Great article about Kaufman from Detroit News

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Detroit News (Business section, 3/12)

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Center helps children find their own voices

W. Bloomfield facility helps kids with speech

disorders learn new ways to communicate.

Dybis / Special to The Detroit News

For adults, few things are as frustrating as trying to

communicate an idea and realizing your words have

missed the point.

For children with apraxia, that frustration is a neverending

feeling. Children with this speech disorder cannot

coordinate their mouth's movements, making it difficult to

combine the consonants and vowels necessary to form

words.

More than 15 years ago, Kaufman started her

own business to help these children find their voices.

The result is the Kaufman Children's Center, an

internationally known facility in West Bloomfield that

helps children and adolescents learn to communicate.

" Everything about this field (of work) is a thrill, " said

Kaufman, who will celebrate her 30th anniversary as a

speech therapist this year.

Word of mouth about Kaufman's successful techniques

has proved so powerful that families are traveling from

as far away as Japan to receive therapy. To that end,

she is looking at adding a housing aspect to the center

to help these families have a place to stay during their

intensive treatments.

Kaufman also is working on a new educational DVD to

help families and professionals use her treatments at

home or in other settings. Kaufman is the author of other

materials, including several workbooks on apraxia and

its management.

" We have been fortunate to work with children who are

unable to imitate even a vowel or a syllable and are now

requesting their favorite toys and activities due to the

Kaufman approach, " Kaufman said. " An estimated 40 to

50 percent of children with autism are not vocal

communicators. With specific teaching methods, we are

hoping to give these children a voice. "

Communication disorders affect about 42 million

Americans, according to the American Speech-

Language-Hearing Association in Rockville, land.

Of these, 28 million have a hearing loss and 14 million

have a speech or language disorder, the trade group

said.

The center specializes in speech, language and

occupational therapy, as well as sensory integration

services. Along with apraxia, Kaufman techniques and

other state-of-the-art speech, language, and sensorymotor

interventions are also applied to children with

issues including autism, Down syndrome, and many

other childhood developmental disorders.

Kaufman earned a bachelor's degree at Michigan State

University and a master's in speech-language pathology

at Wayne State University. She began specializing in

apraxia of speech in 1979. After 13 years in a local

hospital center, she opened her own center with half a

dozen clients.

Today, she has 32 people on staff and about 300 clients

every month who come from as far away as Ireland,

England and across the United States and Canada. The

staff serves children from as young as infancy through

high school, helping them put their thoughts into words,

comprehend language, socially interact, and manage the

sensory and motor skills of their bodies -- many for the

first time.

Kaufman said about 75 families per year are from out of

the state or country, and that number is growing. She

attributes this growth to the center's reputation and the

increasing number of children who are being identified

as having apraxia and the increase in Autism Spectrum

Disorders. In fact, her first family from Japan will visit this

month.

About three years ago, the center went from a rented

facility to its own building. The 11,000-square-foot

structure puts the whole staff under one roof. It also has

a gymnasium where children can receive occupational

therapy and sensory integration as part of their

treatment.

The center also offers community in-services on a

myriad of topics, helping families understand the

different communicative conditions and how to help

within the home environment.

Dybis is a Metro Detroit freelance writer.

(photo)

Kaufman,right, owner of Kaufman Children's Center in West Bloomfield,

works with children and adolescents who have communication disorders. Her staff

of 32 works with about 300 clients

monthly.

Photo:

Clarence Tabb, Jr.

(see link with photo in file section or up on our CHERAB Facebook page

http://www.apraxia.org

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