Speech and Language Clinics

Information and Scheduling Appointments

To obtain information about our Speech and Language Clinics, call (520) 621-7070. A packet of information describing our services will be sent upon request. You are welcome to download our Child fillable PDF form or our Adult fillable PDF form, complete, print, and mail to us. The packet includes information on available services, case history form and fee schedule. The case history should be completed and returned to the Clinic. If available, copies of evaluations or progress notes, physician notes, IEPs, should be included with the case history form. A parking permit and map will be sent in the mail. The clinics are open Monday through Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm. The clinics are in operation 9 months of the year, and offers a variety of individual and group programs, including outreach activities. We welcome physician, community and self-referrals.

Our Clinic activities are on a fee-for-service basis. Evaluations cost $300. Individual one-hour sessions cost $70 and one hour of group therapy is $35. The Clinics currently contract with the Division of Developmental Disabilities. We offer scholarships depending on financial need and availability for treatment. Clients can be provided with a form to send to their private health insurance for possible reimbursement (it is up to each client to seek reimbursement). Please call for more information. The Clinics accept Visa and MasterCard.

Driving directions: From Speedway, turn south on Mountain Avenue. Turn right at 2nd Street. Turn right at Palm Road. You will enter Parking Lot 3039. You may park in the designated spaces behind our building (look for blue signs “Speech and Hearing Patient Parking”). Place the permit on dashboard, driver’s side and face up.If you cannot find parking spaces behind the building, you may use the metered parking spots or the multilevel parking garage on 2nd street, provided you pay the standard parking fee.

Handicap access is available. The building has two handicap entrances. Both are located on the north side of the building, by way of the ramp.

Please read about our Notice of Privacy Practices.

Adult and Pediatric Speech and Language Clinics

Graduate students in Speech-Language Pathology provide the evaluations and treatment with our clients under the direct supervision of a certified speech-language pathologist. All of the clinic faculty hold Arizona licensure and certification from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).

At the Clinic for Adult Communication, we provide comprehensive evaluations of adults with disabilities due to stroke, traumatic brain injury, neurologic diseases and disorders, and structural abnormalities. We also provide evaluations and support to enhance presentation style and professional communication skills, including accent reduction. Finally, we evaluate the need to augment speech with communication systems or speech generating devices that enhance comprehensibility.

The CAC provides treatment for adults with disabilities due to stroke, traumatic brain injury, neurologic diseases and disorders, structural abnormalities, vocal abuse/misuse, stuttering/cluttering, hearing loss, and developmental factors. Special programs include the Aphasia Program, Cochlear Implant Rehabilitation, the LSVT Program, and T.A.L.K. groups (AAC groups for adults).

The Grunewald-Blitz Clinic for Communication Disorders in Children (GBC) provides comprehensive evaluations and treatment of children and adolescents with specific language impairment, articulation and phonological disorders, cleft lip and palate, stuttering and cluttering, voice disorders, autism and PDD, ADD/ADHD, literacy difficulties, as well as neurologic disorders such as cerebral palsy, stroke and traumatic brain injury. The clinic provides specialized programming for children with cochlear implants, as well as the summer T.A.L.K. camp for children using speech generating devices. Outreach Programs and consultations are available.

The GBC was endowed in 1995 by Ms. Abbey Grunewald to honor the memory of her grandson, Nicholas Blitz, who had cerebral palsy and dysarthria. Each year, the GBC evaluates and treats hundreds of children, offering a communication lifeline to Tucson and Southern Arizona Communities. The clinic is equipped with state of the art instrumentation in speech-language pathology and audiology. The environment is fun and functional, accommodating individual and group therapy sessions.

The Autism Clinic Extension (ACE), in partnership with the Tucson Alliance for Autism, provides communication therapy for children pre-school through sixth grade diagnosed with or suspected of having Autism Spectrum Disorder or Asperger’s Syndrome. ACE offers small group and individual therapy focusing on the development of speech and language skills, appropriate toy play, pragmatics, game play, making and keeping friends, and appropriate group behaviors. Involvement is promoted through empowering parents to communicate with their child, teaching parents language facilitation techniques, and providing techniques and strategies to promote interaction within the family and school.

Therapy is provided by graduate students from the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Department under the direction of a licensed and certified Speech-Language Pathologist.

You can read past ACE Newsletters for interesting information regarding programs, ideas, and current research: Fall 2010 , December 2010, February 2011 and March 2011.