ETSU’s Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology has received a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to promote cross-linguistic understanding of communication disorders in children through a student exchange program with universities in Brazil.The grant, awarded from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), will foster student exchange and curriculum development, as well as language and cultural skills, among ETSU speech-language pathology students and their peers in Brazil. The Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology is housed in the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences.

ETSU will partner with two Brazilian schools, the University Federal of Santa Maria and the University of Sao Paulo, as well as the University of Northern Iowa. The universities in Brazil are funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Education.

During the four-year program, ETSU speech-language pathology students will attend academic courses, participate in clinical rotations and receive instruction in language and cultural education in Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language.

Brazilian students will do likewise during their exchange visits to ETSU.

Dr. Brenda Louw, professor and chair of the Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, is principal investigator for the project. She collaborated on the grant with Dr. Nancy Scherer, professor of speech-language pathology and dean of the College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences, and Dr. Lynn Williams, professor of speech-language pathology and associate director for ETSU’s Center of Excellence in Early Childhood Learning and Development.

“We’re excited for the opportunities this project will create for our students, as well as the students from Brazil we will host on our campus,” Louw said. “Because there are unique challenges our institutions face in terms of cultural, socio-economic and linguistic differences, there is much we can learn from each other.”

Scherer said the exchange program would benefit the department’s ongoing research in speech-language pathology.

“The understandings we gain from this exchange of knowledge and practices could lead to improved therapeutic strategies for children here and in Brazil,” Scherer said. “The FIPSE grant is also a great opportunity for our college to develop new clinical and research partnerships.

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