an award for two faculty in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Angela Kennedy, SLP-D, CCC-SLP, assistant professor and director of clinical education, and Casey Taliancich-Klinger, PhD, CCC-SLP, assistant professor, will receive a 2022 Burtis-Vogel/Elkins Community Service Award from the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation (TSHF).

“We feel very honored to have our project identified for this,” Dr. Kennedy said. “The foundation is comprised of speech-language pathologists across the state of Texas, and so for them to see the value in our project, we really appreciate it.”

The project, “Bridging the Access Gap: Collaborative Outreach Through Housing Communities,” was conducted in summer 2021 at six apartment communities in San Antonio and New Braunfels in partnership with Prospera Housing Community Services. Participating children each received a developmentally and age-appropriate book, and their parents and caregivers received literacy-building training resources. Students in the speech-language pathology master’s program ran the project, which was funded in part by a Community Service Learning grant called Rea(DI)ng Uni(VERSITY) from the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics.

“We definitely see the need for this project to continue, and it was so great to receive notice of this award,” Dr. Taliancich-Klinger said. “I do think it’s going to help spotlight our efforts and help us to sustain this project and keep it moving forward.”

The project will move into its second phase this summer with targeted intervention services for children screened last summer, Dr. Kennedy said. “We will focus on one to two of those apartment communities and provide on-site language and literacy and general literacy programming.”

Students in the speech-language pathology master’s program will help with the project as part of their summer clinical practicum.

Dr. Kennedy and Dr. Taliancich-Klinger will be honored at the TSHF breakfast on Feb. 25 during the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s 66th Annual Convention & Exhibition in Fort Worth.