RICHARDSON, Texas (July 28, 2003) — The nationally recognized Callier Center for Communication Disorders will begin taking patients next month at its newly completed 23,000-square-foot satellite facility on the campus of The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).

The new branch of the Callier Center, which is part of UTD’s School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and has one of the top-ranked audiology programs in the United States, is scheduled to open on Monday, Aug. 18.

Callier Richardson will bring a wide array of state-of-the-art hearing, speech and other communication services to residents of North Dallas and Collin County, from infants to mature adults. The Callier satellite will house clinical areas where patients with hearing, speech and language disorders will be diagnosed and treated, as well as two classrooms and several laboratories for student training and research. The satellite will offer many of the same services as the Callier Center’s much-acclaimed facility near downtown Dallas, including an amplification program, which will outfit certain household devices, such as doorbells, telephones, televisions and alarm clocks, with amplification mechanisms so persons with hearing loss are better able to use the equipment. Other programs will be unique to Callier Richardson.

Also at Callier Richardson, there will be a pre-school language development program, student-based training programs for aphasics (people with stroke-induced communication difficulties), an oral motor feeding program for children with an aversion to eating and an accent modification program, among other offerings.

In addition to providing advanced clinical services, the Callier Center offers educational services, conducts innovative research and, as part of UTD, awards more master’s degrees in communication disorder-related areas than any other school in Texas. The center averages about 70,000 patient visits a year.

Donise Pearson, head of the speech-language pathology clinical division at UTD, will serve as program director of Callier Richardson. She is the current past president of the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Pearson’s areas of expertise include pre-school children and parent training, and she is the co-author of two books and has written numerous articles.

“I look forward to leading Callier Richardson and assisting in expanding the services offered by the Callier Center for Communication Disorders,” Pearson said. “It is exciting to think of the many lives we will be able to improve and the families we will touch with our services, as well as the many students we will train to become leading clinicians in the evaluation and treatment of communication disorders.”

Licensed, certified professional clinicians will train post-graduate, graduate and undergraduate students at the new facility, something done at only a handful of such institutions in the United States. Traditional university communication disorder programs typically are student-run with licensed, certified supervisors.

Construction of the $6.5-million, one-story, dome-topped building began in July 2002, and a formal dedication will be held on Sept. 17. Callier Richardson is located at 811 Synergy Park Blvd., just west of North Floyd Road, on the northern end of the UTD campus. Anyone interested in making an appointment for an assessment or treatment at the new facility should call 972-883-3630.

About the Callier Center for Communication Disorders
Established in 1962, the Callier Center is nationally recognized for advances in the treatment and prevention of hearing, speech and language disorders that affect individuals of all ages, from infants to seniors. The main branch is located on Inwood Road in Dallas, adjacent to such major medical facilities as The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, St. Paul Hospital and Parkland Hospital. For additional information about the Callier Center, please visit http://www.callier.utdallas.edu.

About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls more than 13,000 students. The school's freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university's Web site at http://www.utdallas.edu.