CDS Department Newsletter: Connections 2008

Our department keeps in touch with alumni, colleagues, and friends through its yearly publication of a newsletter. In this issue we feature faculty, student, client, and staff news, reports, and events. If you have news that you would like included in the Fall 2009 Connections Newsletter, please email it by March 31, 2009 to cdsrosie@buffalo.edu. The newsletter is edited by Dr. Rosemary Lubinski.

Lisa Bardach, adjunct faculty at UB and speech-language pathologist / AAC specialist in private practice in Ann Arbor Michigan, gave a day and a half workshop on "Simplifying Augmentative Communication Evaluations Using a Toolkit Approach". The workshop attracted twenty-five professionals from the Western New York area. This hands-on workshop is part of a continuing education effort by the UB's Center for Excellence in Augmented Communication. For more information on upcoming workshops and events, contact CEAC at ubceac@gmail.com

The Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences welcome Dr. Kristi Buckley, Ph.D, to its staff in the beginning of the 2008 Fall Semester. Dr. Buckley hails from Texas and moved to Buffalo to teach and continue her research in cross-modal plasticity, particularly its effect on speech perception in hearing impaired individuals. She originally got interested in Audiology when she first learned about cochlear implants. Dr. Buckley said she loved the “brain’s ability to interpret (something artificial) as something meaningful.” Today, the work she is doing in the lab may help predict how much an individual will benefit from receiving a cochlear implant.

Dawn Vogler-Elias, Ph.D. candidate, was one of eight doctoral students across the country to receive a 2008 Graduate Research Grant from the Organization for Autism Research. The $2000.00 award will support her dissertation study: “A shared storybook reading intervention for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders.” The purpose of Dawn’s study is to investigate the effects of a parent implemented shared storybook intervention on the language development and social engagement of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders. During the intervention, Dawn will teach parents strategies to increase their child’s use of words, gestures, and attention to storybooks. The results of Dawn’s study will provide important information about how to support the emergent literacy skills of young children with autism.

TINNITUS SUPPORT GROUP MEETING
Thursday, September 25, 2008 – 7:00 p.m.
UB, Main Street Campus, 134 Farber Hall
Featured Talk: " Pharmacological Treatments for Tinnitus: Is there a magic pill?”
To be presented by Dr. Yong-Bing Shi