Program Overview

PhD Program in Hearing and Speech Sciences

Vanderbilts Ph.D. in Hearing and Speech Sciences prepares students for research and academic careers through rigorous training and faculty collaboration. Students present at top conferences and publish widely, with graduates earning faculty roles worldwide.

Program Highlights

• Nationally Recognized: Vanderbilts Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology programs are two of the highest-ranked programs in the nation. The Ph.D. program encompasses both disciplines.
• Strong Faculty Support: Faculty actively support Ph.D. students' job searches through networking, recommendations, and expert insight into academic and research careers.
• Tailored Coursework: Ph.D. students complete 72 credits with customizable coursework, research, and teaching. Most finish 48 credits in 2 years before candidacy.
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration: The program fosters interdisciplinary work with faculty in Otolaryngology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Engineering, CS, and Special Education.

PhD Program Outcomes

• Most PhD students receive financial support
• Students typically complete two research projects plus a dissertation
• Many research projects convert to presentations and publications

Hearing and Speech Research Labs

PhD Students may study in one or more of the research labs within the department. The research efforts of these labs are supported by diverse sources of funding, including the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Education, and the Institute of Education Sciences.

List of Research Labs

• Anechoic Chamber: Focuses on how normal hearing and hearing-impaired individuals perform in tasks involving sounds coming from different positions in space.
• Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory: Combines anatomical, neurophysiological, and genomic techniques to characterize structural and functional changes in the brain associated with development, hearing loss, aging, and other neuropathology.
• Autism Brain, Behavior & Intervention Library: Conducts and disseminates research studies designed to examine how behavioral and neural function may be linked in people with autism and related conditions.
• Biobehavioral Approaches in Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Seeks to identify brain and behavioral factors that explain individual differences, predict differential response to treatment, and explain how or why the treatment works in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
• Child Language and Literacy Laboratory: Devoted to the study of typical and atypical language and literacy acquisition and the study of the effectiveness of language-literacy interventions.
• Child Language Intervention, Measurement, and Best Practices Laboratory: Devoted to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of language intervention for children who are deaf and hard of hearing, children with autism, and children with other developmental disabilities.
• Childrens Auditory Perception Laboratory: Investigates auditory development and hearing assessment for children who have developmental disabilities.
• Clinical Language Intervention Program: Devoted to the development and validation of speech and language interventions for children with primary language impairment, children with Down syndrome, and children with autism.
• Cochlear Implant Research Laboratory: Focuses on understanding and improving speech perception and basic auditory function for adult and pediatric cochlear implant recipients.
• Communication and Memory Laboratory: Devoted to understanding the cognitive and neural bases of language and communication, with a particular focus on the role of memory and the hippocampus.
• Dan Maddox Hearing Aid Research Laboratory: Devoted to the evaluation and refinement of existing amplification and cochlear implant technology.
• Developmental Stuttering Laboratory: Investigates stuttering in young children focusing on the linguistic, cognitive, and emotional contributions to childhood stuttering.
• Hearing and Affect Perception Interest Laboratory: Devoted to understanding the effects of hearing loss and hearing aid processing on listening effort and emotion perception.
• Hearing and Communication Research Laboratory: Focuses on speech understanding difficulties in adults and children with hearing loss, factors responsible for those difficulties, and their relationship to the psychosocial consequences and benefit from rehabilitation.
• Innovative Research in Aerodigestive Disorders Library: Aims to improve clinical care, patient outcomes, and quality of life for individuals suffering from swallowing disorders.
• Neural Basis of Auditory Perception Laboratory: Investigates the perception of sound and its underlying neuronal encoding in normal hearing animals and animals with hearing impairments.
• Neurogenic and Communication Disorders Laboratory: Focuses on the interaction of speech, language, and cognitive-communication disorders that result from neurological injury and disease.
• Speech Kinematics and Acoustics Laboratory: Investigates speech motor control and execution.
• Vestibular Sciences Laboratory: Focuses on investigations of vestibular physiology across the lifespan and clinical applications of diagnostics and management of vestibular system disorders.
• Voice Biology Lab: Focuses on the biological and physiological basis for vocal fold health and pathology.

Admissions Information

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Cost and Financial Aid

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