"Your seminar in Portoviejo, Ecuador, was excellent.
The CORRECTIVE BABBLING method as taught by Andi Jobe
has a strong scientific basis and produces spectacular results.
It is important not only for Latin America,
but also all over the world."
- Homero Andrade B., Psychology Teacher, Universidad Christiana Latino Americana
(November) Visit to Portoviejo (first site to reach a sustainable status)
(September) Meeting with the Dalhousie faculty in Halifa
(September) Visit to Honduras
(June) "Centro de Terapie de Lenguaje Dr. Richard Jobe" dedicated in Ecuador
(May-June) Fifth EARTHSPEAK Visit to Ecuador
(December) Speech Camp in Los Angeles
(October) EARTHSPEAK Presentation at Congress on Cleft Lip and Palate in Curitiba, Brazil
(September) Durban Conference Presentation a Great Success
(September) EARTHSPEAK Continues Work in India
(August) Operation Smile and EARTHSPEAK Launch Joint Venture in Colombia
(May) Operation Smile and EARTHSPEAK Announce Joint Venture in Colombia
(April) EARTHSPEAK in Ecuador
(January) EARTHSPEAK in Hyderabad, India
(February) EARTHSPEAK in Hyderabad, India
(January) EARTHSPEAK in Muscat, Oman
News Archives (2008)
EARTHSPEAK Visit to Portoviejo, Ecuador
November 1-16, 2008.
EARTHSPEAK team members made their 6th visit to Portoviejo, Ecuador.
Participants included EARTHSPEAK co-founder Andi Jobe and translator Edith Schlesinger from the United States,
and Cindy Dobbelsteyn and Elizabeth Kay Raining Bird from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Maria Isabel, an Ecuadorian speech pathologist, joined the team for speech training.
Local participants included Raquel Duenas, Patricia Teran de Solorzano, and Carlos Vasquez.
The EARTHSPEAK program in Portoviejo has reached a status of sustainability.
This important milestone was achieved because of the efforts of many talented and dedicated team members
and local support people.
An important addition to the local effort is the recently completed Dr. Richard P. Jobe Cleft Palate Clinic, dedicated to the late co-founder of EARTHSPEAK. The team toured the clinic upon arrival in Portoviejo. That same evening a dinner was hosted by Patricia Briones de Poggy, major of Portoviejo, and her husband Geno Poggy in their magnificant home and garden. It was the perfect setting for discussions about the next stages of the comprehensive plan for care of individuals with clefting conditions in Manabi province.
Training was one of the focus activities for this visit. Twenty training candidates, who have been working with EARTHSPEAK for some time, were authorized as parent trainers. A formal graduation was held at the Rotary Club of Portoviejo. Gaby Basque, a speech pathologist recently hired to work with EARTHSPEAK in Ecuador, will also train to become a master trainer and administrator. Communication and database facilities are being set up to facilitate discussion and case information among trainers.
A new speech camp was held and the EARTHSPEAK team reviewed the progress of past speech camp participants. One 11-year-old boy, Jose David, has made particularly remarkable progress since the time of his last review six months ago. Jose's speech is now almost within normal limits. Jose will be featured in a documentary being filmed by father-son team Dennis and Scott Burry, a professional photographer and photojournalism student, respectively.
Several other areas of Ecuador are interested in setting up a cleft palate center like the one in Portoviejo, including the town of Bahia, where another Rotary club is working on getting the necessary local support.
At the Portoviejo Rotary Club's celebration of its 71st anniversary Andi Jobe, EARTHSPEAK co-founder, was inducted into the organization as an honorary member. Fewer than 10 individuals have been given this honor in the history of Club Rotario.
September 14-17, 2008.
Andi Jobe, co-founder of EARTHSPEAK, followed her visit to Honduras with a trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia to discuss the work of Dalhousie faculty members and students in Ecuador as part of the EARTHSPEAK program.
Andi began the visit with a series of meetings with Dr. Joy Armson, head of the Communicative Disorders department. Other activities involved discussions with faculty members and EARTHSPEAK participants Dr. Elizabeth Kay Raining-Bird, Cindy Dobbelsteyn, and Raylene Delorey, as well as a "meet-and-greet" session for interested Dalhousie students.
Andi appreciated the opportunity to unite with colleagues who have dedicated themselves to the mission of EARTHSPEAK, and to thank them for their work on behalf of the children of Ecuador.
September 5-14, 2008.
EARTHSPEAK visited San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to continue its work in Central America.
One objective was to continue the training of Mayra Jacome to become an EARTHSPEAK authorized Master Teacher, and the training of Pascuala Martinez to become a Clinical Trainer of parents in Honduras.
Mayra completed all areas her training with outstanding skills. Mayra is an exceptional individual who can serve the families of Honduras in a way that honors the standards of service EARTHSPEAK would like to see. The next step in her training will be to give her more independence in evaluation and review of patients and parent training.
Pascuala, who is a nurse by training, is gaining the skills she will need to eventually work independently as a parent trainer. Mayra will work with her between EARTHSPEAK visits to Honduras.
For the first time EARTHSPEAK teamed up with Interplast surgeons, and it brought great patient benefit.
During the review of past EARTHSPEAK speech camps, one patient stood out as an outstanding success. This child won a school award for being the best public speaker in a school contest. The teachers were so impressed that they asked the village mayor to support training by EARTHSPEAK for the teachers in the village school.
This speech camp was held in a new location obtained by Mayra Jacome, in the city center, easily accessible by bus and known to the people. The city supervisors were very helpful with the camp set-up, and are looking into an even better setting for the next EARTHSPEAK speech camp.
Andi Jobe of EARTHSPEAK and Dr. Oscar Zuniga, head of the pediatric society in San Pedro Sula, appeared on Dr. Zuniga's local TV show to talk about cleft palate and the need for surgery and follow-up speech training of the kind provided by EARTHSPEAK. EARTHSPEAK intends to continue this educational program with a series of informational shows on return trips to Honduras.
May and June 2008.
EARTHSPEAK visited Portoviejo, Ecuador, for the firth time.
Key objectives of the visit were continued training of health care workers to become the first line of contact and support for families of children born with cleft lip and palate, conducting the third stage of a multistage training for teachers, a week-long speech camp, and evaluation of participants in prior speech camps.
Six faculty members and students from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, participated in the visit. In addition, Edith Schlesinger from San Francisco, CA, joined the team as translator. Local participants included a speech-language pathologist and Rotary Club members.
Approximately 70 nurses and other health care professionals attended the training seminars on June 2 and 3. The focus of the seminars was to provide information regarding the nature of cleft lip and palate, problems associated with cleft lip and palate, and interdisciplinary management. New material on syndromes associated with cleft lip and palate was provided on the afternoon of the second day.
Continuing training of teachers for level 3 certification was provided on June 4 and 5. This training focused on furthering the participants' understanding of speech sounds in the Spanish language, and errors related to clefting.Training also involved overseeing the work of the Master Trainers.
Eight students from prior speech camps were evaluated. Two students were generally within normal limits. Four were advised to continue training in specific areas on their own, and two were re-enrolled in the current speech camp.
Thirteen new students were enrolled in the week-long speech camp, which took the usual form of lecture and practice. The camp closed successfully with the presentation of certificates and lunch with a party for the children.
On June 9 the Rotary Club dedicated a new speech center to the memory of Dr. Richard Jobe, one of the EARTHSPEAK co-founders.
EARTHSPEAK also engaged in discussions with representatives from the Rotary Club of Bahia to discuss the possibility of their future involvement with EARTHSPEAK.
December 7-14, 2007.
One of the major goals for this program was to explore the ability to form an association with Friends of Barnabas (FOB, a U.S.-based non-profit organization in Richmond, Virginia). The December speech camp trained parents of patients identified by FOB.
Another major goal was to begin the EARTHSPEAK process that would train Mayra Jacome, a psychologist at La Lima Hospital in a suburb of San Pedro Sula, and to allow Kathi Hoffer, Ph.D., of Rotaplast International, to complete the third level of the four-part authorization process of EARTHSPEAK.
Twelve children came for possible inclusion in the camp. Several were referred for further surgery, and six were enrolled.
Two of the children being evaluated had been in previous EARTHSPEAK camps in Santa Rosa de Copan. It was wonderful to see these children, especially since EARTHSPEAK volunteers had been unable to locate them on two previous visits to the site. One had completed all but the /rr/ sound with success, and his speech was now within normal limits. His father had been his mentor, and the father's praise for the program and the CORRECTIVE BABBLING method was great. He told all the parents waiting for evaluation that this was the most important thing they could learn and do for their children.
Sady, another EARTHSPEAK camp graduate also stopped by to say hello. His speech is now within normal limits, and his life is moving forward. He graduated from high school two years ago and says he now has a confident and full life.
The speech camp produced well-trained parents, even though two are non-readers. Their husbands will do the reading needed at home. Another mentor was an elderly grandma who is a non-reader and has difficulty with multitasking. Her granddaughter reads and understands, and the two will work together.
It was extremely positive to observe that the training of others is now creating many hands to do the work. The camp took the usual form of lecture and practice, and Kathi and Mayra presented many of the lectures and directed the practice work.
However, as EARTHSPEAK become better known throughout the international community, the need for skilled trainers who can teach others the CORRECTIVE BABBLING method becomes more critical. Under current consideration are electronic instruction of the method paired with on-site work to run speech camps. Linking EARTHSPEAK visits to those of surgical groups is another possibility.
February 21-March 2, 2007.
This year's EARTHSPEAK team included three faculty members from the School
of Human Communication Disorders, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia:
Elizabeth (Mandy) Kay-Raining Bird, PhD, Cindy Dobbelsteyn, MSc (team leader),
and Raylene Delorey, MSc.
Two speech-language pathology (SLP) students from the School of Human Communication Disorders
also accompanied the team: Kelly Root and Laura Boland.
Edith Schlesinger came from California for her second year as translator.
Members of the team that developed a three-year plan to provide the first rural
program for comprehensive cleft care in Manabi province met and consolidated the plan.
The team includes Rotary International, the provincial departments of health and education,
Rostros Felices/Interplast, the dental school at the University of San Gregorio in Portoviejo,
Foundation Maria Claudia (otolaryngology) and EARTHSPEAK.
The EARTHSPEAK team then conducted the first of multistage trainings for selected teachers
and health care workers in Manabi province to become the first line of contact and support
for families of children born with cleft lip and palate.
The health care workers received one day of training, and the teachers participated
in an additional two-day workshop to train them to support parents and children
in the process of rehabilitation.
The review of past speech camps revealed a great deal of progress by past participants.
Of the ten reviewed, six have either reached normal speech or are making satisfactory progress,
three had new mentors and were re-enrolled in the current speech camp,
and one was referred for individual therapy to correct muscle tension dysphonia.
Twenty-seven new speech camp potentials were assessed for intake,
and ten were accepted into the week-long camp.
Of the remaining 17, one was normal, two were too young to benefit from the program,
and the others needed either additional medical attention or an individual therapy program,
to which they were referred.
The camp began with stories of the remarkable progress being made by past participants.
For example, Hector Valdez Ramirez, 29 years old, told how the camp he attended
had changed his life, both improving his speech and making him more confident
about himself.
The mother of an 8-year-old prior participant shared her daughter's story to give new
mentors the confidence to help their children.
After attending two camps, the girl now has almost normal speech,
with difficulty only with /r/ blends.
The camp closed with the presentation of certificates, lunch with cake, games, songs, and poems.
February 15-26, 2006.
The largest EARTHSPEAK team ever gathered in Ecuador assembled in Portoviejo, Ecuador,
to conduct a new speech training camp for parents and mentors of cleft palate individuals,
as well as to provide second-stage training for local and regional professionals,
to continue developing a comprehensive cleft palate team center in the Manabi province, and
to review speech clients from previous camps on the results achieved using
the EARTHSPEAK-designed and -developed CORRECTIVE BABBLING method.
In-country team member Maria Isabel Guerra joined the group in Quito.
Denisse Zunino, Dr. Gorge Palacios of Rostros Falices Foundation,
and Raquel Duenas and Carlos Vasquez, both Rotary Club members,
made the local arrangements.
International team members from the U.S. included Judith Trost-Cardamone PhD,
EARTHSPEAK co-founders Richard Jobe, MD, and Andi Jobe, MA, and Edith Schlesinger,
who acted as translator.
In addition, the group was joined by several professionals from Dalhousie University
in Nova Scotia, Canada.
These were Elizabeth Kay Raining Bird, PhD, Cindy Dobbelsteyn, MSc,
and Raylene Delorey, MSc, as well as Joy Armson, PhD and Director of the Communicative
Disorders department.
Twenty-one patients participated in the speech camp, and ten former speech camp participants
returned for review.
Over 90 nurses, special education teachers, therapists, university professions, and others attended
the training seminars.
These local and regional professionals help immensely to extend EARTHSPEAK's reach
well beyond the EARTHSPEAK-conducted speech camps, which have now been operating for several years.
Team members met in Guayaquil and proceeded by van to the training center for
professionals, parents and mentors, and students in Portoviejo.
A great deal of progress was made in all activities.
One particularly fruitful area of endeavor has been work with older children and adults.
An excellent example is Antonio, a 19-year-old who taught himself
using the speech manual and a mirror.
He returned to report that he is now teaching others in his town of Jipiyapa,
where he has had a very positive effect on the progress of five others.
He asked for four more manuals so he could work with additional speech students.
Antonio also spent time during the week completing his 3-year program to become a tour guide.
He hopes to earn enough money to pursue graduate studies.
Xavier, age 12, first came to an EARTHSPEAK camp in 2003.
His mother had such difficulty reading that the speech professionals despaired that she
would ever be able to help him learn to speak.
When Xavier came for his first review he had made virtually no progress.
His mother was determined to succeed, and she retook the entire speech camp.
Others in the camp were also determined, and they gave her a great deal of help and encouragement.
At Xavier's second review during this camp his speech was within normal limits.
He and his mother stayed at the camp during the week, and he helped by playing with the younger
children so their mothers could focus on their mentoring work.
Maria, an 11-year-old, began her speech training two years ago.
Last April at her review she had shown good progress, but now she had no teacher.
Her mother had died and she was now living with her grandmother, who had not been trained.
Over the past ten months Maria has been training herself.
She takes the manual to school and works both there and at home twice a day.
Her speech is now almost within normal limits,
and her grandmother participated in the February camp to try to help
her granddaughter make more progress.
Maria, a confident and beautiful young girl, addressed the assembled
group of new mentors and students to motivate them on what can be
accomplished if they do the work required.
January 5-14, 2006.
The speech camp was sponsored by EARTHSPEAK, the Indian Ministry of Health,
and the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS).
Indian team members were from NIMS and the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute
for Hearing Handicapped (NIHH).
Team members from the U.S. were Andi and Richard Jobe (EARTHSPEAK co-founders)
and Judith Trost-Cardamone, Professor of Speech Pathology at
California State University Northridge (CSUN).
Trost-Cardamone came as the first EARTHSPEAK visiting professor in India.
Key goals of the trip were to review patient progress from the September 2005 speech camp,
to conduct a new camp for patients and parents, to train local and regional speech professionals,
and to identify additional areas for research on the CORRECTIVE BABBLING.
The number of patients returning for follow-up review was higher than ever before in India,
with 19 total returning for review (including 11 out of 17 participants from the
September 2005 camp).
Eighteen of the 19 patients were either nearing completion of the training or making good progress.
Only one was not using the mentor methods as instructed.
EARTHSPEAK has already trained 11 interns in India, and the current six active interns
will graduate from the program in June 2006.
In all, 28 parent-child teams (56 people) participated in the January camp.
December 27-30, 2005.
In December EARTHSPEAK team members Richard Jobe and Libby Wilson (plastic surgeons)
and Andi Jobe and Judith Trost-Cardamone (speech pathologists) held a speech camp
in Los Angeles for patients ranging from 9-21 years of age.
The EARTHSPEAK team was joined in this effort by Cindy Costello (program coordinator)
and Raquel Rivera (translator) of the hospital Craniofacial Department.
The camp was delivered in Spanish.
All patients were English and Spanish speakers with deficits in both languages.
One boy had not only cleft-related speech but also severe oral dyspraxia.
He was non-verbal and relied only on a complex gesture system for communication.
He began the camp with his head down in anger and frustration.
But by the end of day two, after learning how to breathe and pass air out of his mouth,
he went through a dramatic social transformation.
At the end of camp, he presented the staff with the gift of a balloon he had blown up himself
and spoke the words, "o u" ("for you").
Such positive results are not uncommon in EARTHSPEAK speech camps,
where the CORRECTIVE BABBLING™ method is helping patients in many parts of the world,
including the United States.
October 23-30, 2005.
EARTHSPEAK co-founder Andi Jobe presented information about the CORRECTIVE BABBLING method
at the Congresso Brasileiro de Fissura Labio Palatina in Curitiba, Brazil.
The Craniomaxilofacial Society of Brazil devoted the annual meeting entirely to cleft palate issues;
EARTHSPEAK's participation was sponsored by Operation Smile.
The response to the presentation was overwhelmingly positive, and EARTHSPEAK received many
requests to help health organizations adapt its parent/mentor and therapy program for use in Brazil.
For example, Dr. Rui Pereira, head f a center in Recife (which has been an Interplast site),
requested a CORRECTIVE BABBLING training program as soon as possible.
Dr. Francisco Alves Teixeira asked that EARTHSPEAK come to help the indigenous peoples of the Amazon region.
Dr. Diego Franco requested EARTHSPEAK services in the Rio region.
In addition, Midori Hanayama, Speech Professor at the University of Sao Paulo,
has agreed to translate the CORRECTIVE BABBLING manual into Portuguese, and
would like to introduce the method to more members of the Brazilian university community.
EARTHSPEAK Presentation at Durban Conference a Great Success
September 2005.
EARTHSPEAK co-founder Andi Jobe presented information about the CORRECTIVE BABBLING method
and the positive results EARTHSPEAK has achieved in speech programs around the world.
The presentation took place at the 10th annual International Congress for Cleft Palate
and Related Craniofacial Anomalies.
The presentation and subsequent discussion were lively and well received.
It was a great opportunity for the EARTHSPEAK founders and the larger community to share ideas
about its emerging activities.
EARTHSPEAK was also successful in enlisting the help of additional talented and dedicated people
to help solve the problem of overseas cleft care.
September 2005.
EARTHSPEAK continued the many ongoing activities in India.
A review of patients trained in previous camps in Hyderabad revealed that most
children are making excellent progress with parent-delivered speech therapy.
A small minority need repeat surgery, and a few have problems following through with practice at home.
Steps are being taken to better encourage and assist the parent trainers and students with
follow-on activities.
Our rural health care outreach project continued through an interface with
Indira Kranti Patham, the statewide, government poverty reduction project for the rural poor.
A recently formed alliance with this group will result in the training of 100 people
who will work in the disability section of the project.
New parents and patients were trained in a speech camp held for both Telegu and Hindi speakers.
Fourteen new interns were trained from AYJNIHH (Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for Hearing Handicapped),
one of the regional centers for the National University in India.
These activities were written up in an article in the
Times of India,
a national newspaper.
Operation Smile and EARTHSPEAK Launch Joint Venture in Colombia
August 12, 2005.
Operation Smile and EARTHSPEAK, with the support of Operacion Sonrisa, Colombia,
have joined together to launch a year-long project with the following goals:
- To certify speech therapists to become parent trainers of the EARTHSPEAK speech correction system known as CORRECTIVE BABBLING
- To study the effectiveness of CORRECTIVE BABBLING with older age, surgically repaired patients with cleft palate
With the partnership of Maria de la Torre, Educational Coordinating Director of Operation Smile, USA,
and Margarita Vargas (Executive Director), Milena Cleves (Speech Therapist),
and Dr. Luis Bermudez (Medical Director), all of Operacion Sonrisa, Colombia,
EARTHSPEAK began the first stage of this project in Bogota, Colombia, August 8-12, 2005.
Seven Colombian therapists (Janneth Suarez Brand, Claudia Arboleda, Milena Cleves,
Brigith Duenas, Maria del Pilar (Pilar) Echeverri, Cristina (Maky) Tavera, and Joanna Gerlein)
completed the first stage of a three-stage certification process to become parent trainers
of the EARTHSPEAK program.
Adrianne Rosete of the Center for Speech and Hearing, Venezuela, and Virgilia Saavedra
of Operation Smile, Panama, joined them in this program.
All nine of these talented young women successfully completed this first training step.
Their effort as team leaders during the program was invaluable.
Each speech therapist was assigned to assist teaching teams during the week-long training session.
Each teaching team consisted of the "student" and her mentor.
Students and mentors were selected for the program according to preset criteria.
Patients ranged in age from 5-34.
Mentors were parents, relatives, and friends.
Their assigned speech therapist team leader assisted their learning during the speech camp,
and will monitor their progress at three-, six-, and 12-month intervals.
Speech sampling criteria was elicited and videotaped at the beginning of the therapy program,
and will be repeated during the interval evaluations.
Interval results are being sent to the research development head of the EARTHSPEAK team,
Dr. Pam Davison, and head speech trainer Andi Jobe.
The week was very successful.
Parents, speech therapists, and patients reported feeling confident and ready to take on the task
of speech correction.
In one short week parents and their "students" went from being hesitant and unsure
to feeling confident and capable.
In addition, parents and other family members not at the training reported that they were already
seeing improvements in the speech of their children and grandchildren.
Operation Smile and EARTHSPEAK Announce Joint Venture in Colombia
May 31, 2005.
EARTHSPEAK and Operation Smile are today announcing a year-long joint project in Bogota,
Colombia, beginning with a speech training camp on August 7, 2005.
Operacion Sonrisa Colombia, Operation Smile's local foundation located in Bogota,
will support the requirements needed to successfully complete the program.
The Colombian organization has pledged its full support and will:
- Recruit the four volunteer professionals scheduled to begin their EARTHSPEAK training cycle
- Select the 20 mentor/patient teams who will participate in the training
- Coordinate the logistics for the smooth evolution of the event
To further confirm the positive results for older patients obtained with EARTHSPEAK's
CORRECTIVE BABBLING method, most of the patients selected will be adults.
Follow-up of patients will be conducted three, six, and 12 months after the camp.
With this project EARTHSPEAK will add to previous data and learn if the effectiveness
of the method can be replicated.
The results will help both organizations outline how they can complement each
other's work in many other countries.
The head of Operation Smile's Speech Pathology Council, Dr. Charlotte Ducote, and
Dr. Pam Davison of EARTHSPEAK will contribute their skills as they establish
effective review measurements and statistical analysis of speech tools
to evaluate results on the patients.
The speech therapists who will be
trained will evaluate patient progress using these measures.
Andi Jobe, co-founder of EARTHSPEAK, will deliver the training program to the
20 speech mentors and four Columbian speech therapists.
Volunteer speech therapists from Operacion Sonrisa Panama
and Operacion Sonrisa Venezuela will attend as observers.
Andi Jobe of EARTHSPEAK and Maria de la Torre, Education Exchange Coordinator for Operation Smile,
have been working for several months to outline this learning opportunity
for their respective organizations.
EARTHSPEAK is especially grateful to the leaders of Operacion Sonrisa Colombia,
Dr. Luis Eduardo Bermudez and Lic. Margarita Vargas de Vargas, for hosting this event,
and to Operation Smile Inc. for making this exciting project possible.
April 2005.
EARTHSPEAK just completed two successful weeks in Ecuador - a continuation of our work with
the Club Rotario de Portoviejo and Dr. Jorge Palacios, head of Fundacation Rostros Felices.
Our work is centered in Portoviejo, a town of 200,000 people that serves the surrounding
villages of rural farm workers.
Over 200 people attended workshops and seminars by the EARTHSPEAK team, including speech therapists,
special education teachers, nurses, university professors, and university students
from five universities in the Manta and Portoviejo areas.
In addition, we conducted a new speech training camp, and reviewed the
progress of parents and their children from prior camps.
Ecuador was on the brink of an open political revolt, and transportation was very difficult.
Some of the rural people who were registered for the camp were unable to come in to town,
but the camp was still held for residents of the Portoviejo area.
EARTHSPEAK volunteers left the country by plane from Guayaquil only 25 minutes before
the airport was shut down.
A regional TV station did a three-part
series on the EARTHSPEAK visit.
Highlights included the following.
A young man who traveled five hours by bus to show the EARTHSPEAK volunteers
how much progress he had made through self-training.
Since he had no one to help him, he spent time each day with his manual practicing in
front of a mirror.
Such miraculous success is possible through the CORRECTIVE BABBLING method,
which moves in small, easy-to-understand steps.
The young man is training to be a tour guide for English-speaking tourists visiting the Galapagos islands.
Because he now has a remarkably optimistic vision of his future,
he has taken on the training of a young woman, who needs, as he puts it,
"help to develop the confidence that she can do it."
A mother who told the TV crew:
"This is the medicine for speech.
My daughter is now getting all A's in school and has friends.
This could not have happened until her speech improved."
The EARTHSPEAK volunteers learned that combatting ignorance about cleft palate will require more time
and effort.
We heard the story of a baby living with his mother high in the mountains who was not able
to suck properly because of his cleft palate.
The child died of starvation at three months of age.
We also heard of a tradition followed by some people living in remote jungle areas.
When a child is born with cleft lip or palate they cut the umbilical cord, place the infant
in a sack, and throw it into the river to drown.
The training and publicity being undertaken by EARTHSPEAK is helping to combat the ignorance and superstition
that makes stories like these all too common.
January 2005.
EARTHSPEAK presented their work in parent training using CORRECTIVE BABBLING at the India Society
for Cleft Lip and Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies.
EARTHSPEAK presented a two-day pre-conference workshop with Dr. Ann Kummer
(Director of Speech Clinics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital), Rosemary Watts,
and Rosemary Wyatt from the United Kingdom.
Over 100 delegates from all over India attended.
At the Society meeting following the conference, EARTHSPEAK was invited to be one of
four presenters in a novel section of the conference called "going for broke."
These presentations were innovative and different because they were based on "out-of-the-box" ideas.
The response was overwhelmingly positive.
We explained the basis, methods, and results of parent training using CORRECTIVE BABBLING to over 450
plastic surgeons, orthodontists, and speech therapists from all over the world.
February 2004.
EARTHSPEAK, in partnership with the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS)
and the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH),
is creating a center for total correction of the anatomical and
speech deficits of cleft lip and palate.
This model program, "From Cleft Palate to Clear Speech," was inaugurated
in February in the city of Hyderabad located in the state of Andhra Pradesh in Southern India.
It is anticipated that this model will be used throughout India to get help to needy children
with cleft lip and palate.
It is the first effort of this type ever made in India.
The goal of the program is to make it possible for any child, regardless of means,
to receive timely surgical correction and needed speech therapy.
The numbers of patients needing such service are in the multithousands.
Each year a thousand more children are added to these already staggering numbers.
The program is under the leadership of Dr. Mukunda Reddy, Head of the Division
of Plastic Surgery at Nizams.
For over 20 years he has held a vision of offering the multiprofessional care needed by cleft
patients for full recovery.
Dr. Reddy also serves on the International Board of EARTHSPEAK.
January 2005.
EARTHSPEAK was invited to present its novel approach to speech correction using parent trainers and
CORRECTIVE BABBLING at both the pre-conference workshop and International Conference
of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
The presentations were met with high regard.
When the pre- and post-videos of one child were shown, the room broke into applause!
Following the conference, we met with four therapists from Oman.
They want to learn how to use this method and system in Oman and
other countries in the Middle East.
Together we are creating a training manual in Arabic.
We anticipate doing a training session with these therapists
and others from the Middle East in 2005.
