U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson arrived at UT Dallas in time to see an Independence Day parade on a small scale – literally.

About a dozen young children marched through the Callier Center for Communication Disorders’ Richardson campus on Friday, July 1, singing patriotic songs and donning red, white and blue. One youngster even stepped up to shake the congressman’s hand.

It was a timely welcome for Johnson’s visit as he toured the facility and learned more about programs offered to hearing-impaired children and adults. He has visited the UT Dallas campus on several occasions, but this was his first visit to the Callier Center Richardson campus.

Johnson, who represents portions of Dallas and Collin Counties in the Third District, spoke with Callier Executive Director Tom Campbell and UT Dallas President David Daniel.

“This is my first visit to this facility, and I was interested to know more about it,” Johnson said. “The Callier Center provides some wonderful services to our community.”

The Center serves as an important regional and national resource for children and adults with speech, language and hearing disorders. In addition to offering clinical services, the Center trains graduate students in audiology and speech-language pathology.

This year, U.S. News and World Report ranked the speech and audiology graduate programs at UT Dallas in the top 5 percent nationally.

“We do research, clinical training of graduate students and we also provide clinical services for individuals in our community. Those are our missions,” Campbell said. “Any time we get an opportunity to let the public know what we do, we think that’s important, so we were thrilled with Congressman Johnson’s visit.”

Johnson also toured the nationally accredited child development program, which provides early education services for children from birth through 5 years of age, as well as laboratories for clinical research and the adult program.