2005 'Jabber Jaw' participants to camp at MSU next week

Contact: Sammy McDavid

STARKVILLE, Miss.--Fourteen young people from Mississippi, Florida and Georgia who must use communication devices to speak are attending this year's special summer program at Mississippi State.

The eighth annual Camp Jabber Jaw is sponsored June 6-10 by the university's T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability.

Campers include both individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication devices and those who do not but are of similar ages. In addition to directly aiding participants, the program enables accompanying parents to share the triumphs and challenges of working with their children to build vocabularies while interacting with their peers.

Established in 1997, the Martin Center is named for the longtime MSU vice president who led in making the campus as accessible as possible to students with physical challenges. Built as an addition to the Longest Student Health Center and located at the intersection of Hardy and Morrill roads, the facility is unique in the assistive technology field because of its location on the campus of a major research institution.

Camp Jabber Jaw is among several comprehensive and integrated programs that support the center's mission to help persons with disabilities continually benefit from the latest developments in assistive technologies.

For additional information on Camp Jabber Jaw or other Martin Center programs, contact director Janie Cirlot-New at (662) 325-1029 or jcirlotnew@tkartin.msstate.edu.