Addition of Children's Center Hailed

              By SALLY REESE
Times Medical Writer
The Children's Center for han-dicapped
children in North Louisiana
was formally opened at 3730 Blair St.
Thursday by the School of Allied Health
Professions, Louisiana State University
Medical Center.
A month into operation, it provides
comprehensive evaluations of children
with known or suspected handicapping
conditions, training and support pro-grams
for their families, student train-ing
for the LSU medical school, and
learning for infants up to three years
old.
It is across the street from the
school's Mollie E. Webb Speech and
Hearing Center, which also serves the
North Louisiana area.
Dr. Stanley H. Abadie, dean of the
School of Allied Health Professions,
hailed the new Children's Center as
another step in the development of a
comprehensive medical center here.
Through it, he said, the mentally and
physicially handicapped have access to
clinical services of LSU Medical Center
in Shreveport.
Said Dr. Allen A. Copping, chancellor
of LSU Medical Center, "We feel proud
that we are beginning to do things for
the community, especially the
children."
Being within a medical complex, it
has a decided advantage for early in-tervention,
which is crucial, said Clydie
K. Mitchell, the program director.
"We have resources immediately
available, so we can make speedy de-cisions
and get on with a plan tor a
child's future'" said the former director
of special education in Caddo public
schools. "We can be right there when
the doctors look at the children."
Types of children to receive its atten-tion
include the emotionally disturbed,
mentally retarded, physically disabled,
and the learning disabled. The physical-ly
disabled, for example, includes the
blind and deaf; the learning disabled,
the children who cannot write because
of dysagraphia or cannot read because
of dyslexia.
Children are received by referral of
the parish supervisors of special educa-tion.
Multidisciplinary • teams from
medicine, allied health specialties, and
education will diagnose and evaluate,
develop intervention program^and pro-
' vi'de' technical assistance for implemen-'
ting them. Dr. Joseph A. Little, head of
pediatrics at LSUMC, is the medical
director.
The professional training program
provides clinical experience for stu-dents
in all departments of the schools
of medicine and allied health as well as
education, psychology and special
education colleges and universities.
On the staff are: Dr. Jo Fleming,
educational consultant; Dr. Deborah
Koshansky, child development
specialist; Michael Lewis, medical
social worker; Dr. Warren Lowe,
psychology consultant; Dr. Mary Pan-nbacker,
language and speech consul-tant;
Dr. Gordan H. Schuckers, com-munications
consultant; Judith C.
Vestal, occupational therapist; and Gay
Wolcott, audiologist.
Addition of Children's Center hailed
May 1, 1981 Times