PACE - Processing And Cognitive Enhancement

Now Offering PACE in Santa Rosa!
Hope for Struggling Students -
WHEN TUTORING DOESN'T WORK!
For more information on the PACE Program see our PACE Overview, or Contact Us for a complimentary PACE assessment.

Social Skills Groups

Following Michelle Garcia Winner's Think Social curriculum, The Swain Center offers social skills groups for school-aged children ages 4-7 and 8-14. Older school-aged children are considered on an individual basis. The groups are limited to 4-6 participants and scheduled once weekly for 90 minutes for 16 weeks. For more information and to schedule a complimentary screening call us at (707) 575-1468.

LSVT® Loud

Lee Silverman Voice Training - A scientifically documented efficacious program for treating voice and speech disorders in patients with Parkinson's Disease and other neurological disorders.
www.lsvt.org

Math Tutoring

Is your child interested in a fun filled program of mathematics and problem solving? Is your child struggling in school or simply unchallenged by their academics? We offer Coaching, not just Tutoring. Call us at (707) 575-1468 for more info.

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Dr. Swain's Research

See our research in The International Journal of Listening.

Thursday
July 29th, 2010

Speech-Language and Hearing Services Taken to Ghana, West Africa

Dr. Deborah Swain, CEO and Clinical Director of The Swain Center, visited Ghana, West Africa where she and 20 other mission team members provided health care services to children in orphanages. Dr. Swain and her team from New Vintage Church in Santa Rosa, California participated in a 17 day mission taking them to orphanages, hospitals, special schools, refugee camps and remote villages in various geographical areas of Ghana.

Dr. Swain's purpose in this mission was to provide speech, hearing and autism screenings in children and adults who reside in orphanages, special schools, and hospitals. As it turned out hearing screenings were most in demand. With two screening audiometers and an assistant she performed nearly 500 hearing screenings. Many children were identified as having mild to moderate hearing loss that had been undetected. A most likely explanation would be chronic ear infections that were quite common in all of the settings that testing was performed. Many children complained of frequent ear pain. For most access to medical care is difficult and unaffordable so illness elated side effects were not uncommon.

Agape Orphanage, Accra, Ghana

Agape Orphanage is located in the Capitol of Ghana, Accra. Agape consists of two separate campuses with each having a housing unit for boys and one for girls. Currently, there are 60 boys and 30 girls. The residents live in housing units with a "mommy" who is much like a caregiver and tends to their needs and daily routines. They are called "mommy Claire" or whatever their first name is. Each unit houses up to 8 boys or girls with 4 bedrooms containing bunk beds and closets. Each unit has one great room that is similar to a living or family room. One unit is for the "mommy". The children are responsible to maintaining their bedrooms and common area and doing their laundry.

Agape Orphanage also provides a school for their residents. While visiting the orphanage Dr. Swain was able to meet with some of the teachers and administrators who had concerns about some of the children who were having difficulty learning. Dr. Swain spent several hours meeting with teachers and screening the children who had been experiencing learning problems.

As a result of this visit Dr. Swain and The Swain Center will be providing professional development training and materials to the teachers and administration of Agape that will help the children with learning and processing problems.

Village of Hope Orphanage, Ayawaso, Ghana

Village of Hope is home to nearly 400 orphans in southern Ghana. Approximately 90 miles west of Accra is this beautiful land with many buildings that comprise the campus of the orphanage. The children range in age from 2 years to 18 years. The buildings are scattered over several acres and consist of administration, classrooms, houses for living for the children, a medical clinic, and chapel. At the edge of the property is a large soccer field. All of the buildings are white with blue trim and the uniforms that all of the children wear are blue jumpers with white blouses for the girls and blue shorts and white shirts for the boys.

We did our testing over 2 days in the medical clinic building. Dr. Deb performed hearing screenings on more than 200 children. Some of the children were brought in from surrounding villages by their parents but the majority of the testing was on the children living at Village of Hope.

A common phrase that we heard was "sometimes it pains me" when pointing to their ear. Many had ear pain at the time of the screening. Some had matter weeping from their ears. Many had mild to moderate hearing loss. Constant ear infections seem to be prevalent in the orphanages and would be suspect of the cause of the hearing loss.

Talking to teachers and administrators to provide them with information and strategies to work with the children was the only type of intervention that we could provide. Clearly, there is so much to do for these children in the future.

Akropong School for the Blind, Akropong-Akuapem, Ghana

The School for the Blind is located about 90 minutes from Accra. This school is an orphanage as well as school for over 400 visually impaired and blind children and teenagers. These residents range in age from 4 years to 28 years. Most are there as orphans. These residents are remarkable in their ability to navigate through daily activities throughout the campus without canes, assistant dogs or modern aides that we see in America.

When the team first arrived we were most surprised at seeing these blind children pumping their water used for drinking, washing and cooking into 5 gallon buckets and carrying the buckets on their heads up the hill to their dorms or the dining area. They can do this without any assistance! They are trained from very early in their development to become familiar with the geography and lay out of the school campus in order to be able to move about. It was very impressive.

Many of these children had normal vision at birth and during their childhood contracted "River Blindness" that resulted in their blindness. In the Ghana culture when a child is born with a physical handicap or acquires an illness resulting in a handicap they are "cast out" or sent away. The School for the Blind provides an education as well as training for independence. The children are taught to read, write, spell, do math, clean their rooms, do their laundry and cook. We were very impressed.

As a result of testing most of the residents many had mild to moderate hearing loss. Because we did not have access to medical histories and administrators did not know each child's background we really can't know the reason why there were so many with a hearing loss.

We were able to meet with many teachers and provide them with information and strategies for working with the children with the hearing losses. Some we referred to an "Ear Clinic" in Accra for further testing.

Faith Healing Hospital, Ankaase, Ghana

The Faith Healing Hospital provides medical services to this small town/village that is west of Accra. We did not work with inpatients but rather with students from nearby schools who were brought to the hospital by their teachers or parents once they found out that hearing testing was being offered. We tested about 40 children as well as hospital employees and, like in other places, found many with mild to moderate hearing loss.

A nurse was assigned to assist as a language interpreter who had previously worked in the ENT Department at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi. She did hearing testing in the ENT clinic and was familiar with hearing loss. Without her and her information I would not have known about KATH and their being a referral source. Many of the children and adults with mild to moderate hearing loss were referred to KATH for a comprehensive hearing evaluation and recommendations for treatment.

Ghana has recently implemented a government-based medical insurance plan that will provide comprehensive medical care to all Ghanaians who subscribe to be members of the medical plan. The cost per person is $40 per year. One may not consider this to be an excessive expense however the average daily income for a Ghanaian is less than on US dollar.

Adullam Orphanage, Obuasi, Ghana

Obuasi is a small town north east of Accra and is most famous for its gold mining activities and ventures. However, it is home to a beautiful orphanage and school for the deaf. The 300 plus children range in age from 8 weeks to 17 years. Dr. Deb was asked to do hearing screenings on all of the children that were enrolled in the school for the deaf which was 32 children.

All of the children used sign language as their primary means of communication. None had had formal hearing testing since it was determined that that they were deaf. All of these children had normal hearing when they were born but lost it when then contracted meningitis. Young children in most parts of Ghana do not receive vaccinations to prevent disease and illness. So, as a result of lack of vaccine for meningitis these children contracted the disease and lost their hearing.

About 25% of these children responded to some sounds during the testing….the first sounds that they had heard since loosing their hearing many years earlier. All of these children were referred to KATH for more comprehensive testing and recommendations for hearing amplification.

So Now What? ...

Ghana is a beautiful country with amazingly beautiful people. These people and the most happy, joyful and loving people who delight in the company of Americans. Yet, their needs are many. Many children are experiencing communication, learning, and hearing impairments for which there are no services available to provided a definitive diagnosis or treatment. The professions of speech-language pathology and audiology do not exist in Ghana. There is little information available to educators and medical professionals concerning communication, learning and hearing disorders.

Dr. Deb is planning to constitute a team of colleagues and return to Ghana by January, 2009. She will be collaborating with Catherine Crowley, professor in Speech-Language Pathology at Teachers College Columbia University in New York City who has organized missions to Bolivia as well as Ghana in order to address communication disorders in underserved countries. Immediate goals would include:

1. Identifying schools in Accra and Kumasi in need of speech-language and audiology services.
2. Provide screening instruments for use by teachers and resource educational personnel in identified schools.
3. Provide instruction in use of screening instruments.
4. Provide instruction in simple treatment interventions.
5. Provide professional development to educators and medical personnel in schools, hospitals, clinics and centers.

For more information on the Ghana mission or questions please contact us by phone at (707) 575-1468 or online using our contact form.