Ginny Dixon-Wood has developed a speech camp program for children with craniofacial differences including cleft lip and palate. The camp is designed for children ages 5 to teen and is located in northern Florida near Keystone Heights. The children stay in cabins with a counselor and during the day receive up to 6 hours of therapy per day including individual drill practice, group practice and interaction and conversational speech activities which are often incorporated into the other camp activities.

The camp is staffed by Ginny and 2 other licensed speech pathologists and several graduate and student speech pathologists. The recreational activities including swimming, boating, archery, wall climbing and crafts are organized by the camp personnel. In addition to improving speech production, an emphasis is put on interacting with other children in small groups, developing confidence in speaking in front of others and working on self esteem issues. In addition to having intense and individual speech therapy, parents will receive a notebook of activities for home use and treatment plans for the local speech pathologists so the therapy process can continue. Pre-camp and post-camp evaluations are done to document progress and help develop effective treatment protocols.

Camp 2004 is scheduled for June and will run 4 days/3 nights. If your child is old enough to attend a day camp but you're not comfortable about him/her spending the night, a day program will also be available. However, you will be responsible for lodging and transporting your child to and from camp. Fees will include therapy, food, lodging and recreational activities.