Former Lady Colonel and Lady Hound provide speech therapy services in Belize

A pair of former local student-athletes from Whitley County and Corbin high schools are just returning to the Bluegrass State after a week-and-a-half long trip to Belize in Central America.

Sarah Bolton (WCHS Class of 2019) and Jenna Johnson (CHS Class of 2019) are both studying communication sciences and disorders at the University of Kentucky. As part of this program, they recently had the unique opportunity to travel to the country of Belize to assist with special camps dedicated to providing speech therapy services to children.

“The purpose of the trip was to conduct speech and hearing screenings for children and adults, as well as apply interventions to children in the area of speech and language,” explained Bolton, a former basketball and softball player at WCHS. “During the trip, we conducted speech and hearing screenings for two of the ten days, and we saw a handful of clients.”

Bolton, Johnson, and their fellow classmates also had the chance to participate in a special camp geared specifically towards meeting the needs of children.

“TYKES Camp is run through the Therapy Abroad program in San Ignacio where speech therapy students and professionals can travel to Belize in order to provide services to the pediatric population there,” explained Johnson, a former Lady Hound soccer player. “In these camps, we provided therapy services through fun group activities, play, and one-on-one sessions.”

“There are a lot of kids who need speech therapy in Belize for various reasons, and there is only one speech-language pathologist in the entire country,” Johnson added. “These camps are used as a way for children to receive services that they do not have access to within their country.”

When asked to talk about some of the main takeaways from the trip for her personally, Bolton said, “The lack of resources given to children and adults who need speech and hearing services in Belize. There is only one speech-language pathologist, making access to speech therapy extremely limited. These children are amazing, though. Gaining one-on-one time with them during evaluations and camp is an experience that I will never forget. The look on their faces when they were able to say a word or syllable correctly for the first time was truly amazing.”

“One personal takeaway I had from the trip is how my occupation is considered an option at home, whereas it is considered a privilege in Belize,” said Johnson. “The family members we worked with were so dedicated in getting their children the help they needed, and seemed to hold on to every word and resource that we had to offer.”

“It was extremely hard to leave Belize knowing that there are so many children who need the services that we can provide, yet many will never have the opportunity to receive therapy. I was extremely humbled when we arrived and realized how little we had to work with to run the camp and provide services to our children, many of whom had severe disabilities. However, the camp really helped to build my skills, flexibility, and confidence in my abilities as a future speech therapist.”

In addition to the work they did, students were also able to do a little exploring and enjoy some of the sights and sounds that Belize has to offer, with snorkeling, seeing wildlife and visiting ancient Mayan ruins being three examples of activities that both Bolton and Johnson got to experience.

Overall, both said they considered the trip to be an unforgettable experience.

When asked about the future, Johnson said, “In the immediate future, I will be working in the UK Academic Clinic, providing services to adults with Aphasia. After the spring semester, I will be entering my rotations at Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital and UK Chandler Hospital. My long term hopes are to provide services in a hospital setting. I hope to focus on swallowing disorders in either the adult population, or in the NICU setting.”

Bolton said, “My plans for the immediate future are to graduate in May with my Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. I have also started applying to grad schools for audiology and speech pathology in both Kentucky and Tennessee. One of my long term hopes would be to go back to Belize if I get the chance. This experience has opened my eyes so much to what is out there in our world, and I would love to be a part of it again!”