The Clinical Education Center hosted its annual Halloween event Oct. 30 at California Baptist University’s Health Science Campus to help speech therapy patients engage their fine and gross motor skills through fun activities.
The CEC invites all of its patients and their families to take part in Halloween-themed events. Kids can trick or treat for healthy snacks such as popcorn, Goldfish and pretzels.
The event offered coloring to enhance fine motor skills, a spider web obstacle for gross motor skills and a pumpkin workout to help children learn how to engage their whole body.
The National Speech Language and Hearing Association’s on-campus chapter partners with the CEC to raise awareness for events and help undergraduate students connect with organizations on campus and throughout the community.
Dr. Danette Bonillo, assistant professor and director of Clinical Education for Speech Language Pathology, said she is grateful for the support system at CBU and the relationships they can foster through NSLHA.
“The event allows NSLHA to serve our clients and our community that is receiving services at the CEC,” Bonillo said.
NSLHA often works alongside local organizations such as the Autism Society Walks for Autism and Strokes for Stroke painting events with the American Heart Association. The step-by-step painting helps patients with fine motor skills. They also host graduate school events at CBU to help educate undergraduate students.
Rachel Haynes, senior communication sciences and disorders major, has volunteered for the CEC for the past two years and said she enjoys being able to help people with communication disorders find their voice.
“Everyone deserves to have a voice; our goal is to help partner alongside different people to help them run more efficiently and love on people with the love that Christ would show,” Haynes said. “We know God’s heart is for people to have a voice and (we) are trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus by showing love to people through a speech therapy obstacle course or even coloring.”
Volunteers working with the clinicians in the CEC try to give them tools they can use with the children and make the day-to-day therapy diverse.
Tiffani Greenfield, senior communication sciences and disorders major, said she has worked with the CEC for two years and volunteers to help with crafts and get paperwork organized for the event.
“I like to see the kids running around and laughing. When I’m volunteering and see them in the rooms, they do not always want to be there. It’s nice to see them doing what they want while still getting therapy,” Greenfield said.
NSLHA will be hosting an event on Nov. 14 at CBU’s main campus, which will feature a speech pathologist who specializes in laryngectomy.
They hope that by bringing outside specialists in addition to their faculty, they can help educate aspiring speech pathologists on what they can be doing to better the future.
