Grad students screen community preschoolers

Kalamazoo County Ready 4s is a community organization created to provide children in Kalamazoo County with high-quality, accessible early education and care so they are prepared to succeed in kindergarten. In the fall of 2012, the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology expanded its work with preschoolers into the community, partnering with Kalamazoo County Ready 4s to provide speech, language and hearing screenings and assessments for six preschool programs. Nearly 90 children benefited from services provided by 38 graduate students at preschool sites. In turn, student clinicians benefited from an excellent opportunity to identify children at risk for speech, language and/or hearing problems and to interact in the community.