What We Do
The Children’s Auditory Research for Educational Success (CARES) lab conducts research aimed at improving our understanding of communication challenges faced by school-age children with and without hearing differences.
Our work is supported by:
Our Mission
We believe that elevated hearing levels should not keep children and adolescents from fully experiencing their social and academic potential. Our mission is to conduct original research that improves our understanding of communication challenges faced by children in classrooms. As such, we seek to:
Understand how childhood hearing differences and the associated interventions (e.g., hearing aids, remote microphones) influence the successful development of listening skills needed for academic success,
Convey our research findings to the community,
Involve undergraduate and graduate students in the research process to inspire future researchers and assist in the training of audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and deaf educators.
About the Research
We use a combination of subjective, behavioral, and electrophysiologic methods to learn about listening effort, attention allocation, and the effects of intervention (e.g., hearing aids, remote microphones) on communication.
We work with otolaryngologists, audiologists, speech language pathologists, and educators to understand how best to support families with school-age children who have hearing differences.
Results from our work provide valuable information to audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and teachers of children who are deaf and hard of hearing about environmental and child-specific characteristics that contribute to communication breakdowns.