DUBARD SCHOOL AT SOUTHERN MISS ACHIEVES PROVIDER STATUS FROM AMERICAN SPEECH-LANGUAGE HEARING ASSOCIATION

HATTIESBURG - The DuBard School for Language Disorders has achieved provider status from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), which will allow it to offer continuing education activities for speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language and hearing scientists.

In the past, the DuBard School, located on The University of Southern Mississippi campus, was only able to offer Continuing Education Units (CEUs) recognized by ASHA if they brought in an outside instructor who already had provider status. Now, all of the school's courses will carry ASHA CEU status.

And that's an attractive offering for those in the speech-language hearing field, according to DuBard School Director Dr. Maureen Martin.

"We have people who come from other states (to take courses at DuBard), and ASHA is nationally recognized," Martin said. "So it won't matter if they're from Texas or Pennsylvania or any other place - if they get ASHA CEUs, they can use them in their state."

Also, ASHA is planning to implement a CEU requirement for speech-language pathologists beginning in 2005, which will make the DuBard School's recently achieved provider status even more appealing to a broader group of speech-language hearing professionals across a wider geographic area.

"And there's another benefit," Martin said. "Our courses will be offered on ASHA's Web site, which will give us some additional national visibility."

The process of achieving provider status from ASHA was a complex one, Martin said. It involved a lengthy application process, during which ASHA reviewed practically all aspects of instruction at the DuBard School, including how programs are designed and needs assessment is carried out.

The school's ASHA approved provider status will run through Dec. 31, 2007, Martin said.

Meanwhile, DuBard continues its primary mission of direct service to children today as 58 children from 20 school districts begin arriving at the school. These are children for whom instruction at DuBard will be their full-time educational program -they will receive instruction at the school all day, every day for 11 months of the year.

In addition to this direct service to children who require more than just regular speech therapy, DuBard also provides out-client therapy for children with less severe problems, as well as out-client evaluation for children from throughout Mississippi and across the country.

The basis for all teaching at the DuBard School is the Association Method, a multisensory teaching strategy that benefits children with severe language disorders, hearing impairments, learning disabilities, dyslexia and other communications disorders.

It is also used with nondisabled children as a code-breaking system for teaching reading skills.

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