SPLAD Students Provide SALSA

This summer, six students from the Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology Departments (SPLAD) of Andrews University and Western Michigan University (WMU) participated in a collaborative clinical research study led by Andrews University SPLAD professor, Dr. Lena Caesar.  WMU professor, Dr. Nickola Nelson, a nationally-acclaimed researcher in the field of language and literacy acquisition, served   as technical consultant and co-investigator. 

The study, entitled  “Supporting the Acquisition of  Language and Literacy through School-Home Activities” (SALSA), was designed to examine the effectiveness of a home-school partnership for stimulating language and literacy skills in Spanish-speaking children of migrant farmers.  The 8-week research study conducted at a Migrant Head Start Center in southwest Michigan focused on expanding children’s abilities to produce oral narratives based on  drawings  of home experiences provided by parents. 

More than 30 families participated in the SALSA activities.  Findings of the study will be presented at the National Convention of Speech-Language Pathologists that meets in New Orleans later this year.