WSU SLH Clinic Grand Opening

After the IEP determination meeting we rushed to Wichita to see how all of the remodeling looked at the Grand Opening of the WSU Speech Language Hearing Clinic.  We have had services there for over five and a half years and it felt like a second home, and the staff is practically family.  I thought we were going to go this fall, but the school services have been good enough that we are on hold at WSU right now.  We will probably go back for summer friendship groups for Zane.  Zora graduated from services, but she might go back to be a peer model in the future.

We have seen the slow evolution over the last few years, and did many of our speech sessions amid paint fumes, sawdust, and hammering noises last semester, so we felt like we were really a part of the transformation.  We even donated our old train table when we moved, since we didn't have room in our new place.  It was hard to let go of, but I know it will be well loved.  (It will be in the waiting room, it was just stowed in the preschool room for the Grand Opening to make room)

Zane checking out a very familiar  train table.

It really was well done.  From the subtle things, like changing the therapy rooms from a bright white to a soothing mix of brown tones with variable lighting (would have been a big deal when Zane was little), to the more dramatic, like a new activity room for older kids (and adults, presumably) so they didn't have to meet in the preschool room.  There were new microphones in the rooms so the observation rooms and recordings would have better audio, and just a dramatic increase in the number of rooms.  There are also huge changes in the facilities in general, including new offices for the faculty and staff, the whole lobby area, and even the entry way doors.  (they made it a double entrance so Kansas winds and wild weather didn't cause so many issues with the doors.)

The two changes I am the most jealous of is the new, large conference room with these awesome comfy chairs.  Oh, that would have been wonderful for all the conferences and the adult education segments of Reading Explorers where we used to cram ourselves into tiny rooms.  The students also got a massive improvement to their work room.  They even have lockers now so they don't have to haul so much stuff around with them everywhere, and there is actual space to spread their work out.

I am so happy for all of them.  They so deserve to have a nice place to work.  They are an amazing group of people who do an incredibly challenging job exceptionally well.

They even updated the brochures, including a photo of one of Zane's friends and this really cute little girl.  :)

the photo in the brochure was of her first day of pre-school there

Now both of my kids star in brochures for speech-language places in town.  lol.