DuBard at USM offering training

From: Jackson Clarion Ledger, MS - 12 Jan 2003

# Course to benefit special ed, learning disabled students

The Clarion-Ledger

The University of Southern Mississippi will offer a course in January and February on a teaching strategy to help students in special education and those with learning disabilities.

The course in the Association Method will be offered Jan. 14-16 and Feb. 11-13 at the DuBard School for Language Disorders.

The method is a multisensory teaching strategy for speech language pathologists and teachers in grades K-2. It benefits children with severe language disorders, hearing impairments, or both, learning disabilities, dyslexia and other communication disorders.

The Association Method is also used with nondisabled children to establish a code-breaking system for reading skills, and has been used by the faculty of the DuBard school since 1962.

Eloise DuBard, a former student of the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis, opened the DuBard School for Language Disorders on the Hattiesburg campus of USM. At about the same time, Elizabeth "Libba" Matthews opened the Magnolia Speech School in Jackson 46 years ago.

Since its opening, Magnolia teachers have used the Association Method in teaching students language skills.

The schools in Jackson and Hattiesburg are the only ones in the country using the association method on a full-time basis with deaf and language-impaired children.

"I have certainly sent my staff to this workshop in the past," said Ann Sullivan, director of the Magnolia Speech School, which enrolls about 75 students from the tri-county and state. "It's a wonderful, effective methodology that works with children with a variety of problems. It does take good training to learn to do this right.

"I'm delighted that the DuBard program is taking the time and effort to learn about the Association Method," Sullivan said. "I am sure they will be teaching both theory and technique, how to do it, and why you are doing it. My staff has come back more knowledgeable after attending this course at USM."

# For more information about the two courses or to register, call 266-4186.

Copyright © 2003, The Clarion-Ledger.