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Manages a Statewide program, at the Department of Health, offering speech and hearing services through clinics for medically indigent children with defective hearing.

Under the direction of the Physician-Director of the Bureau of Crippled Children, responsibility is assigned for supervising the Statewide clinic program whereby tests and treatments for defective hearing and speech are provided to medically indigent children by Speech Therapists and Clinical Audiologists. The work involves keeping abreast o£ the most recent developments in testing and treatment, organizing, recommending, and supervising the implementation of modern clinical procedures pertaining to defective hearing, and administering the continued operation of defective hearing clinics throughout the State. Physicians, school systems, and local health departments are given consultation on matters pertaining to the specialty including techniques of conducting mass in-school hearing tests, treatments available for various types of hearing defects, and procedures for treating hearing defects in children who are also afflicted with facial deformities.

Examples of duties characteristic of positions in this class:

1. Supervises the operation of a number of children's defective hearing clinics throughout the state.

2. Consults with personnel and physicians of local health departments, school systems, and the facial deformities program in advising on the types of tests and treatments available for children with speech and hearings defects end in organizing specific courses of treatment.

3. Assists the Physician-Director of the Bureau of Crippled Children in planning for new clinics; recommends and implements the adoption of new testing and treating techniques in defective hearing clinics based upon knowledge gleaned from continued study of developments and improvements in the field.

4. Meets with representatives of medical equipment companies to obtain the most recent information on test and treatment equipment; evaluates new equipment and recommends procurement of devices for use in the program.

 

Possession of a master's degree in speech pathology or audiology from an accredited school of speech and hearing. Certification by the American Speech and Hearing Association in the area of speech and hearing and four years of experience in the field of speech and hearing of whicl1 one year must have been in a supervisory capacity. A doctorate in the field may be substituted for two years of non-supervisory experience.

Thorough knowledge of normal child growth and development, language and speech development, auditory training teaching skills, hearing aids, phonetics, and clinical methods and procedures of speech pathology and audiology; knowledge of anatomy, physiology of the vocal mechanism and the ear, human behavior, and organic speech problems; ability to work with children with behavioral problems; knowledge of referral services for securing specialized treatments.