Department of Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology and Deaf Studies

News - ASLD Points of Pride

Faculty Publications 2008-2009

• Dr. Judy Blackburn published "Reading and phonological awareness skills in children exposed to domestic violence," in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma.

• Dr. Diana C. Emanuel completed an exciting new textbook, Hearing Science, with her coauthor, Dr. Tomasz Letowski. This text is unique in its approach to teaching hearing science in that it includes a review of foundation skills (math and physics) before introducing the topics of acoustics, anatomy and physiology, and psychoacoustics, with additional advanced topics of audio systems and digital signal processing provided at the end of the book for more advanced coursework. The book is: Emanuel, D.C., & Letowski, T. (2009). Hearing Science. Baltimore, Md: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. Emanuel and Letowski also created on-line learning resources to help students to learn and professors to teach the subject more effectively.

• Dr. Paul Evitts published "Effects of audio-visual information and mode of speech on listener perceptions of alaryngeal speakers," in the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

• Dr. Karen Fallon co-authored the chapters: "Teaching phonological awareness skills: Phoneme segmentation" and "Teaching phonological awareness skills: Sound blending," in the textbook Accessible Literacy Learning: Evidence Based Instruction for Individuals with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, and other Disabilities."

• Dr. Sharon Glennen published "Speech and language guidelines for children adopted from abroad at older ages," in Topics in Language Disorders.

• Dr. Sharon Glennen published "Speech and language mythbusters for internationally adopted children," in the American Speech Language Hearing Association Leader.

• Dr. Eva Hester published "An investigation of the relationship between health literacy and social communication skills in older adults," in Communication Disorders Quarterly.

• Dr. Eva Hester published "Health literacy and the role of the speech-language pathologist," in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

• Drs. Brian and Nicole Kreisman co-authored a chapter titled "Room acoustics and auditory rehabilitation technology", in the textbook Handbook of Clinical Audiology.

• Dr. Brian Kreisman and audiology graduate student Jamie Weiner published "If I can hear their headphones, it's too loud, right?", in Audiology Today.

• Dr. Jennifer Smart published "Searching for an answer: Auditory neuropathy/Auditory dys-synchrony, a 20 year long mystery solved," in the New Zealand Audiological Society Bulletin.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 2008 Annual Convention

The following faculty and students presented their work at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual 2008 Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

• Dr. Celia Bassich, "Allied Team Training for Parkinson's Disease."

• Dr. Judy Blackburn, "Language strengths and weaknesses in children exposed to domestic violence."

• Dr. Paul Evitts, "Effects of visual information on disordered speech perception."

• Dr. Paul Evitts, "Defining communication success after total laryngectomy."

• Dr. Karen Fallon, graduate student Jayme Cappa, and Ms. Karen Day, "The Early Literacy Experiences of Young Children who Use AAC."

• Dr. Karen Fallon, "Graduate student interdisciplinary case study on autism."

• Dr. Karen Fallon, "School-based speech language pathologists collaborative practices in literacy."

• Dr. Sharon Glennen and graduate student Alyssa Malchi, "Internationally adopted preschoolers: Analysis of language samples over time."

• Dr. Sharon Glennen, "Language development of internationally adopted children: A meta-analysis."

• Dr. Eva Hester with undergraduate student Nicole Langton, "Expressive elaboration in the narratives of African American children."

• Dr. Eva Hester, "One thing I learned moments."

• Ms. Iona Johnson with students Lobosco and Jacobsen, " Measuring change in reading skills and quality of life in a stroke survivor book club."

• Dr. Brian Kreisman, "A comparison of two advanced digital hearing instruments."

• Drs. Nicole Kreisman, Brian Kreisman, Steve Pallett and audiology graduate student Megan Glasscock, "The development of a customized FM training program for teachers."

American Academy of Audiology 2009 Annual Convention

The following faculty and students presented their work at the American Academy of Audiology Annual 2009 Convention in Dallas, Texas.

• Dr. Diana Emanuel with audiology graduate student Chantelle Budur, "The value of national certification in audiology."

• Drs. Diana Emanuel, Peggy Korczak, and Nicole Kreisman with audiology graduate student Kristin Ficca, "A survey of the diagnosis and management of (central) auditory processing disorders."

• Drs. Diana Emanuel and Steve Pallett with audiology graduate student Erin Foster, "The relationship among dizziness handicap, anxiety and hearing loss."

• Dr. Diana Emanuel with audiology graduate student Julie Norin, "The effect of level-dependent hearing protection devices on speech communication in low-level background noise."

• Drs. Diana Emanuel and Steve Pallett with audiology graduate student Laura Toll, "Effect of static force on bone conduction test reliability."

• Dr. Diana Emanuel, Dr. Judy Blackburn, and Ms. Iona Johnson with audiology graduate student Monica Labbe, "Word recognition scores of native English listeners using English word lists recorded with native English and native Spanish speakers with varied dialect.

• Drs. Peggy Korczak and Steve Pallett with audiology graduate student Thomas Hinchley, "Effects of hearing aid gain on the slow cortical response."

• Dr. Brian Kreisman, "Hearing aids that communicate: Evidence of effectiveness."

• Dr. Brian Kreisman with audiology graduate student Melanie King, "CRM bandwidth: Effects when comparing digital hearing aids."

• Dr. Brian Kreisman with undergraduate students Erin Scheffer and Holly Dirks, "Simulated reverberation: Echoes of past and present research."

Additional Presentations by Faculty and Students in 2008-2009

• Dr. Paul Evitts, "Eye-gaze behavior of normal listeners when presented with low-proficiency alaryngeal speech." Poster presented at the International Psycho-Oncology World Congress, Madrid, Spain.

• Dr. Jody Cripps. "Oral reading with deaf children who sign." Paper presented at the Hawaiian International Conference on Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.

• Dr. Celia Bassich, "Treatment of voice, speech, cognitive-linguistic and swallowing deficits in Parkinson's Disease across the stages." Three-day training workshop presented in Maryland and New York.

• Dr. Diana Emanuel, "Auditory processing disorder." Invited presentation at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

• Dr. Judy Blackburn, "Parenting patterns and reading and language skills in children exposed to domestic violence." Paper presented at the International Family Violence and Child Victimization Research Conference, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

• Dr. Jody Cripps, "Revealing sound in the signed medium through an alphabetic system." Poster presented at the Sign Typ Conference: The Phonetics and Phonology of Sign Language, University of Connecticut.

• Dr. Mark Pellowski with speech-language pathology graduate student Emily Miller, "Speech rate: How to measure it and its relationship to stuttering." Seminar presented at the Speech-Language-Hearing Association of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

• Dr. Eva Hester with undergraduate students Adekoya, McClain, and Gilliam, "Validation of the healthcare communication profile with African-American adults. Poster presented at the National Black American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention, Atlanta, Georgia.

• Dr. Paul Evitts, "Eye-gaze behavior of normal listeners when presented with proficient alaryngeal speech." Poster presented at the international Psycho-Oncology World Congress, Madrid, Spain.

• Dr. Diana Emanuel, "Everything I needed to know I learned in Hearing Science." Two-hour presentation at the Pennsylvania Academy of Audiology Convention, Harrisburg Pennsylvania.

• Dr. Jody Cripps, "Written language approach to supporting deaf children's learning of English through American Sign Language." Paper presented at the Sixth International Language Teacher's Education Conference, Washington, D.C.

• Ms. Karen Pottash and Ms. Karen Day, "Learning outcomes in interdisciplinary education." Poster presented at the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions, Baltimore, Maryland.

• Drs. Peggy Korczak and Steve Pallett with audiology graduate student Thomas Hinchley, "Effects of hearing aid gain on the slow cortical response." Presented at the Association for Research in Otolaryngology Convention.

• Dr. Diana Emanuel, "The next generation of audiologists: Teaching to the millenials." Presented at the Maryland Academy of Audiology Conference, White Marsh, Maryland.

• Dr. Eva Hester with undergraduate students Adekoya and McClain, "Healthcare communication skills of African-American adults." Poster presented at the National Black American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention, Atlanta, Georgia.

• Ms. Karen Day and Ms. Karen Pottash, "Enhancing pragmatic language and social skills in preschoolers using an interdisciplinary model of student delivered services." Poster presented at the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions, Baltimore, Maryland.

• Dr. Judy Blackburn gave a 2-hour presentation to the Association of Baltimore City Speech-Language Pathologists (ABC-SLP) titled "The Impact of Family Violence on Reading and Language Skills in Children".

Student Awards, Scholarships

• Towson University Audiology doctoral student Chris Araj was selected from among more than 150 doctoral applicants as a winner of the Starkey Labs 2009 Outstanding Student Clinician Scholarship. The Scholarship Committee found his achievements exemplary.

• Marisa Turbish presented her graduate research project at the Ninth Annual Towson University Student Research Expo in April 2008. Her project was selected to receive the outstanding research award from the College of Graduate Studies. Ms. Turbish's project was titled "Pragmatic skills used in social communication and healthcare contexts: Precursors to health literacy." This project was completed as part of her graduate degree in speech-language pathology and was mentored by Dr. Eva Hester. Dr. Hester and Ms. Turbish have since submitted the project for publication in a professional journal.

• Tiffany Taliaferro was one of five undergraduates selected to participate in the 2007 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's (ASHA) Minority Student Leadership Program. This annual program selects promising minority students from across the country and brings them to the annual ASHA Conference for intensive training and mentoring. Most participants are graduate students, relatively few undergraduate students are selected. Ms. Taliaferro's selection was a reflection of her strong academic abilities and leadership potential.

• Towson University Audiology doctoral student Laura Toll was awarded one of ten $1,000 "Outstanding Student Clinician" scholarships from Starkey Labs in August 2007.

• Audiology doctoral student Cynthia DeMots won the Jerger Award for best student research poster session at the 2007 American Academy of Audiology Conference in Denver Colorado.  Her poster titled "Effects of Auditory Toughening in Rats" was co-authored with Dr. Margaret Jastreboff and fellow student Jamie Moran.  The poster was selected from over 200 entries. 

• Mary Carson, Towson University Au.D. student, was awarded one of two national AFA scholarships. These scholarships are awarded to "the best and brightest" second year Audiology graduate students in the country.

Faculty Publications 2007-2008

• Dr. Sharon Glennen guest edited a special edition of Perspectives on Communication Disorders in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations on international adoption. Dr. Glennen authored two articles in the issue, "Speech and Language in Children Adopted Internationally at Older Ages,"and "International Adoption Speech and Language Mythbusters."

• Dr. Peggy Korczak published her research article, "Speech Evoked Potentials: From the Laboratory to the Clinic" in the journal Ear and Hearing.

• Dr Sheryl Cooper coauthored an article in Annals of the Deaf titled "The Status of Sign Language Instruction in Institutions of Higher Education."

• A chapter titled "Room Acoustics for Listeners with Normal Hearing and Hearing Impairment" was coauthored by Drs. Brian Kreisman and Nicole Kreisman and appears in Audiology Treatment 2nd Ed.

• Dr. Jennifer Smart recently published "Rehabilitation of Adults with Auditory Processing Disorders and Normal Peripheral Hearing: Two Case Studies" in the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Audiology.

• Dr. Karen Fallon authored an article for Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication titled "AAC in the Schools: Current Issues and Future Directions."

• Dr. Karen Fallon guest edited the special issue of Seminars in Speech and Language titled "AAC from Preschool to High School." Her article "Augmentative and Alternative Communication & Literacy Teams: Facing the Challenges, Forging Ahead" appeared in the issue. Dr. Linda Sickman also wrote an article for the same issue titled "AAC and RTI: Strategies for Every Child in the Classroom."

• Dr. Paul Evitts published an article about his research titled "Listener's Perceptions of the Personality of Male, Alaryngeal Speakers" in Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology.

• Dr. Jody Cripps coauthored a chapter titled "Linguistic Accessibility and Deaf Children" in The Handbook of Educational Liguistics.

• Dr. Eva Hester wrote an article titled "Using Student Article Presentations for Evidence-Based Practice and Evidence-Based Education" in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Perspectives: Issues in HIgher Education. She also published an article on "Student Evaluations of Advising: Moving Beyond the Mean" in the College Teaching journal.

• Dr. Sharon Glennen's international adoption research article titled "Predicting Language Outcomes for Internationally Adopted Children" was published in the Journal of Speech-Language-Hearing Research.

Department of Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology and Deaf Studies
Van Bokkelen Hall, Room 105
Hours: Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Phone: 410-704-4153
Fax: 410-704-4131
E-mail: eyoung@towson.edu