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Speech pathology Speaking with a clear voice You're thirty years old and you stutter. There's help available. And it won't cost you anymore than going to the doctor for a checkup. May is Speech and Hear- ing month. Chery] Setchell and Bonnie Breadner are # i speech pathologists at the Huronia District Hospital and the Penetanguishene General Hospital respectively. Trevor Pinn is five years old. He walks into the physiotherapy room at the _HDH for his weekly ses- Ready to work Kristie waits for her instructions from Chery] Setchell, the speech pathologist at the Huronia District Hospital. The child is learning how to better pronounce her "'f"' Port McNicoll bus dispute could be resolved Fearing a lengthy and costly challenge they could not afford to lose, coun- cillors in Port McNicoll last week trashed a parking bylaw they had designed in order to clamp down on large, commercial vehicles and school buses. A last-minute decision on what to do with the con- troversial issue had been reached just hours before the Wednesday-night coun- cil meeting, said Reeve John Moreau. Instead of passing the parking law and risking a court challenge or an On- tario Municipal Board hearing, the village will try another avenue: its proper- ty standards law. By "putting some teeth"' into the law, councillors hope to rid the village of what they see as a nagging problem: parking of large commercial vehicles and large school buses in residential areas. Coun- cillors have repeatedly stated they receive many complaints from villagers about the problem. "We don't want to make the wrong decision tonight," Moreau told the crowd. If the council had passed the law, he said, bus drivers could argue -- perhaps successfully, in front of a court -- that they have "legal non- conforming"' status. That would mean all bus (or commercial vehicle) drivers who had parked vehicles in residential areas before the passing of the law would be allowed to continue their practice. No newly-employed drivers would be allowed that luxury. Several months ago the village council tried to use the property standards law to take care of the school bus problem. At the time, there was'concern that en- forcement would be dif- ficult or impossible. But amending the law, Moreau said, "is the best route at the time." "We don't have to have a hearing ~ we don't have Accessible office In an attempt to ensure each and every municipal building is accessible to the physically disabled, the Port MecNicoll council will look into making its main office easier to get into by wheelchair. Councillors agreed that the last -- and possibly most important -- office to be a problem, should be altered. As it stands, there is a heavy door and two steps ta cross before reaching the main desk. > "Tt likely wouldn't take that much" to reconstruct the main entrace, Deputy- Reeve Ross Cameron said. "Maybe we should take a look at it,"' Reeve John Moreau noted that other municipal buildings, such as the com- munity centre and fire hall, are easily accessible. As well, the main council chamber has a ramp leading into it and no steps to cross. sion with Setchell. He tells her that his family is going to move this weekend. When Trevor started treatments last August, his words would not be so easily understood. "Trevor has gone from unintelligible to where he is now," says his mother, Karen Pinn. "Now he can play with children his own age...he has more con- fidence." Part of the reason for the boy's progress is the dedication of the parents. They both work with him and "th" sounds. Sometimes a straw is used to focus air in one direction. to have anything," he said. "We can just make amend- ments." Councillor Reg Quesnelle added: "And we'll be doing it as fast as we Can." A public meeting held in April regarding the now- dead parking bylaw reveal- ed the deep-rooted opposi- tion. That type of meeting will not be held on the pro- perty «standards amend- ments, the reeve said. But the public will still be able to voice its opinion during the "delegations" portion of regular council meetings. Several residents in the audience at last Wednes- 'day's council meeting spoke in favor of the original parking law. "I don't feel Port McNicoll should serve as a parking «. lot' for school buses, she said. Another remarked: "I pay taxes. I don't want to see a bright yellow school bus -- they are ugly, they are visible and they have no place in a residential section." Bus driver John Wadge said he and the owner of Penetang-Midland Coach Lines (which owns the school buses serving Port MeNicoll) had estimated that parking the vehicles in one of the company's Midland yards overnight would add 300,000 kilometres to the annual distance the buses travel. Fantastic car The steel rails of the railroad line between Midland and Orillia were given a "checkup" last week. A Sperry Rail Service rail testing car, one of seven such cars in Canada, on contract to CP Rail and CN Rail, made a slow trip bet- ween the town and the city. As the rail testing car travels at-a speed of bet- ween seven to 13 miles per hour, ultrasonic sound- waves probe the interior of the rails to find internal defects. Simultaneously an electric current indicates if rails are the correct shape. Chief operator Dave Covey said that 32 rails in the 33 miles of track bet- ween Midland and Orillia were tagged for replace- ment the last time that the length of railroad line was tested. On average the rail testing car will test 40 to 50 miles of track in a working day. A smaller version of the testing equipment is mounted outside on one - end of the testing car. When equipment inside the car suggests an anoma- ly, the car is stopped and the outside equipment is used to check directly the suspect rail. Sperry Rail Service is a division of Penn Central. for 15 minutes a day. As Setchell says, "'They have really made a dif- ference." Then there is Kristie, a four-year-old girl. To im- prove her speech, Kristie plays a game called "The Sleeping Giant." The 'ob- ject of the fun is to suc- cessfully pronounce "th"' and "'f"' sounds. -The child has trouble channeling her breath, a necessary thing to pro- nounce words like "thought." So a straw is put into her mouth, forcing Kristie to focus all the air in one direction. Speech problems affect many people in our socie- ty. But help is available. Breadner and Setchell want people to know what services are available and how you can get access to them. Speech pathology used to be known as "speech therapy."' But because the practice is diagnostic as well as therapeutic, the branch of medicine is in- creasingly being called speech language pathology. It's not commonly known that speech pathology is part of the general medical establish- ment. So both Setchell and Breadner want to inform the public and to "increase the doctor's awareness. Speech pathology is pretty new here," says Breadner. Chery] Setchell works at t SN the HDH but Huronia itself is her real place of employ- ment. She transits to and from the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie and fre- quently goes to Alliston and Collingwood. Bonnie Breadner spends most of her time at the PGH, though she does work at the Adult Rehabilitation Centre as well. Both of them are dedicated to solving speech problems. These can be as varied and as in- tricate as the people who come for help. It might be poor articulation, stutter- ing, slushy speech, a lisp, improper diction -- it's anything which makes so- meone's voice sound '"'dif- ferent' in some way and delinates a person from others by a voice pattern. "People judge us by our voice just as they judge us by our looks," says Breadner, "'it's a very per- sonal thing." Often speech problems are very personal matters too. As Setchell says, "Every stutterer is an in- dividual."' The emotional baggage which the person carries with him is relative to the amount of time he has suffered from the speech pattern. "The years of teasing have their effect. The child usually becomes either a smart-alec or withdrawn. So many emotions are wrapped up in that single problem," says the HDH Playing a serious game speech pathologist. Many children between the ages of 2-5 are afflicted by some degree of stutter- ing. Breadner believes the reason for this is that "they have so much to say and the vocabulary is not there for them to fully express themselves." Treatment for stutterers has changed over the past two decades. It's no longer something that children are screamed at for doing. The speech pathologists both use videotapes to rec- tify the speech problem. This allows the patient to see how his body looks when he stutters -- how his necks muscles are overtly tensed and how he looks away when he speaks. Some speech problems are directly related to hear- ing problems. If a child can't hear properly, he pro- bably won't speak proper- ly either. Breadner remembers one child that came to her that had suf- fered from constant ear in- fections. "He had gone through ear problems for 80 per cent of his life." Although there is a waiting list at both the HDH and PGH to see a speech pathologist, all you need do is wait. Access is otherwise uninhibited. At the HDH, you can call directly and arrange for an appointment with Setchell. At the PGH, you only need to be referred to Breadner through your family physician. Trevor Pinn's speech has improved Setchell's counterpart at the Penetangu dramatically since he has worked with ishene General Hospital and the presider speech pathologist Cheryl] Setchell. Bon- of the local branch of the nie Breadner also helps out. Breadner is Cleft Lip and Palate Fami! ial Wednesday, May 25, 1988 e age 3 a th ae