Tricia shares story of hope

Tricia Henderson, supervisor for speech services, shared this story of inspiration from a recent speech evaluation:

"I met an extremely brave person while doing an evaluation a few weeks ago. A beautiful mother of two came in to have her youngest son evaluated for language delay. Her older son was already in our program, diagnosed with autism, and making good progress... saying words he never attempted prior to joining us. The sweet mother smiled as she told me she feared her second son was also autistic; she recently had seen the neurologist who hesitated to diagnose the second boy at 18 months since he had some very appropriate social skills.The mom wanted to get some idea about his language delay and to hear what a speech pathologist thought.

As we did the interview, I was encouraged to see that the baby had many good and promising social behaviors... he laughed, sought the source of voices, played speech-gesture games like "pat a cake", and sought interaction with his brother by crawling up to him to look at his toy. This young one was definitely delayed but did not seem autistic; he was interested in others and responded to language. Only time will tell.

Our plan is to place him in an appropriate language group just as soon as possible since early intervention is the KEY for both autism and for language delay. As the mother left she said, 'I'm pregnant and the neurologist said if it is a girl, the odds go down for autism. We're hoping for the best!' I could not help but offer a silent prayer for the baby to be born....knowing that no matter what, that baby would be loved and cared for by a very brave mother and father."

Tricia sees former client's success at 50th Anniversary

Tricia Henderson, Supervisor for Speech Services, has worked at BRSHF for many years. She shared this experience that touched her at our 50th Anniversary celebration earlier this fall:

"A young man in his 20s walked into the clinic carrying a ziploc bag and asked if a former therapist still worked here. I said 'no,' but told him she still lived in Baton Rouge, happened to be a neighbor of mine, but was now working in another field. He held up the ziploc and within were lots of memorabilia from his days at BRSHF some 20+ years ago! His mother had saved them all and, in one picture, there he was on top of the slide smiling ... an adorable 3 year old. That young man is now a manager of a car repair shop. As he spoke I could not help but be amazed at how mature and well spoken he is as an adult....another ordinary miracle at BRSHF!

(And by the way, I dropped a copy of the photo off at his former therapist's house. She was thrilled to hear of his success! That's the deal here....we carry our clients in our hearts long after they leave BRSHF!)"

                              






Former clients, parents, and staff reflect and catch up at the 50th Anniversary Party

Another tale of promise from Tricia

Tricia Henderson, Director of Speech Services, as well as other speech therapists,  often conduct speech evaluations to diagnose a child's specific speech needs, and to determine placement in our programs. She shares another recent story of encouragement:

"The young child came in with his grandmother and case manager since he was a ward of the state, having been removed from his home. Both adults discussed the deprivation and chaos in the home. He was now residing with the grandmother and would stay with her for at least the next 11 months. Both the social worker for the state and the grandmother reported that he did not use any words, could not imitate words and had not really been exposed to books.

As the evaluation began, he played very quietly on the floor with several truck making no sounds at all. As the interview continued, the evaluator asked him to sit in a chair by her and he eagerly climbed up. When a book was opened, he was THRILLED to point to objects named. When a flashlight was used as a bribe (every child's delight), he eagerly imitated most consonant sounds and even repeated words. He smiled and laughed, eager to do his work, in exchange for a turn with the blocks, truck or FLASHLIGHT! As they left, the grandmother said, 'He never did that before. I didn't know he knew so much or that he would imitate you!' We discussed that he showed great promise and we would try to place him immediately in a language group. The young boy smiled and repeated "Bye bye" when the evaluator told him goodbye. He then turned and ran back to hug her around the legs with a big laugh.

How thrilling to know this one child's future will be very bright because of what we can and will do for him in the next 11 months!"

Tricia tells how our history lends credibility

Tricia Henderson is Director of Speech Services, and has been employed at BRSHF for 27 years. As part of her job, she (along with the other speech therapists) conducts speech evaluations to diagnose a child's specific speech needs, and to determine placement in our programs. She has this recent story to share:

"The child came in with three people, the father, the mother, and the stepmother. They were quite serious about the evaluation of their small son and as we walked down the hall, the father, a policeman, asked quite seriously: "So how long has this clinic been here?" I happily replied: "Oh, we just had a birthday party celebrating our 50th year!" He looked totally surprised and said, "Well, then, I guess you know what you are doing!" I laughed and said, "Yes, we've been at it longer than anyone else in Baton Rouge. We were the very first speech and hearing clinic in town. We know very well what we are doing. You came to the right place!"

As I said this, I felt very proud of our history.....50 years.....loud and clear!"