50 Years of Service 1962-2012

The DuBard School for Language Disorders is celebrating 50 years of service to children with severe communication disorders from Mississippi and across the country. 2012 will be a year to celebrate the school’s rich history in education as well as to ensure the future of services to children through our 50th anniversary fund-raising campaign.

OUR PAST
The school was founded in 1962 when a member of the university’s faculty needed specialized education for his son. At that time, the president of the university appointed Dr. Etoile DuBard to establish the School for the Preschool Deaf and Aphasic Children. The first class had just three children.

OUR PRESENT
Fifty years later, the school, which was renamed the DuBard School for Language Disorders in 1996, serves more than 500 children and their families through enrollment, outclient and referral services each year.

• Eighty children are enrolled in the full-time program.
•  Forty children attend outclient therapy.
• Hundreds of families rely on the DuBard School for evaluations, referrals and diagnostic teaching each year.
• More than 150 professionals from across the nation undergo training in the DuBard Association Method® annually.

Each year, the DuBard School also serves as a teaching and practicum site for dozens of university students studying speech-language pathology, audiology, deaf education, science education, human performance and recreation, music, social work and other academic areas.

OUR FUTURE
To ensure that the DuBard School can continue delivering specialized instruction to children for the next 50 years, the school is launching a $5 million fund-raising campaign. The success of the campaign will allow the school to offer more services to children not only in our region but also across the nation and world. The next step is to teach more and more professionals how to use the DuBard Association Method® so that all children with communications disorders, including the written language disorder of dyslexia, can benefit from specialized multisensory therapy that’s proven to be successful. The gift of communication gives hope to children and their families and helps them reach their full potential.