GRANT TO FUND SPEECH LAB

The Department of Communication Disorders at Southeast Missouri State University has received a $21,000 matching grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a speech science laboratory.

The grant, which the university will match over a three-year period, will allow the department to buy several pieces of new equipment totaling $42,000.

The lab is expected to be operational this fall and will be housed in the Speech and Hearing Clinic in the Grauel Building.

"We've gotten other grants before, but never one from the National Science Foundation," said Dr. Kevin Squibb, assistant professor and clinical audiologist. "This one was extremely competitive."

The foundation received 2,200 proposals and chose to fund 550, he said.

With the initial funding, the department plans to buy a computerized speech lab that will allow students to analyze speech samples.

Later, the department plans to buy: a respiratometer, a machine that measures breathing patterns associated with speech; an electromyograph, a machine that measures muscle activity associated with speech and the production of sounds; a laryngograph, a machine that measures the rate that vocal folds are opened and closed; and a nasometer, a machine that measures the amount of air that escapes through the nose during speech activity.

The lab is designed to better prepare undergraduate students in conducting research. Undergraduates enrolled in a class titled "Speech and Hearing Science" will use the lab, as will graduate students conducting research.

"I just think it's going to be an ideal opportunity for the students to capture the speech behaviors and to look at them," Squibb said. "It ought to be such a profitable learning experience. That's what we are most excited about."