Speech Language Therapy - 21st Century Style!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

Hello. I am a speech language pathologist at Public School 43 in the South Bronx - the poorest congressional district in the nation, as reported by the New York Times. I have been working at P.S. 43 for five years and provide speech/language intervention for approximately 50 special education students (grades K-5). More than 98% of our students receive free school lunch. Although I am an extremely dedicated therapist, working diligently to ensure that my students get the best therapy possible, I can't help but feel that, yet again, the students in the South Bronx are being cheated. Our school has little resources to offer and, as such, my speech therapy program is often the last to get any resources that may be available. In this exciting age of technology, major advancements have been made in speech/language interventions using computer software. Everything from articulation therapy (improving speech intelligibility) to learning to read can be successfully taught or reinforced using exciting, motivating software programs. The programs themselves are not very expensive, but with no computer . . . well, you see my dilemma. I am writing to request a laptop computer and a printer. In addition, I would also like to request two software programs to jumpstart our 21st Century Speech Language Therapy Program - Literacy: Phonemic Awareness CD and Earobics -Clinical Edition. I am requesting a notebook computer instead of a desktop because I want to be able to lock the computer up securely each day when school is over. The neighborhood where I teach is quite desperate and things have a tendency to disappear. It might seem like I'm getting greedy by asking for a printer, but the kids will be so excited to actually publish their own work and the printer will allow us to do just that! Finally, the two software programs I requested are two of the best programs for speech and language intervention. Thank you so very much for reading this proposal and for giving the children in the South Bronx a chance to really succeed! Not only will the children in my speech/language program benefit greatly from the exciting software programs this computer will allow me to present, this will also be the ONLY opportunity for some of my students to learn how to use a computer - an absolute essential skill in this day and age. THANKS AGAIN!