Annual Meeting Update

The Warren Center held its annual meeting on December 8, 2005. The meeting was, once again, held in the Willette Room at the St. Joseph Healthcare Mall. Warren Center staff and board members met for casual conversation and enjoyed an assortments of hot hors d’oeuvres catered by St. Joseph’s Healthcare.

Wayne Woodford, Board of Directors President, began the meeting by welcoming the group and thanking everyone for their attendance. Mr. Woodford spoke of the great services the Warren Center provides the community. As Chief Operating Officer at St. Joseph’s, Mr. Woodford comes in contact with Warren Center clients daily. He reiterated their extreme satisfaction with our staff and services, and expressed the importance of the work the Center does daily.

MaryBeth Richards, Program Director, and Mary Poulin, Administrative Director, presented their staff with anniversary recognition pins. Among those recognized were Judy Sternal, celebrating 13 years, Sally McNamee, celebrating 14 years and Cindy Phinney, celebrating 18 years with the Warren Center.

The meeting concluded with the distribution of this years gifts, a set of 4 Warren Center imprinted glassware.

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Winter Wish Mittens

Next time you visit the Warren Center, be sure to check out the mittens hanging in our lobby to see how you can help. Our winter wish mittens program is an easy way anyone can get involved in helping children who are in individual or group therapy at the Warren Center. When providing therapy, our speech-language pathologists use a variety of toys, games, crafts, snacks and other materials.

Making an in-kind donation of these items can help the Center save money and continue to provide services to those members of our community struggling with speech and language difficulties. Our lobby is decorated with mittens, each bearing an item that we could use along with approximate cost (usually under $10) and where you can purchase them. Pick up one of those mittens, purchase the item and bring it to the Warren Center. It’s that easy to help!

All donations to the Warren Center are tax-deductible, as we are a 501(c)(3) organization. More information is available by calling the Center at 941-2850 or visiting our web site at www.warrencenter.org. Thank you so much to everyone who has helped in the past with this valuable fundraising opportunity. We appreciate all of our faithful supporters!

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Notes from the Program Director

What do you do with Babies?

This is a common follow-up question that I receive when talking about the ages of clients that we see at The Warren Center. We see clients of all ages from the moment that they come home from the hospital with Mom and Dad until they are elderly.

Speech and Language development begins at the moment when the baby is placed next to his/her mother in the delivery room and Mom says “Hello, baby” and the baby who has heard this voice tone for months in-utero turns and looks into his mom’s face and makes eye contact. This is communication. That reciprocal sharing of positive regard is the beginning of turn taking as in a conversation. Positive facial regard leads to sound play (cooing in response to voice), which leads to babbling, then words. We as Speech-Language Pathologists work with children every day who struggle with some of these basic skills.

Parents are the very first teachers of their children and the language stimulation that begins on that very first day of life is really only the beginning of a lifetime of speech and language learning. Moms and Dads are the first teachers of vocabulary as well as pragmatic language skills, such as taking turns when talking, waiting for their turn to speak, as well as polite interrupting. Research has shown that children who are read to and have been exposed to a language rich environment as infants and toddlers are better readers and better students when they reach school age.

Here are some ideas to begin or continue that life long adventure with the precious little one in your life:

• Talk about the activities during your day with your little one. Babies can’t answer back, but they are listening.
• Take time to play with your baby, “peek-a-boo”, and other routine speech games encourage awareness of others as well as turn taking and initiation of speech.
• Be a good speech model for your child, keep your utterances short and simple—Little ones can’t grasp long, wordy explanations that well-meaning adults try to make at times.
• Avoid baby talk. This gives babies the incorrect word model, it may be cute for a little one to be looking for his “blankie”, but it limits his receptive vocabulary.
• Avoid just asking questions of your little one without giving them a chance to respond or expecting an answer.

Best of all, just enjoy playing, reading, and talking with your children. Children are creative and love to feel appreciated for what they can offer to adults. Lots of hugs and kisses never hurt either. Enjoy this holiday season when new family members as well as old gather together to spend time together. It is my personal wish that everyone has a happy and safe holiday season.

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Program Director Chosen for ASHA Legislative Council

MaryBeth B. Richards, the program director at the Warren Center for Communication & Learning, has been chosen to serve as a member of the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA) Legislative Council. Richards was elected for a three-year term on the council, which helps set ASHA’s priorities, approves the organization’s budget and all policy documents. MaryBeth was elected to this position by ASHA members from Maine.

“I appreciate the trust my peers have shown in me and look forward to serving on this board,” says MaryBeth, who was also recently given a second Award for Continuing Education (ACE) from ASHA. ACE is a formal recognition of professionals who have demonstrated their commitment to lifelong learning by earning seven continuing education units within a 36-month period.

MaryBeth supervises the Warren Center’s clinical staff, and is responsible for promoting staff expertise and development. She also assists with the scheduling of clients and the development of new programs and contracts. As a speech-language pathologist, she has special training in oral-motor, pre-speech and feeding skills of infants and toddlers. She is a graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Speech Pathology and Audiology. She is a member of the American Speech-Hearing-Language Association and the Maine Speech-Hearing-Language Association.

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Annual Campaign 2005/2006

The 2005-2006 Annual Campaign is in full force. This year’s focus is on the Warren Center’s unwrapped gifts of speech, hearing and communication. Be on the look out for your mailing which includes a full color page depicting these gifts.

The Annual Campaign is the Warren Center’s largest fundraising event. The proceeds help offset daily operating expenses at the Center. If you have not received a mailing, and are interested in receiving one, please contact the Center at (207) 941-2850.

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Remembering a Warren Center Friend

The Warren Center said goodbye this fall to a very dear friend. Dianne Clancey passed away this fall. Dianne was the secretary at the Warren Center for many years, retiring in August of 1997. She is remembered for her helpfulness to clients, kindness to staff and dedication to the Warren Center.

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Congratulations

The Warren Center family grew this year as two of our staff welcomed new members into their homes.

On July 28, Amanda Samoluk, one of our audiologists, and her husband Derek welcomed their daughter, Ava Lauren. She weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. Her
sibling is Michael William.

On October 8, Colleen Nilan, a speech-language pathologist, and her husband Mark, welcomed the arrival of their son Jackson Paul. He weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 20 inches long.

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Ask the Audiologists

Is there anything I can do to restore my hearing?

Some hearing loss is permanent. Consult with your doctor to see if your symptoms are medical in nature and need any treatment, especially if you have a sudden hearing loss. Even hearing instruments will not restore normal hearing. Hearing instruments will make previously missed sounds available at the level of stimulation your auditory system needs at that particular pitch.

Why do I only have difficulty hearing in crowds?

If you have difficulty hearing in crowds, you could have a high-frequency hearing loss. With this type of loss, you can hear well in one-on-one situations and even in small groups. However when you get around distracting speech/noise, you can hear the noise louder than the speech. This hearing loss is not as noticeable when speaking with someone without any competing noise.

Why do I have a difficult time hearing female voices when I can hear male voices easily?

You may have a high-frequency hearing loss. Female voices, children's voices, and even a majority of speech understanding lies in the high frequencies. If you have a high-frequency hearing loss you probably have a hard time hearing things, such as your wife's voice. You may hear the low frequency sounds normally but miss the high frequency sounds.

I do not have a problem hearing, but I have a problem understanding.

Hearing and understanding are two different things. It is possible to hear something and not understand. This may be due to a high-frequency hearing loss. Most consonant sounds are high in pitch and bring clarity to speech. They help you discriminate between different words (i.e.. pick, tick, brick, lick, sick). If you have a high-frequency hearing loss, you miss the consonant clarity sounds while hearing the volume from the low pitches, especially in background noise.

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Meet the New Staff

Carrie Kern is the Warren Center’s newest Speech-Language pathologist. Carrie grew up in Bangor and left the region to attend Syracuse University. After graduating with a masters in Communication Sciences and Disorders, Carrie completed 10 years of professional work in Massachusetts where she gained expertise in diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for highly able students on the Autism Spectrum as well as diagnostic and therapeutic pre-literacy and literacy expertise relating to students with specific language based disabilities. Carrie has also had experience training educators in the area of appropriate modifications and accommodations for students on the Autism Spectrum.

Tricia Olson joined the Warren Center staff in November as the Public Relations Manager. Tricia is responsible for the Center’s marketing initiatives, media relations and fundraising efforts. Originally from DeForest, Wisconsin, Tricia moved to the east coast in 2001 to continue her education at the University of Maine. Tricia is a recent graduate of the University of Maine with a degree in Advertising and a minor in Public Relations. Prior to joining the Warren Center team, Tricia spent two years as the Marketing and Communications coordinator for a local outsourcing company. She also has two years experience providing public relations services to a public school system.

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ReHAB Program Received $9,000 Rite Aid Foundation Grant

The Warren Center is pleased to announce the receipt of a $9,000 grant from the Rite Aid Foundation in support of the Regional Hearing Aid Bank (ReHAB) program. Their generosity will allow at least 18 people in our community to receive hearing aids, dramatically improving their quality of life. Combined with last year’s donation, the Rite Aid Foundation has funded a total of 38 hearing aids through the ReHAB program.

Since its establishment in March 2002, ReHAB has serviced 74 community members. The program’s success is dependent upon financial donations as well as the donation of hearing aids. Currently, there are 30 people on the waiting list to receive hearing aids through ReHAB. Anyone interested in making a donation to the ReHAB program can send them to the Warren Center at 175 Union Street, in Bangor. The Warren Center accepts both behind-the-ear (BTE) and in-the-ear (ITE) hearing aid donations from community members. The BTEs are refurbished and given directly to the people on the waiting list. ITEs are sent to a recycling facility for a monetary credit which helps the Warren Center cover costs associated with the program.

Anyone wishing to receive a hearing aid through the ReHAB program can contact the Warren Center at 941-2850 for more information.