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Grant Highlight: Expanding Horizons: Broadway Kids

(The Horizon Foundation) -- Loyola University Maryland was founded in 1852 as a small, all-male commuter school but has now emerged as a comprehensive, co-educational university.  In 2003, Loyola created the Loyola Clinical Centers (LCC) to provide graduate education and training and a range of speech-language pathology/audiology, educational and psychological services to all ages in the Baltimore/DC region.  Recently, the Clinical Centers began to focus specifically on increasing the breadth and number of services provided at its Columbia location. 

In order to increase the availability and affordability of services to individuals with autism spectrum disorders, (a relatively large population of individuals live in Howard County), the Columbia Speech and Language Center is partnering with the Columbia Center for the Theatrical Arts (CCTA) to provide a unique program called, Expanding Horizons: Broadway Kids.

Expanding Horizons: Broadway Kids uses drama and music to target speech therapy goals, allowing children ages 10-17 who have identified social language deficits secondary to autism spectrum disorders or other developmental disabilities, to improve their social communication in a natural, fun, and engaging way. The program focuses on building upon the children's strengths, rather than simply attempting to remediate their weaknesses. The final "performance" allows for the participants, their parents, and their families to celebrate their achievements. Using a collaborative speech-language and performing arts approach based upon CCTA’s successful Broadway Kids program, the children are engaged in targeted, fun and engaging communication experiences that employ scripting, repetition, and peer interaction to improve social language skills. 

Janet Schreck, Executive Director for the Loyola Clinical Centers, says, "Funding from the Horizon Foundation has allowed the Loyola Clinical Centers to expand the capacity of the program by increasing the number of children who can participate as well as expanding the referral network for the program through targeted marketing efforts." She continues, "It has also provided us with the resources to collect systematic data on outcomes for participants in the program, as well as their parents. This data allows us to make evidence-based modifications to the program so that we can better address the needs of the parents and their children as we continue to grow the program internally and pilot it in Howard County Public Schools."

Speech-language pathology graduate students are involved in the Expanding Horizons: Broadway Kids program, and gain the critical skills of collaboration and innovation as they problem-solve how to address each child’s individual social communication goals within the natural context of the musical rehearsal and drama exercises. They also learn the importance of focusing on the children’s strengths and accomplishments, not just their deficits or weaknesses. This unique training experience prepares them to be creative and compassionate professionals.