Facilities
The Auburn University Department of Communication Disorders and the Speech and Hearing Clinic are housed in Haley Center, a large educational complex containing lecture and seminar rooms, office space, laboratory and clinical facilities, as well as a computer laboratory and a learning resource center. A large classroom is designed for exclusive use by the Department of Communication Disorders. In this room, anatomical models, audio-visual equipment, and other teaching aids are available to supplement lectures. The Speech and Hearing Clinic includes several individual treatment rooms and a large group treatment room. Each treatment room has a separate observation area with one-way observation windows and sound system. The observation areas are used by client family members, students, and clinical supervisors. Additionally, the clinic includes a materials area, and a clinicians’ room with mailboxes and lockers assigned to student clinicians. A student computer room contains several PCs and laser printers which are available to student clinicians for writing treatment and evaluation reports, maintaining clinical data, and for use in treatment programs. An augmentative communication demonstration area, a video tape library, and additional treatment rooms have recently been added.
The clinic maintains a complete audiological facility, equipped to provide extensive hearing assessment, including acoustic immittance testing, central auditory processing evaluation, auditory/visual/somatosensory evoked potential testing, and vestibular/balance system evaluation. In addition, the clinic offers a comprehensive hearing instrument dispensing program, including individual and group auditory rehabilitation. The department houses three separate sound-treated audiometric booths and one dual-room sound suite, as well as a vestibular function laboratory. State-of-the-art audiometric equipment includes two-channel diagnostic audiometers, middle ear analysis equipment, acoustic emissions equipment, a four-channel auditory evoked response unit and a 32 channel EEG/ERP topographic imaging unit, and videonystagmography, electronystagmography, and caloric vestibular system testing equipment. The hearing aid dispensary includes equipment for electroacoustic analysis of hearing instruments, computerized microphone real-ear instruments, and hearing aid repair. An assistive listening device center is available to both students and hearing impaired clients.
A large speech and hearing research laboratory houses equipment appropriate for use in a wide variety of physiological, behavioral, and acoustic research. Much of the equipment has clinical application as well. Vocal analyses typically are performed by student clinicians using the Visi-Pitch with computer interface and the Laryngograph. Speech acoustics are analyzed by a digital sound spectrograph and Computerized Speech Laboratory (CSL). Students are encouraged to collaborate with faculty on research projects. The graduate course, "Experimental Phonetics" provides students with instruction and "hands-on" experience in the use of this equipment.