Funded Research, Development, and Training Projects in SLP

Speech-Language Pathology Specialists Who Work with Children Who Have Hearing Loss

The University holds funding from the U.S. Department of Education for early intervention training. The funding will assist in preparing 32 SLP graduate students from 2007-2011 to work with children with hearing loss as they learn to maximize the use of technology such as hearing aids and cochlear implants. The grant will train 8 students per year for their entire graduate program. The trainees will receive a tuition waiver and a stipend during the two year training program. This personnel preparation grant is a joint venture with Kent State University. Eight students per year will be trained (5 from UA and 3 from KSU) for four consecutive years.
Special coursework will enrich the trainees’ knowledge and background of cochlear implants and modern hearing aids and the special training needs of infants, toddlers and children who use them. Recipients will learn how to be effective members of collaborative teams that emphasize family membership and the active participation of related professionals. They will study and then apply, principles of early intervention including best practice themes of cultural diversity and collaborative teaming.

The AT R&D Collaborative on Cognitive Disabiities is a multi-phased disability rehabilitation research project to assess the use of several types of information technologies by children and adults with cognitive disabilities, spcifically those with tramatic brain injury and mental retardation. The five-year project anticipates outcomes including an online device catalog, needs surveys, usage trials, white papers on outcomes of needs surveys and usage trials, family training tools, a virtual town hall meeting and recommendations to manufacturers. Partners include Temple University's Inistitute on Disabilities Center for Excellence on Developmental Disabilities, Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems Projects Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. The grant is funded by the National Institute on Disabilities Rehabilitation Research.

The Homer Family Foundation Scholarship offers tuition waiver and a graduate assistantship stipend to a second year student interested in working in pediatrics, particularly children with hearing impairment. The scholarship provides an opportunity for training a second year graduate student who has demonstrated exemplary performance while assigned to the Auditory-Based Clinic for children with hearing loss.

The Oberkotter Foundation has awarded the University of Akron's Auditory-Based Clinic for hearing impaired children funding for a three year period beginning in Fall 2003. The purpose of this initiative is to promote and provide auditory-based methodologies for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers who are deaf or hard of hearing by partnering with existing state-operated early intervention programs within the state of Ohio. Each year this grant will offer a full-time graduate assistantship to one second year speech-language pathology student. This SLP student will work closely with a second or third year Au.D. student to expand theoretical knowledge and clinical application for infants, toddlers and preschoolers who wear either hearing aids or cochlear implants.

The Musson Foundation of Akron, OH is providing funds to develop a multi-media training program to support children and families learning to use personal data assistants (PDA's) . The multimedia training program will enhance the training provided by the Assitive Technology Collaborative Partnership funded by NIDRR. The final product will be a dynamic Web-based instructional program with video and voice to accomplish our instructional goal.