2 Oakville Beaver Weekend Sunday, April 9, 2000 T h e S p e e c h Junior & L a n g u a g e to their own level" . Full and H a lf S c h o o l past twenty seven years and has worked in hospital and school board settings all across Canada. She has a Master's of Education Degree.TALC Academy will be starting its third year in September. For the past six years she has operated CAM P TALC which provides speech and language program ming for children between the ages of three and ten. Judy is also affiliated with McGill University where she supervises Master Level students in the Speech Pathology Program. " TALC Academy is in opera tion because parents asked for intensive and innovative speech and language services for their children" explains Judy Nathanson. " Parents of children with speech and language difficulties know that the resources are not available in the system to help their children reach their potential. TALC Academy is for parents seeking intensive individual programming and daily therapy for their children so that they will be ready to enter or return to the school system with a firm foundation of speech and language skills. Our program is very specialized and unique. The children we work with have intensive speech and · language needs. W e I have a big job to do in order to meet their needs and we love doing Kindergarten Gr ade Thr e e Speech Pathologist and Academy Director Judy Nathanson is pleased to announce that TALC Academy is now accepting applications for the fall of 2000. ^TALC Academy is for children with specific and intensive speech and language needs. Children with a history of speech and language delay, expressive and receptive vocabulary difficulties, auditory memory delay, weaknesses in the areas of grammar skills, auditory processing, sequencing, severe phonological or oral motor difficulties would all benefit from the specialized program. In addition, children in Grades One to Three experi encing difficulty with reading, spelling, written language, and the language of mathematics are appropriate candidates. TALC Academy is a full year program for primary aged children. Junior and Senior Kindergarten classes as well as a Grades One, Two and Three program are offered at the Academy. Speech Language Pathologist and Director Judy Nathanson explains that as well as individualized classroom programming and small class sizes students receive daily, individual one to one speech and language therapy. "There are many children with intensive speech and language needs who would benefit from daily one to one therapy" , explains Nathanson. " Unfortunately, with the cut backs in the hospital and the school systems, daily one to one therapy or small group support is not available for most children" . TALC Academy's speech and language focussed curriculum will integrate the individual speech and language needs of the students into the Kindergarten and Primary grade Im dm k classrooms.The individual therapy goals of each student will be monitored and enhanced within the language enriched classrooms of TALC Academy. " Our goal is to develop and enhance communication skills so that students will be able to successfully return to the regu lar school system" states Nathanson. As well as inten sive one to one daily therapy,TALC Academy also offers intensive classroom sup port. Director of Academic Operations David Fisher explains that the Kinder garten classes at TALC Academy have a maxi mum of eight students. The Primary classes have a maximum of twelve, students with a teacher and educational assistant. " In an environment with this much individual assistance in the classroom we are able to program to meet individual needs" explains Fisher. Day p rogram s are available and parents can choose fro m one to five days a w eek. " Many parents have also enrolled their children in their local school's kindergarten program as well" , explains Nathanson. Children with speech and language needs very often have a great deal of difficulty acquiring reading and written language skills. The Grade One to Three classroom programs at TALC Academy are focussed on developing these skills. " Children with speech and language needs require a great deal of individual programming and direct instruction in the area of phonics.There are many different types of phonics programs that we use for children" explains David Fisher. Fisher, who is a past nominee for T.V. Ontario's Teacher of the Year states " that we have found that some children master the Phonetic rules when they are presented in the form of songs. Other children need a more visual approach and for these children we use a colour coded word family approach. W ith individualized programming, we can use the method that works best for each child" .The remainder of the Primary program, including math, science, social studies, music and physical education is presented in a manner that emphasizes language skills. Director and Speech Language Pathologist Judy Nathanson has an extensive background with providing innovative speech and language programming for children. She has been a Speech Language Pathologist for the · Accepting for the Fall of 2000 · 5 Full Tim e Speech Language Pathologists on Staff · Burloak & Q EW Area * The TALC Academy Kindergarten program will use creative play in order to develop speech, oral language and socialization skills.The precursor skills that are neces sary for reading such as rhyming, phonemic awareness, letter and sound recognition and patterning are an integral part of the Kindergarten program. The Kindergarten program will also focus on developing memory skills, vocabulary development, grammar skills and auditory processing. " These are vital skills for children to develop" explains Nathanson. " At TALC Academy we present these skills in a way that is fun and allows the students to achieve success at In order to find out more about TALC IAcademy and how it can help meet the needs of your child, please call Judy at (905) 3 19701 I. &