School’s almost out for the summer, but for children who struggle with reading, the next three months can be a crucial time to work on literacy skills.
Clinicians at George Washington’s Speech and Hearing Center are hoping to help up to a dozen local children ages 7 to 11 prepare for the fall by offering a summer literacy camp. The camp will run July 16 to 20 at their center, located at 2115 G St., NW.
“We thought the camp would be a good complement to the literacy services that the children receive in their schools, especially since a lot of them don’t get any services over the summer,” said Clinical Supervisor Geoffrey Greenman.
GW graduate student clinicians will provide small group instruction and one-on-one teaching to improve the children’s literacy skills, using a multisensory approach that focuses on problem areas such as phonemic awareness, decoding, vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Enrolled students will begin the camp with an initial screening to determine their specific needs. Mr. Greenman said the clinicians will then use a mix of formal reading resources from literacy programs and informal resources such as worksheets and story maps to work with the children.
As for keeping the students motivated, Mr. Greenman and Ms. Comer said they are working with the clinicians to devise ways to keep the children engaged, including themed activities and a reader’s theater performance at the end of the camp.
“Our clinicians are wonderful about finding what each child likes and keeping them engaged, but motivation can be the hardest,” said Ms. Comer. “We thought the theater would be a good way to motivate them and to throw in therapy without them realizing.”
Parents will also be given resources to work with their children at home, said Mr. Greenman.
“We’re big on parent education, so we will give parents activities to work on with the kids at home and to supplement the month in between camp and the start of school,” he said.
“Parents tend to be worried,” he added. “Their children are moving up a grade in school and their child should be at a certain reading level, so with the camp, parents are hoping that their children will strengthen their skills and get more prepared for the fall.”
The Speech and Hearing Center, housed in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences in GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, trains graduate students to provide a full range of speech, language and hearing services for individuals of all ages with communicative disorders. Children of GW employees and students receive a 50 percent discount to the camp as well as to the Speech and Hearing Center’s services throughout the year.