The Art and Science of Communication
Lives Transformed at the Callier Center
"It was a blessing to find this program," Ann Rogers says as she watches her 2-year-old daughter, Emmy, interact with Jenny McGlothlin, a communication disorders speech pathologist. One moment Emmy is down on the floor, the next second she walks around and then it's back down again as she and McGlothlin play with a colorful plastic toy set. She is doing much more than having fun: McGlothlin is teaching her steps on the way to speaking. "Before coming here, Emmy was not even opening her mouth. She didn't know where her tongue was. Now, she sticks it out at us! And, she can already say simple words and sounds," Rogers says.
Coming from an orphanage in one of the most remote and poor provinces in China, Emmy had no opportunity for proper nutrition or sensory input for the first thirteen months of her life. That was just over a year ago. Even as she recovered her physical health and became a ball of energy, Emmy's speech and communication abilities lagged. Then, a few months ago, a social worker recommended having Emmy evaluated at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders, where she was soon enrolled in a speech-communication program.
"As a former teacher I was impressed by the level of structure and variety of learning activities at Callier. Emmy receives treatment that is fine-tuned for her individual needs. This is a great way to catch up," Ann Rogers says, proudly watching her daughter.
Emmy's treatment is just one example of how the University of Texas at Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders changes lives. As part of The University of Texas at Dallas School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the center also offers renowned hearing and psychological services, conducts nationally recognized communication disorder research, and provides education to the specialists of tomorrow and to children during their developmental years.
The center's motto of "communicating throughout the life span," reflects the staff's mission to improve the quality of life for those with communication disorders, no matter how young or old. Making this a reality, the center serves an incredibly broad range of afflictions.
With its audiology services, helping individuals with impaired hearing, the Callier Center steps in early. Under state law in Texas, babies are now required to be screened for hearing problems at birth. "If we confirm hearing problems with an infant, we immediately enroll them in our programs. We also work with the family — fitting the hearing aid, as well as providing education and language learning. Our goal is to have the child enter school and we've been extremely successful," said Ross Roeser, director of the Callier Center.
The benefits of advanced technology are evident in the area of amplification and hearing aid devices. Phillip Wilson, head of audiology, said, "Some of the most exciting advances have come in just the past year and a half. Now almost all hearing aids are digital and some are using artificial intelligence to do really smart things. They can monitor the auditory environment and make changes in the way they work based upon what's happening around them and even based on the direction the patient is facing. They're completely automatic and make these changes without the patient pushing a button or even knowing what's happening."
In collaboration with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the Callier Center is well known for being a leader in cochlear implant procedures. Cochlear implants are designed for those who are profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. Before cochlear implants, patients with this level of hearing impairment were limited to sign language and lip reading. These electronic devices directly stimulate surviving nerve fibers in the inner ear, enabling many patients to hear for the first time.
"Our use of cochlear implants has been quite extensive," Roeser said. "In collaboration with U.T. Southwestern Medical Center, we've now performed implants on over 200 children. Many are now functioning at normal age level. Some are even playing instruments in orchestras. Just last week we were at our annual Cochlear Implant Summer Camp. It was amazing to see 72 children who had received cochlear implants talking, singing, and playing."
Advances are also being applied to everyday products, such as telephones, televisions and alarm clocks. The Callier Center has Assistive Listening Device centers in both its Dallas and Richardson locations, allowing those with limited hearing to experiment with products. For example, users can try out telephones that allow them to turn up the volume to exactly the right level for them, wireless headsets that allow them to listen to television without putting it on a distractingly high volume for others, and alarms that are placed under the pillow or mattress to wake users by vibrating.
"This is a community-based program. Without it, most wouldn't know these specialized products are even an option," Roeser said.
As they are doing with Emmy, Callier speech pathologists are helping children learn to understand and give directions, ask and answer questions, and convey and improve language skills. Parents are encouraged to participate in the sessions and receive training to continue the treatment at home.
The Speech-Language Pathology program also regularly treats children who have never learned to eat or swallow. "Many of these children have fragile medical conditions. They never learned to eat orally. Often they were tube fed as infants at the time they would've normally been developing sucking and chewing abilities. We start by getting them to play and interact with food. Once children are able to tolerate textures and different types of stimulus in their mouths they will learn to chew and will move on to become oral eaters," Donise Pearson, head of Speech-Language Pathology and director of Callier-Richardson, said.
Speech, language and cognitive services are also provided to survivors of strokes, traumatic brain injury or those who have other neurological problems. Other programs are in place to help those who stutter and to modify strong accents.
The Callier Center was the brainchild of Nelle Johnston in the early '60s. She was the first administrative assistant to the founders of Texas Instruments, but her real vocation was looking for ways to help children with communication impairments. As Roeser said, "She proposed a center that would provide clinical, research, and education services. It's a mission we still follow today." Johnston persuaded trustees for the estate of Mrs. Lena Callier to fund the center.
In 1969, the main building was built and, in September 1975, the center joined the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas System. A location just a half mile away from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas allows for easy collaboration. In August 2003, the Callier Center opened a satellite facility on the U.T. Dallas campus in Richardson. Between its two locations, the Callier Center conducts about 80,000 patient visits a year.
Besides its clinical services, Callier has a national reputation as a leader in communication disorder research. "We have a number of researchers doing cutting-edge work," Roeser said. Researchers at Callier are working to uncover the causes of, new treatments for, and ways to prevent hearing and speech impairments.
When asked about her research, associate professor Anu Sharma simply smiled and said, "It's an exciting time." With multiple grants in place to pursue her studies, including two from the National Institutes of Health, who could blame her?
One of Sharma's grants, $2.5 million over five years, is for the development of a new clinical test on infants to see how they recover from a hearing aid or cochlear implant.
Working with surgeons from UT Southwestern, Sharma is analyzing brainwaves to determine if appropriate brain development is occurring after a child is fitted with an implant. Children in the study wear an "electrode cap" and unsuspectingly enter a cozy room to watch one of their favorite DVDs. In the next room, Dr. Sharma watches computer monitors that show changes in the child's brainwave activity in response to sound. "We are trying to gain the best understanding of how the brain matures and develops, so we can answer questions like: What changes occur in the brain because a child cannot hear? How do cochlear implants overcome hearing problems? When is the best time to implant? How late is too late?," she said. The goal is to develop a clinical tool that will be in every doctor's office in five years. "The test is very easy. It's a snapshot of the brain and only takes 30 minutes to conduct." With records on over 200 children with cochlear implants, she has learned that, "If they have the procedure done by age 3, they will be hearing in the normal range within six months. However, after age 7, there is a lasting deficit."
Similarly, Emily Tobey, professor and the Nelle C. Johnston Chair in Communication Disorders, is working on a study to measure what one ear is doing compared to both ears working together by looking at those who have received single and double cochlear implants. The majority of double implant patients have been adults, but the number of doubles for children is catching up.
Tobey is also working with researchers from five other institutions in a study funded by an NIH grant called Childhood Development after Cochlear Implantation. The researchers are tracking 190 very young cochlear implant children and 90 hearing children over three years to see how their speech and hearing develop.
Because the Callier Center has clinical services on site, researchers see how their work directly benefits those with communication disorders. As Tobey said, "In a lot of science arenas you stay in a very dreary lab for thousands of hours and you never know that it makes a difference. For me, it's really important that we have our lab set up here so we are seeing the children every day. You can make a discovery and be in a team meeting and see it implemented instantly."
While Callier professors are doing important work, students are getting in on the act too. "We have really good doctoral students. At the moment, one of our students has an NIH pre-doctoral award and another received an A.G. Bell Clinical Research Fellowship, as well as an American Speech Hearing Language Foundation award for research. Students are really infused in the research activities that are going on here," Tobey added.
As a part of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, the Callier Center provides academic and clinical training for students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. U.T. Dallas students are exposed to a wide range of communication disorders while gaining real world experience logging hundreds of hours, working side-by-side with professionals.
The audiology and speech-language programs are both nationally ranked by U.S. News and World Report and, with the recent inception of a Doctor of Audiology program, Callier faculty and administrators are optimistic about the future.
Speech pathology graduate students Ashley Danaher and Lizze Littlewood echoed the same themes when asked about their experience at Callier. Danaher said, "It's different than a lot of other programs. More specialized classes are offered here. And because it's in a large metroplex like Dallas we have many hospitals or schools to choose from when deciding where to do our practicum." She continued, "The clinical faculty is student-oriented. They guide us with examples and give us positive reinforcement." Littlewood added, "Other schools were not as supportive about getting clinical experience. It's an amazing practicum experience here. We get to see and interact with so many varieties of disorders. Even undergraduate students get tons of hands-on experience."
The Callier Center also plays an important role in educating children. In collaboration with U.T. Southwestern Medical Center and the Dallas Independent School District, the center provides an accredited child development program where children who are deaf learn and play side-by-side with non-hearing impaired children. The program begins taking infants at six weeks of age and continues to kindergarten. Between the ages of 2 and 5 the classes are team-taught by a deaf education teacher and an early childhood teacher. Karen Clark, director of the education division said of the program, "We see lots of progress with the children. Hard of hearing kids go on to specialized deaf education classes and some go back to regular neighborhood schools with support. Both the deaf and typically developing kids gain from the experience."
Phillip Wilson, head of audiology, sums up the way most feel about being a part of the Callier experience. "I was working with a little girl and we fit her with new hearing aids and she wasn't making a lot of progress, but her parents were hesitant to do a cochlear implant. They finally did it about a month ago. And yesterday I ran into them as they were coming in for a visit and I said, "Hi," and she looked at me and said, "Hi!" as clear as can be. Just like that. She's only 3 years old. Things like that happen all the time."