Facilities and Laboratories
Clinics
Penn State Speech and Hearing Clinic
The Penn State Speech and Hearing Clinic is housed within the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. The Clinic sponsors several programs designed to give students clinical experience in all age groups with a wide variety of communication disorders. Supervision is provided by CSD faculty holding Certificates of Clinical Competence in Speech/Language Pathology and Audiology. The Clinic contains individual and group therapy rooms, audiological suites, and both adult and child therapy rooms.
Speech and Language Services
Child Therapy Program
The Child Therapy Program (CTP) provides services to preschool and school-age children who have delays/disorders in language, fluency, voice, articulation, and phonology, including those with severe speech impairments requiring augmentative and alternative communication.
Adult Therapy Program
The Adult Therapy Program (ATP) provides services to adults (18 years or older) with a variety of speech and language disorders. The adults in this program are from the local geographic area.
Residential Adult Therapy Program
The Residential Adult Therapy Program (RATP) also provides services to adults with a variety of speech and language disorders. The RATP is unique because it is residential in nature. Most of the clients who attend this program live on the Penn State Campus and attend intensive individual and group speech language therapy.
University Therapy Program
The University Therapy Program (UTP) provides speech language services to undergraduate or graduate students enrolled at Penn State.
Audiological Services
Audiology Clinic
The Audiology Clinic (AC) provides a complete range of audiological assessment and habilitation/rehabilitation services, including adult and pediatric audiological evaluations, otoacoustic emissions, digital hearing aid assessment and dispensing, and central auditory processing evaluations and research. Patients range in age from infancy to geriatrics. Further, the AC provides adult aural rehabilitation therapy and pediatric aural rehabilitation support groups.
Practicum and Externship
In addition to these on-site clinical programs, the coordinators of the Speech and Hearing Clinic also arrange practicum experiences in conjunction with other University programs in Special Education and Human Development and with the State College Area and surrounding school districts and other nearby facilities. Also, all students are required to do an off-campus externship. The externship is a full-time experience and is completed during the last semester of study. Externship sites are selected through consultation with the externship site coordinator and approved by the coordinator.
Laboratories
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Laboratory
The Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Laboratory (Drs. Light and Drager) houses a wide array of state of the art AAC assistive technology designed to meet the needs of individuals with significant communication disabilities. This assistive technology is used to support research, education of families and professionals, and service delivery to people with significant communication disabilities. The AAC lab also serves as a resource center for individuals who require AAC, their families, professionals, and Penn State students and faculty. The AAC lab is composed of two separate rooms, which houses all of the assistive technology, have digital audio and video recording and editing capability, and allow for meeting space.
The Voice and Fluency Laboratory
The Voice and Fluency Laboratory (Dr. Blood) assists in the objective assessment and treatment of voice and stuttering disabilities. Glottographic, electromyographic, stress measurements, biofeedback, and computerized analysis of voice and speech samples are conducted. Research on computerized fluency and voice treatment, clients with laryngectomies, and emotional arousal in individuals who stutter are conducted.
The Language Development in Diverse Contexts Laboratory
The Language Development in Diverse Contexts Laboratory (Dr. Hammer) houses video- and audio-taping equipment for collecting language samples and for studying interactions between caregivers and their children. It also contains computer stations equipped with transcription machines for analyzing data. SALT, a computer software program that is useful in the study of child language, OCS, a computer program used to analyze parent-child interactions, and software to analyze qualitative data are available in the lab. The laboratory functions as a site for investigating the language and literacy development of bilingual Hispanic children, African American children, and children with SLI, and for studying parental beliefs and parent-child interactions.
The Language and Cognitive Development Laboratory
The Language and Cognitive Development Laboratory (Dr. Mainela-Arnold) studies cognitive underpinnings of language development and its disorders. It is currently being designed to contain state of the art digital audio and video equipment as well as hardware and software for running computerized experiments. Computer work stations will be equipped for analyzing and editing audio and video recordings, and performing a variety of statistical analysis. A complete selection of testing instruments for assessment of language and cognition will be available.
The Child Phonology Laboratory
The Child Phonology Laboratory (Dr. Miccio) houses facilities for studying speech sound production in children. The laboratory contains seven computer workstations and additional hardware and software for transcription and analysis of speech samples from audio and video. The laboratory also houses software for advanced training in clinical phonetics and phonology. Current projects focus on assessing phonological development, emerging literacy skills of bilingual children, and treatment efficacy. Both undergraduate and graduate students are involved in laboratory activities.
The Child Language Development Laboratory
The Child Language Development Laboratory (Dr. Miller) is equipped to collect high-quality analog and digital audio and video recordings. Necessary computer hardware and software is available for digitizing and editing audio as well as video. Several powerful statistical analysis software packages are used to meet a wide variety of research needs. Software for the analysis of language transcripts is also available. The lab is equipped with a number of instruments for assessment of language and cognition, and hardware and software for conducting computer-based experiments.
The Brain, Language, and Literacy Laboratory
The Brain, Language, and Literacy Laboratory (Dr. Misra) uses converging behavioral and neuroscience methods to study the processes underlying the development of fluent speech and reading. This laboratory houses a 64-channel EEG/ERP facility for concurrent collection of brain-electrical recordings and behavioral responses. Computer workstations with a variety of software packages are available for experimental testing and data analysis. Research in the laboratory focuses on neurocognitive correlates of language processing, emphasizing component skills in reading, automaticity of orthographic and phonological processing, subtypes of developmental dyslexia, and language selection mechanisms used by bilingual speakers.
The Speech Science Laboratory
The Speech Science Laboratory (Dr. Prosek) is concerned with the physiological and acoustical aspects of speech production and perception. Current research includes speech enhancement in noise, quantification of voice disorders, improving alaryngeal speech, and aerodynamic assessment of speech and voice.