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Susan T. Roberts is clinical associate professor and director of the Speech-Language & Hearing Clinic in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences.
What is the mission of the Speech-Language & Hearing Clinic?
The UB Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic was established in 1949 and has expanded significantly in size and scope of service throughout the years. The clinic is a training facility for graduate students pursuing their master’s degree in speech-language pathology and doctorate in audiology in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences. The mission of the clinic is to provide quality, state-of-the-art services to individuals with speech, language and/or hearing impairments to achieve their maximum communication potential. By offering these services, we provide our graduate students with high-quality, clinical training opportunities. The clinic is dedicated to providing quality services utilizing current clinical techniques and technology, while facilitating research in the areas of prevention, education, habilitation and rehabilitation of communication disorders.
What services does the clinic provide?
Audiology services include hearing evaluation, hearing aid evaluation and dispensing, central auditory processing evaluations, tinnitus treatment program, aural rehabilitation and otoacoustic emission testing. Speech-language pathology services include evaluation and therapy for accent differences, aphasia and related neurogenic disorders, articulation and phonological disorders, autism/asperger syndrome, central auditory processing disorders, cleft palate, disfluency/stuttering, language disorders, laryngectomy and voice and resonance disorders. The clinic also offers several specialty programs, including the Adult Central Auditory Processing Program, the Adult Fluency Program, the Aphasia Program, the Laryngectomy Program, the Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Management Program and the Adult Aspergers Program. We are a 12-month clinic that offers services throughout the year, including the summer. In addition to our usual services, we also provide intensive summer programs that include the Intensive Aspergers Program, the Intensive Fluency Enhancement Program, the Intensive Language and Auditory Processing Program and the Language-Based Preschool Program.
How many Western New Yorkers do you serve every year?
We have approximately 3,000 patient visits a year. In addition to services on campus, we provide speech-language and hearing screenings to our local Head Start program, conducting screenings for 850 children a year.
Can you talk about the clinic's role as a training facility for students?
Our clinic faculty/clinical assistant professors are responsible for the clinical training of the graduate students pursuing their master’s and doctoral degrees. Faculty are well-trained specialists who guide each student clinician’s clinical skills and competencies. They are teachers that seek to motivate and develop future clinicians. Our clinic provides the first-tier training for our student clinicians to prepare them for their externship training experiences and their clinical fellowship training. Our degree programs are New York state licensure eligible, and students require clinical competence to graduate. The clinic and its training mission are part of the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences (CDS) in the College of Arts and Sciences. CDS is accredited by the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association. All clinical faculty members have their New York state license in speech-language pathology and/or audiology, and possess the certificate of clinical competence by the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association.
You’re involved in a tinnitus research project funded by the National Institutes of Health. Tell me about it.
The clinic is participating in a multicenter study based at the University of Iowa and funded by the National Institutes of Health. This clinical research study involves comparing three different ways of using background sound and counseling to treat individuals with tinnitus. These three procedures will be studied in a group of people who require hearing aids and a group of people who do not require hearing aids. These services are being provided in the clinic under the direction of Christina Stocking, clinical assistant professor and principal investigator on the UB portion of the grant. The study will examine individual factors that might help to alleviate tinnitus. The verification of an effective treatment would be of great benefit to tinnitus sufferers and clinicians who treat tinnitus.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We offer discounts to employees, their family members and students who need a hearing aid. We also provide free services throughout Western New York, including hearing and speech screenings to local Head Start centers and senior citizen centers, language and literacy programs in Head Start centers and consultation and training services for the American Heart Association Peer Visitation Program. Clinic faculty members also serve as guest speakers to many health care and educational institutions.