NTID, NAZARETH AWARDED $1 MILLION TO FILL GAP IN SPEECH LANGUAGE TRAINING

From: NTID (Press Release)
Nov. 12, 2002

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Nov. 12-Addressing a critical skills gap among the nation's
speech-language pathologists, the Department of Education's U.S. Office of
Special Education and Rehabilitation Services has awarded Nazareth College
and the Rochester Institute of Technology's National Technical Institute for
the Deaf (NTID) a four-year, $1.05 million grant to provide graduate
students' the specialized training they need to work with deaf and
hard-of-hearing people.

"Most graduate training programs in speech-language pathology do not
provide a set of courses or experiences that specifically prepare them to
work with deaf and hard-of-hearing people," said Paula Brown, chair of the
NTID Speech and Language Department.
About 13 in every 1,000 U.S. children under age 18 have some degree
of hearing loss, and 1-2 in every 1,000 have a moderate to severe hearing
loss, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
"Other programs typically focus on just one philosophy of
communication, like American Sign Language (ASL) or oral communication,"
said Catherine Quenin, associate professor of Speech-Language Pathology at
Nazareth. "This collaboration provides training in all communication
approaches, including ASL and cued speech, and the use of varying
technologies for communication."
In addition, the new program provides exposure to deaf culture, as
well as the social, educational, and cultural issues facing deaf and
hard-of-hearing children and their families.
Participating students will enter Nazareth's master's program in
Speech Pathology, as well as take classes and clinical practicum work at
NTID and other places in the area serving deaf children and young adults.
The grant covers the cost for 10 qualified students to attend the specialty
training, in addition to four other classes within the master's program.
For more information, call Catherine Quenin, associate professor of
SLP at Nazareth, at (585) 389-2776 or Paula Brown, chair of the NTID Speech
and Language Department, at (585) 475-6593.
Nazareth's Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders
offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in SLP, the latter of
which is accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation. For more than
four decades, the college has boasted a state-of-the-art speech and hearing
clinic, which provides students with supervised, pre-professional clinical
training through a variety of on-campus and off-campus experiences. For more
information, log on to http://www.naz.edu/dept/speech.
The first and largest technological college in the world for
students who are deaf and hard of hearing, NTID, one of eight colleges of
the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), offers educational programs and
access and support services to 1,100 students from around the world who
study, live, and socialize with 14,000 hearing students on the RIT campus.
Web address: www.rit.edu/NTID.
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CONTACT: Karen E. M. Black (NTID/RIT)
(585) 475-6840

Rob Enslin (Nazareth College)
(585) 389-2457