This Tucson preschool helps children with speech disorders thrive

Words Matter is one of the mottos at the child language center and preschool, Wings On Words. When walking through the midtown Tucson school, each classroom gets a little louder as the children get older. The “crescendo of noise” is what the staff wants to hear, Director Carole Wymer Jensen said.

Scottish Rite-UA Wings On Words Preschool at the Child Language Center (WOW/CLC) is a unique program with a research center, preschool and clinician’s office all directed toward helping children with speech delays and disorders acquire language. The program started more than 30 years ago at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, where it grew from a summer camp to a preschool. In 2000, with the help of their continued collaborator, the Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation, they turned a former Cluck U Chicken building into one of the top-rated preschools in the state.

Many children come to the program with few words or completely nonverbal, Wymer Jensen said, and by the time a child is 2½ years old, they should have substantially more words.

“Parents are coming and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, they told me I love you and I understood it, it was clear,’” Wymer Jensen said. “That matters to people, it matters to us.”

Early childhood education is important; most of a child’s brain development happens from birth to 5 years old. According to the National Education Association, children enrolled in early childhood education programs are less likely to repeat a grade, more academically prepared for later grades, more likely to graduate high school and become higher earners in the workforce.

Dropout rates have steadily decreased since 1970, according to an Institute of Education Sciences report. However, it found that in 2016, students in the lowest income quartile had the highest dropout rate at about 10% compared to the highest income quartile at about 3%. In 2021, Pima County had a graduation rate of 70.7%, the lowest in the state. Studies show that early childhood education can help raise those numbers.

Developmental language disorders are prevalent, Wymer Jensen said. It’s estimated that one in 15 children have developmental language disorders, and most of them go undiagnosed.

While the school also accepts children without speech deficits, about 60% of WOW students require speech-language therapy sessions. These services are provided in individual and group sessions by speech therapists and University of Arizona graduate students through the preschool’s affiliation with the university’s Department of Speech Language and Hearing Sciences. In the fall, the program will also become a lab school for Pima Community College’s early childhood educators.

Additionally, the trained teaching staff and speech-language pathologist assistants implement speech-language focused lesson plans throughout the school day.

When Sabrina Chapman, a WOW/CLC parent, realized her son wasn’t speaking, she enrolled him in weekly speech therapy sessions but said he wasn’t progressing the way she hoped. As she searched for other options, Chapman found WOW/CLC. He was 2½ at the time and completely nonverbal, but Chapman said after five months at the school, he was saying and stringing words together.

“I feel like he’s going to get to kindergarten and be, you know, he’ll be teaching the teachers,” Chapman said. “I think he’s absolutely more prepared above and beyond than I ever could have hoped for.”

Chapman drives almost 30 minutes to WOW/CLC, at 202 E. Speedway Blvd., for her son but says it’s worth it in part because of the program’s curriculum and community of teachers.

‘Tools to succeed’

Candy Kennelly has worked at WOW/CLC for 22 years. In an industry with a high turnover rate, she said she’s stayed with WOW because her heart is with this population of kids.

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Kennelly said she’s observed changes in students’ language abilities firsthand as a result of WOW/CLC’s teaching strategies. Language is incorporated into every subject, she said, including math and science. The teachers also engage in dialogic reading, where they ask questions and have conversations with the children, making them think analytically and talk as they read.

“You say, ‘tell me about your picture.’ So, at the beginning of the year, some kids will give you one word because expressive language is so low,” Kennelly said. “And at the end of the year, now, I was getting paragraphs.”

Kennelly said she’s stayed connected with many of her students and their families over the years; she even hikes with a former student once a month. The former president of the WOW/CLC board, Peter Reinthal’s son Reed Reinthal, is one of those students.

Reinthal’s son was diagnosed with a severe speech delay when he was a toddler. Frustrated with services provided within the school system, Reinthal took him to a specialist at UCLA who told him his son would never speak. When they found WOW/CLC his son thrived, Reinthal said. He is now 27 years old and a college graduate.

“You really see the development so much more quickly from all of the attention and all the work here, but it also gives them the tools to succeed,” Reinthal said. “That’s what you really want as a parent, is your kids to be happy and successful, and without words, it’s hard to do either one.”

Improving access

As foundational as early childhood education is, it’s not accessible to everyone. In Arizona, public school eligibility starts at age 5, and although Tucson offers some free and reduced-priced programs, the average private preschool costs up to $10,800 a year. This leaves the burden of finding and paying for school to parents, putting many low-income children at a disadvantage.

WOW/CLC wants to increase its equity, diversity and inclusivity, Reinthal said, and offering financial aid and support is an important part of the program. Seventy percent of the students at Wings On Words receive some sort of scholarship, and 30% of that 70% receive a full scholarship, director Wymer Jensen said. She and the board raise money for scholarships and write grants; the program has received support from the state, Pima County, Scottish Rite and First Things First through their five-star Quality First Arizona ranking and from the community to provide scholarships.

“We want to get more community involvement,” Reinthal said. “It’s often kids who come from more difficult family situations, they don’t know about the school, they don’t know about the resources that are available.”

To maintain their five-star status rating, the school needs to be regimented. Julia Chavez Sullivan found the program through Quality First Arizona. Her son attends WOW/CLC, and although he does not have speech delays, Sullivan said she’s liked their high standards and research-based curriculum. However, she said some of their rigid policies, like a strict start time where a child can’t be brought in anytime after 8:40 a.m., are not always parent-friendly. Sullivan said while she’s been happy at the school and understands the importance of structure, the rigidity of the program may not be for every family.

Wymer Jensen said WOW/CLC is a small program that can fill a small need. Forty percent of the program’s revenue comes from individual donors and grants. Wymer Jensen said they would love to expand the program but are currently at capacity. In the meantime, they’re part of a grant where they train other preschool programs and teachers on language facilitation techniques so that all programs can do the things they do.

“If you intentionally teach speech and language and early literacy skills, children are successful,” Wymer Jesen said.

To learn more about Wings On Words at the Child Language Center, visit clctucson.org.