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Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine

Speech and Hearing Sciences

Elson S. Floyd College of MedicineSpeech and Hearing SciencesNews

Speech and Hearing News

Megan BrendalNavajo faculty member brings unique perspective to language

When Megan Brendal was in grade school, a language-screening test labeled her as “limited English proficient.”

Among other things, she misidentified a leaf as a feather and said that boats were often seen on the street, not water.

But the standardized test didn’t take into account that Brendal was from the desert vistas of New Mexico, where pinyon trees have needles instead of leaves, and vehicles towing boats on roads to distant waterways is an everyday sight.

In Brendal’s world, her answers were correct. Her language wasn’t impaired. She was different.

Years later, Washington State University recruited her, in part, because of her difference.

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NATIVE AMERICAN SCHOLARSHIP REACHES ENDOWMENT LEVEL

A scholarship for Native American students in Washington State University’s Speech and Hearing Sciences program has reached the endowment level and will create a lasting legacy for its namesake — the late J. Richard Franks, Ph.D., a former professor and leader in the department.

Franks saw that Native Americans were vastly under-represented in the field and took action to change that. He secured U.S. Department of Education funding in the 1980s which established the foundation for WSU’s Native American professional preparation program in speech-language pathology and audiology.

Over a 25-year period, Franks was actively involved in the department’s efforts to recruit and graduate Native American students with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Gail Chermak, Ph.D., chair of the program, called Franks a visionary.

“Many of our Native American alumni have returned to serve their communities and have assumed professional leadership roles thanks to Dr. Franks,” Chermak said. “We all owe Dick Franks a huge debt of gratitude as we see the impact and contribution of his former students, as well as current and future Native Americans who might not have considered attending WSU had we not established a reputation for supporting Native American students to success.”

To make a contribution, please contact Nancy Fike at nancy.fike@wswu.edu or 509-358-7616.

Grad students take second place at knowledge bowl competition

The WSU/EWU National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association (NSSLHA) team took second place at the National NSSLHA Knowledge Bowl held in conjunction with the annual convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, in Los Angeles, November 9-11, 2017. Our team scored just a few fractions of a point behind the first place winner, the University of Iowa, which is ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the no. 1 program in communication sciences and disorders in the country. Our winning graduate student team is Tiana Bennett (WSU), Lacy Hefley (EWU), Jennifer Owens (EWU), Sarita Thotakat (WSU), and Rachel Verdun (EWU).

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Recent Publications and Presentations

  • Chermak, G.D. (2018, July). CAPD: Making informed, evidence-based clinical decisions. Continuing education webinar, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
  • Lynch, G.T.F., James, S.M., & VanDam, M. (2018, July). Pupillary response and phenotype in ASD: latency to constriction discriminates ASD from typically developing adolescents. Presented at the 4th Neurological Disorders Summit, Los Angeles, CA.
  • Hsieh, M-Y*, Lynch, G., & Madison, C.
    Intervention Techniques Used With Autism Spectrum Disorder by Speech-Language Pathologists in the United States and Taiwan: A Descriptive Analysis of Practice in Clinical Settings
    Am J Speech Lang Pathol. Published online April 27, 2018. doi:10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0039 *M.S. ‘14
  • VanDam, M., Anderst, J., Olds, D., Saur, A.*, De Palma, P. (2018, May). Linguistic type-frequency in preschool boys and girls with and without hearing loss. Poster presented at the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota. * Undergraduate student
  • VanDam, M., Saur, A.*, Anderst, J., Olds, D., De Palma, P. (2018, May). The influence of siblings on toddlers’ mean length of utterance. Poster presented at the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota. * Undergraduate student
  • Abramson, M., Moncrieff, D., Chermak G.D., Musiek, F.E., Geffner, D., & Guillory, L. (2018). Six points of audiological consensus on central auditory processing disorders (CAPD). The Hearing Review, 25(4), 38-40.
  • Musiek, F.E., Chermak, G.D., Bamiou, D.E., & Shinn, J. (2018, April). A perspective on hidden hearing loss/beyond the pure tone audiogram. Invited featured session presented at the American Academy of Audiology Annual Conference and Exposition, Nashville, TN, converted into an eAudiology web seminar, American Academy of Audiology eAudiology Library.
  • Musiek, F.E., Chermak, G.D., Bamiou, D.E., & Shinn, J. (2018, April). A perspective on hidden hearing loss/beyond the pure tone audiogram. Invited featured session presented at the American Academy of Audiology Annual Conference and Exposition, Nashville, TN.
  • Undergraduate (A. Saur, WSU junior SHS and Honors College, J. Anderst, EWU senior CMSD) research (with Gonzaga collaborator P. De Palma) was presented in Spokane and Pullman:
    • VanDam, M., Saur, A., Anderst, J., Olds, D., & De Palma, P. (2018, April). Linguistic complexity of boys and girls with and without siblings. Poster presented at the Inland Northwest Research Symposium, Spokane, WA.
    • VanDam, M., Anderst, J., Olds, D., Saur, A., & De Palma, P. (2018, April). Lexical variability in the speech of preschoolers who are hearing impaired. Poster presented at the Inland Northwest Research Symposium, Spokane, WA.
    • Saur, A., & Anderst, J. (2018, April). Expressive Language of Toddlers as Influenced by Siblings. Poster presented at the Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity, Pullman, WA.
    • Anderst, J., & Saur, A. (2018, April). Linguistic type-frequency in young children with and without hearing loss. Poster presented at the Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity, Pullman, WA.
  • Musiek, F.E., Chermak, G.D., Bamiou, D-E, & Shinn, J. (2018). CAPD: The most common ‘hidden hearing loss.’ The ASHA Leader, 23(3), 6-9.
  • Filippini, R., Weihing, J., Chermak, G.D., & Musiek, F.E. (2018). Current issues in the diagnosis and treatment of central auditory processing disorder in children. In D. Geffner & D. Swain. Auditory processing disorders: Assessment, management, and treatment. (3rd ed.). San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group.

Recent Community Outreach and Engagement

  • Speech and Hearing Sciences professors Amy Meredith and Nancy Potter offered the 6th annual intensive oral motor and literacy treatment program (Camp Candoo) for 4-8-year-old children with severe speech sound disorders.
  • The National Student Speech Language Hearing Association awarded the NSSLHA Chapter at Washington State University and Eastern Washington University with 2018 Gold Chapter Honors. Efforts made by the WSU/EWU NSSLHA University Programs in Communication Disorders (UPCD) Chapter helped National NSSLHA:
    • Increase awareness of communication sciences and disorders (CSD) among state and federal legislators
    • Provide scholarships to students in CSD programs by contributing to a donation of more than $10,000 to the ASHFoundation’s NSSLHA Scholarship
    • Raise more than $15,250 to the 2017-2018 NSSLHA Loves campaign
    • Support clients, students, and organizations in local communities across the nationThe Chapter Honors awards recognize outstanding National NSSLHA chapters that engage in ways that support NSSLHA’s mission to inspire, empower, and support students in communication sciences and disorders (CSD) to engage in leadership opportunities, grow professionally, and excel in their future careers.
  • Ten graduate and undergraduate students from the University Programs in Communication Disorders (UPCD) (WSU Speech and Hearing Sciences and EWU Communication Sciences and Disorders), under supervision of Speech and Hearing Sciences Clinical Associate Professor and Clinic Coordinator Christiane Dechert, volunteered their assessment and treatment skills in Zacapa, Guatemala for 10 days at the beginning of May. They provided speech/language therapy services to underserved children and adults in partnership with Hearts in Motion, a U.S. based non-profit organization. UPCD students interacted with occupational therapy graduate student from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, in this interprofessional experience.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Clinical Associate Professor and Clinic Coordinator Christiane Dechert served as expert witness for the Boise Immigration Court, testifying on the impact of speech/language disorders and the importance of quality early intervention. This service was on behalf of a case represented by the Human Rights Clinic of the University of Idaho, Moscow, ID.
  • Mark VanDam, faculty member, assistant professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine and Russell Hyslop, Speech and Hearing Sciences, each received the Chancellor’s Award for Leadership and Engagement, honoring students, staff and faculty who advance leadership and engagement on campus and in the community from WSU Spokane Chancellor Daryll DeWald on April 17, 2018.
  • Interprofessional Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Forum held on the WSU Spokane campus, February 27, 2018, organized by Speech and Hearing Sciences Professor Nancy Potter.
  • Rare Disease Day Spokane, an educational event held on the WSU Spokane campus on February 28, 2018, to draw attention to rare diseases as an important public health issue. Organized by Mary Mcdirmid and Theresa Whitlock-Wild, community members; Chris Wherity, Multi-Care Health System; Heidi Medford, Office of Commercialization; Pharmacy Professor Mike Gibson; OHSU Research Associate Professor Jean-Baptiste Roullet; and Speech and Hearing Sciences Professor Nancy Potter and Assistant Professor Georgina Lynch.
  • Clinical Professor Amy Meredith and EWU Senior Instructor Roberta Jackson met with community members in Brewster, WA to explore partnerships to serve underserved migrant workers in the areas of speech, language, literacy, feeding, and hearing. They are working on a clinical plan to provide their students an experience similar to their programming in Zacapa, Guatemala, where students provided services at free clinics for predominantly Spanish speaking people with a variety of disorders throughout the life span.
Elson S. Floyd College of MedicineSpeech and Hearing SciencesNews