A graduate student in USU’s Listening and Spoken Language graduate training program works with a child in the Sound Beginnings program for deaf and hard of hearing students. Photo courtesy of Utah State University.
LOGAN – Graduates of programs at Utah State University are in high demand because of shortages — in Utah and nationally — of professionals trained to serve young children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH).
A pair of graduate programs within USU’s Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) Interdisciplinary graduate training program have received a combined $3 million in grants from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) within the Department of Education.
One grant was awarded to the deaf education graduate program and the other went to speech-language pathology and pediatric audiology graduate students for the next five years.
Starting in the fall of 2023 deaf education students began working under the current grant and the second grant, focusing on speech-language pathology and pediatric pathology, begins the fall of 2024.
Lauri Nelson, director of the LSL interdisciplinary gradate program, said students learn how to work together to provide family-centered, evidence-based services to young children who are D/HH and are developing listening and spoken language.
“Our program receives continual positive feedback from families about the difference that this training makes in the life of the child and the family. This program changes lives,” said Nelson.
USU applied for these funded grant programs within the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services under the Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education department.
Free News Delivery by Email
Would you like to have the day’s news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!