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Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine

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Speech and Hearing News

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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Publications and Presentations

  • 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.
  • VanDam, M., Heid, H. N., James, S., Schraven, S., Driscoll, D., Hardie, A., Cahill, S., & Olds, D. (2017, December). Daylong acoustic amplitude from the perspective of young children with and without hearing loss. Poster presented at the 174th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, New Orleans, Louisiana.
  • Lynch, G., James, S., & VanDam, M. (2017). Pupillary response and phenotype in ASD: latency to constriction discriminates ASD from typically developing adolescents. Autism Research, doi: 10.1002/aur.1888.
  • Professor Nancy Potter completed testing of 360 children in a 4.5-hour/child protocol for an interprofessional, inter-institutional research study of Duarte galactosemia funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences faculty, graduate students, and alumni (in bold) presented their research at the annual convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, held in Los Angeles, November 9-11, 2017.
  • Designated as a Meritorious Poster Submission: Goffredo, K., & Skinder-Meredith, A. “Effects of Income on Accessibility to Cleft Lip & Palate Services in Inland Washington.” The Meritorious Poster Submission recognition is for proposals judged by the Convention Program Committee to show extraordinary, exceptional, and innovative work. Of 1895 total poster submissions in 2017, only 55 were selected for meritorious recognition.
  • Invited and Sold-Out Short Course: Ties Between Speech, Language, Play & Literacy in Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). Grigos, M., Skinder-Meredith, A., & Tarshis, N.
  • Inglebret, E., Aldendorf, A., & Swineford, L. Poster titled ‘Hippotherapy: A Review of Communication & Social Interaction Outcomes for Individuals with Disabilities’
  • Inglebret, E., Swineford, L., & Algeo-Nichols, D. Poster titled ‘Spreading the Word: Autism Spectrum Disorders & Diversity in Children’s Story Books’
  • Inglebret, E., Koller, H., Holter, C., Wilson-Fowler, E., Skinder-Meredith, A., & Simpson, K. Poster titled ‘Examining Socioeconomic Status Data: Methods Used by Investigators in Pediatric Language Research’.
  • Stevens, A., Manwaring, S., Thurm, A., & Swineford, L. Seminar titled “Maternal Gesture Use: Relationship to Language Development & ASD Risk in Toddlers
  • Chermak, G.D., Musiek, F.E., & Weihing, J. Seminar titled ‘Current Issues in Central Auditory Processing Disorder’
  • Lynch, Georgina T.F., James, Stephen M, & VanDam, M. (2017) Latency to Constriction Discriminates ASD from Typically Developing Adolescents. Autism Research. DOI: 10.1002/aur.1888
  • Chermak, G.D., Musiek, F.E., & Weihing, J. (2017). Beyond controversies: The science behind central auditory processing disorder. The Hearing Review, 24(5), 20-24.
  • Inglebret, E., Bailey*, S., Clothiaux*, J. A., Skinder-Meredith, A., Monson^, K., & Cleveland, L. (2017, August). Reporting of socioeconomic status in pediatric language research. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 26, 1042-1052. (*former graduate students; ^current graduate student)
  • Lynch, G. T., James, S.M., VanDam, M., & Hyslop, R. (2017, May). Preliminary findings in adolescents with ASD: pupil diameter as a proxy for cognitive load during passive viewing of facial expression stimuli. Poster session presented at the meeting of the International Society for Autism Research, San Francisco, CA. (Hyslop, current graduate student)
  • Anderson, A. Smith, E. Chowdhry, F., Thurm, A., Condy, E., Swineford, L.,….. Gandjbakhcke, A.  (in press). Prefrontal hemodynamics in toddlers at rest:  A pilot study of developmental variability. Frontiers in Neuroscience.
  • Henry, L., Farmer, C., Swineford, L., Manwaring, S., & Thurm, A. (2017, May). Trajectories of cognitive development in toddlers at-risk for autism due to language delays. Poster presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research, San Francisco, CA.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Assistant Professor Lauren Swineford was an invited facilitator at the Early Career Workshop at the International Meeting for Autism Research, San Francisco, CA, May 10, 2017.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Associate Professor Ella Inglebret and Co-Director of the WSU Native American Clearinghouse on Native Teaching and Learning Susan Rae Banks discussed honoring tribal legacies through differentiated instruction before the Native American Advisory Board to President Kirk Schulz on March 31, 2017.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Seniors Sarah Beatty, Ellen Benetti, and Melissa Joseph, and EWU undergraduate Jenna Anderst presented an analysis of a very large database of natural speech using machine and human methods at the WSU Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) on March 27, 2017; Assistant Professor Mark VanDam, faculty advisor.
  • Filippini, R., Weihing, J., Chermak, G.D., & Musiek, F.E. (in press). 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.
  • Chermak, G.D., Bamiou, D-E, Iliadou, V., & Musiek, F.E. (2017). Practical guidelines to minimize language and cognitive confounds in the diagnosis of CAPD: A brief tutorial. International Journal of Audiology, 56(7), 499-506
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Assistant Professor Mark VanDam, along with masters students Carsen Jessup and Tracy Tully, presented “Fathers’ and mothers’ differential talk to sons and daughters with hearing loss” at the 172nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the 5th Joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan, Honolulu, HI.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Undergraduate Academic Coordinator Anna Brown delivered an online webinar titled “Helping Students Clarify their Dreams: Advising the Foreclosed Student” for the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA).
  • Lynch, G. (2017). EBP & teaching non-verbal pragmatics to adolescents with ASD: lessons learned from brain research. Perspectives on Language Learning and Education, Special Interest Group 1, American Speech-Language Hearing Association, 2, Part 1, 47-55.
  • Musiek, F.E., Shinn, J., Chermak, G.D., & Bamiou, D-E. (2017). Perspectives on the pure tone audiogram. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. 28(7), 655-671
  • Brenneman, L., Cash, E., Chermak, G.D., Guenette, L., Masters, G., Musiek, F.E., Brown, M., Ceruti, J., Fitzegerald, K., Geissler, K., Gonzalez, J., & Weihing, J. (in press).The relationship between central auditory processing, language, and cognition in children being evaluated for central auditory processing disorder (CAPD). Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

Community Outreach and Engagement

  • 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.
  • Assistant Professor Mark VanDam was featured in a CNN Health piece (also syndicated worldwide) about infant-direct speech (also called ‘motherese’).
  • Assistant Professor Mark VanDam and Instructor Melissa Ratsch were featured in a front-page Thanksgiving Day story about communicative struggles of Syrian refugees in Spokane.
  • The Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences (SHS) Multicultural club (MCC) hosted its annual talent show and bake sale to raise money for World Relief-Spokane. The SHS MCC officers and club members organizing this event included: Courtney Wiese, Julia McMichael, Sarah Lackey, Shannon Beebe, Maritsa Rodriguez, Aubrey Pflugrad, Shay Sullivan, and Sierra Alexander. Clinical Professor Amy Meredith (MCC advisor).
  • Clinical Professor Amy Meredith provided a session on understanding and helping people with dementia for the Life Journey Series, November 18, 2017, Affinity Living Community, Spokane.
  • The WSU/EWU National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association (NSSLHA) team took 2nd 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 1st place winner, the University of Iowa, which is ranked by US News and World Report as the number 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).
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences graduate students organized their annual Career Fair on the Spokane campus on November 3, 2017. Eleven exhibitors from across the Northwest, serving children from birth to age 21 in outpatient settings and public schools participated, including:
    • Achieve Center: Serving Eastern Washington with locations in Wenatchee, Spokane, Moses Lake, and Tri-Cities, the Achieve Center provides pediatric speech and language therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy to children with developmental disabilities and delays from birth to age 21. We are private outpatient clinical setting serving children and adolescents and their families.
    • Chatterbox Pediatric Therapy Center: We are a private practice with two locations in Boise and Nampa, Idaho. We provide Occupational, Speech therapy and our new Achieve Learning program to children ages birth to 21. We also contract services to local school districts and charter schools.
    • Early Life Speech & Language: We provide research-based speech therapy for children aged two to seven who exhibit communication delays. Our free, child-centered, family-friendly process involves parents as partners in each child’s individual treatment for long-term success at home, in school and beyond. Early Life Speech & Language currently operates clinics in the Seattle, Spokane and Walla Walla, with plans to open clinics in Bremerton and Yakima.
    • Ellensburg School District: The Ellensburg School District has a student population of 3200 students. There are three elementary schools, 1 middle school and 1 high school. There are a total of 482 students preschool through 12th grade receiving special education services. We are looking for an SLP(s) with a desire to work in a growing school district with opportunities to collaborate with others; work in a forward-thinking Special Education Department and work collaboratively on projects with staff and students from Central Washington University.
    • Linn Benton Lincoln ESD: Linn Benton Lincoln Education Service District (LBL) is an education service agency located in the Mid-Willamette Valley and along the central coast in Oregon. LBL serves 12 component school districts and over 89 schools in Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties. Children birth to twenty-one years of age may receive in-center, school or home-based evaluation and special education services through the Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education Program, Cascade Regional Program or Education Evaluation and Consultation Program.”
    • Moses Lake School District Special Services: Speech Language Pathologists working for the Moses Lake School District providing therapy for a variety of disorders, for ages 3 years to 21 years old.
    • Smiley Speech Therapy: Smiley Speech Therapy, LLC is a unique local contracting company hiring SLPs including Clinical Fellows for high-paying school-based contracting positions in the Greater Seattle Area. Our SLPs serve students in the public school setting with ages ranging from preschool through high school.
    • Therapy Travelers: Our family is made up of Speech Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, and School Psychologists who work in school districts throughout the United States.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Professor Nancy Potter organized the 11th annual ALS Forum, featured this year as a pre-symposium event on October 26, 2017 held in conjunction with WSU Health Sciences Spokane’s Translational Medicine Symposium.
  • The Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences and the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine co-sponsored Dr. Allison Coffin’s campus presentation “From Fins To Fur: Hearing Loss and Prevention” on October 26, 2017. Dr. Coffin is an assistant professor of Neuroscience on the WSU Vancouver campus, where her lab studies the cellular mechanisms of hearing loss and develops new protective therapies.
  • The Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Graduate Research Student Association, and Entrepreneurial Faculty Ambassadors hosted a Science Communication Workshop on October 26, 2017. Dr. Allison Coffin, an assistant professor of Neuroscience at WSU Vancouver, facilitated the workshop. Dr. Coffin is skilled in communicating science to the public and other researchers, and she is one of the organizers of Science Talk NW, a communication conference held every year.
  • The National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association (NSSLHA) of the WSU Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences and the EWU Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders held its first Ed Night of the fall 2017 semester on October 25, 2017. The event, focused on dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD, included a general overview by the students followed by a panel discussion with an invited inter-professional team from the Winston Center, including co-founders Thomas Beck, MD and Wendy Popa, SLP. Students from a variety of disciplines, including speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and education participated.
  • Dr. Allison Coffin of WSU Vancouver presented From Fins to Fur: Hearing Loss and Prevention on Oct. 26 at an event hosted by the Speech and Hearing Sciences department.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Assistant Professor and Entrepreneurial Faculty Ambassador Mark Vandam organized the third bi-annual Spokane Innovator NEtwork, SINE f(3), held jointly with StartUp Spokane’s Ecosystem Connect on September 21, 2017. The event, which includes representatives from the Entrepreneurial Faculty Ambassadors program, brings together WSU faculty and regional innovators in the health sciences, technology and the entrepreneurial community.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Clinical Professor Amy Meredith provided interactive presentations for junior high school students from the YMCA on the field of speech language pathology and audiology on July 19, 2017. Clinical Professor Amy Meredith also was one of many ESFCOM faculty who met with Iraqi students over lunch to discuss health care practice and training on July 24, 2017.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Clinical Professor Leslie Power and her colleagues in the Eastern Washington University departments of communication sciences and disorders, physical therapy, and occupational therapy offered an interprofessional workshop on motivational interviewing for community professionals and faculty on the WSU Health Sciences Spokane campus on May 12-13, 2017
  • Mark VanDam organized and hosted the second bi-annual Spokane Innovator NEtwork, the SINE f(2). The networking event for university and eastern Washington innovators and entrepreneurs was held on April 19, 2017 on campus at WSU in Spokane, drawing about 50 participants and presentations from five WSU innovators.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Graduate Student Megan Brendal received a 2017 President’s Award for Leadership in recognition of her leadership and service to the university and the community.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Clinical Professor Amy Meredith provided continuing education on childhood apraxia of speech for speech-language pathologists in New York and New Jersey, March 27-29, 2017.
  • WSU Spokane Chancellor Lisa Brown writes about her trip to Guatemala with health sciences students from Spokane and Pullman, including some Speech and Hearing Sciences students and faculty.
  • For the seventh consecutive year (2017), Clinical Professor Amy Meredith led undergraduate and graduate students to Guatemala in conjunction with a Hearts in Motion mission to assist children and their families before and after cleft palate surgeries. Meredith and her students provided speech, language, and feeding therapy and nutrition services to approximately 50 families.
  • The local chapter of the National Student Speech-Hearing-Language Association comprised of students of the WSU Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences (SHS) and EWU’s Communication Sciences and Disorders department held an Autism (ASD) Awareness event on the WSU Health Sciences campus on March 9, 2017, which included a slide show, an overview of ASD resources, a panel of three individuals with ASD, and a panel of professionals and a parent (SHS Assistant Professor Lauren Swineford, Northwest Autism Center Board Certified Behavior Analyst Dana Stevens,  and Tom Weddle, educational consultant with Spokane Public Schools and parent of two young women with ASD) sharing their perspectives and their roles in ASD. The event engaged students across campus, including Speech and Hearing Sciences, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Dental Hygiene. NSSLHA officers Madison Zinsli (EWU), Zara Wells (EWU), Sarah Beatty (WSU), Mickell Rigsby (WSU), Ellen Bennetti (WSU), and Rebekah Nelson (WSU) organized the event.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Professor Gail Chermak was interviewed for “Ask Dr. Universe” a science-education project based out of Washington State University and University Communications. The interview about How The Ear Workswas published in February 2017.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Assistant Professor Mark VanDam’s research with a biofeedback assistive device for Parkinson’s patients was featured in the Seattle Times. (Published February 15, 2017)
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Clinical Professor Amy Meredith provided a three-hour in-service for Spokane School District speech-language pathologists on treatment of children with childhood apraxia of speech on January 27, 2017.
  • Speech and Hearing Sciences Assistant Professor Laurie Swineford provided a three-hour in-service January 27, 2017 for the Spokane School District speech-language pathologists on current screening, diagnostic, and treatment models for children with autism spectrum disorder.
Elson S. Floyd College of MedicineSpeech and Hearing SciencesNews