CSD 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 with a wide variety of communication disorders in subjects of all age groups. 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 or 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.
Stuttering and Fluency Laboratory
Two major projects are being conducted in the Stuttering and Fluency Laboratory which are directed by Professor Gordon Blood and collaborator, Professor Ingrid Blood.
1) The goal of the Psychosocial Aspects of Stuttering Project directed by Professor Gordon Blood builds on their current research to understand the attitudes, perceptions, attributions, and stigma related to stuttering in children, youth, adolescents and adults. Examining the co-occurring psychosocial aspects of stuttering including attitudes and cognitions will help to increase the discipline’s knowledge of the cause, risk factors and maintenance of stuttering. They are also exploring innovative intervention techniques to assist individuals who stutter. 2) The second project directed by Professor Ingrid Blood builds on their published work for the past two decades reporting atypical cerebral laterality and processing in persons who stutter when compared to persons who do not stutter. This new wave of research will use electro-encephalographic (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technologies to examine brain activation during speech production. They will also be discovering why and what technologies can be used to effectively treat stuttering with anti-stuttering technologies including: DAF, FAF (octave-scale), Kay Elemetrics Computerized Speech Lab (CSL 4300B), etc.
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 Language Development Laboratory
The Child Language Development Laboratory (Dr. Miller) studies typical and atypical language development in children and adults, processing of auditory input, and other cognitive abilities related to speech and language. The lab is equipped to collect high-quality analog and digital audio and video recordings, and has computer hardware and software 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 sixty-four-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.
The Laboratory For The Study Of Visual Supports in Communication And Education
The Laboratory For The Study Of Visual Supports in Communication And Education (Dr. Krista Wilkinson) houses a variety of projects that seek to improve the effectiveness of visual supports used in communication intervention for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Many such children use visual schedules, calendars, or communication books that have pictures of upcoming activities, desired foods, friends, or favorite social activities. The studies in this laboratory examine how systematic consideration of the construction of these displays (placement and color of the symbols on the aid, for instance) might influence functional communication or learning outcomes. The research includes basic studies of visual processing conducted within the laboratory as well as applied instructional procedures embedded within storybook reading activities that take place in children’s homes or schools. Future planned studies include neuro-imaging studies that will allow us to examine brain responses to the visual communication symbols presented on the displays.