Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning

09/13/2025

🎭 Break the Blocks: Improv for Stuttering🎭

Hear directly from one of our past participants about what this program meant to them 💬✨

👉 A free, supportive space where tweens and teens who stutter can build confidence, explore creativity, and connect with others.

🗓️ Mondays starting October 6, 5:30–7:00 PM CT
📍 Northwestern University, Evanston
💜 Free with registration

🔗 Learn more and register: Link in bio, call 847-491-3165 or email nucasll@northwestern.edu

09/11/2025

🎉 We’re excited to welcome Elizabeth Lidov, MS, CCC-SLP, to the NUCASLL clinic team!

Elizabeth is a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor and pediatric speech-language pathologist with extensive experience in both research and private practice. She is now seeing clients in our clinic, where she brings her passion for translating research into everyday care, supporting families 💜, and guiding the next generation of clinicians. 👩‍⚕️

09/05/2025

🎭✨ Break the Blocks: Improv for Tweens & Teens Who Stutter ✨🎭

Join us for a free, supportive space where stuttering is celebrated, not fixed. Through guided improv workshops, participants will:

* Embrace spontaneity and flexibility
* Build confidence in a welcoming environment
* Connect with others who stutter
* Have fun while learning and growing

🗓️ Dates: Mondays, 5:30–7:00 PM CT
📍 Location: Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
💰 Cost: Free (advanced registration required)

Led by speech-language pathologist Elisha Boxer Magnifico and theatre professor David Catlin, this program is open to new and returning participants.

📞 Register: Call 847-491-3165 or email nucasll@northwestern.edu
🔗 Learn More: Link in Bio

08/29/2025

📬 The next issue of NUCASLL News is almost here!
We’ll be sending it out within the next few days—don’t miss your chance to subscribe and get updates delivered straight to your inbox.

Each issue features practical tips, upcoming events, outreach highlights, and short articles written by our very own clinical team, all focused on supporting speech, language, and hearing health in our community.

➡️ Sign up now to be on the list before this month’s newsletter goes out! https://nucasll.northwestern.edu/newsletter/

08/24/2025

🔬🧠 CSD researchers are exploring how our brains listen to the sounds we make ourselves—like our own speech—versus the world around us. Supported with funding from an NIH NIDCD Early Career R21 award, this work uncovers fundamental insights into brain function and could help improve therapies for conditions such as stuttering.

📌 Project team:
• Kevin R. Sitek, PhD — Principal Investigator; Research Assistant Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Bharath Chandrasekaran, PhD — Co-Investigator; Ralph and Jean Sundin Endowed Professor; Department Chair, Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Peer Herholz, PhD — Co-Investigator; Research Assistant Professor, Northwestern University; Director of the SPARK initiative; Member of the Cognitive Science and Interdepartmental Neuroscience programs

CSD is proud to be at the forefront of this research!

08/16/2025

🎉 Celebrating our CSD 570-3 Capstone students in Audiology! 👂🎓

Under the guidance of faculty member Vidya Krull, these students developed and presented research projects that reflect their growth across the Capstone sequence — from critical review of clinical research to research methods and professional communication.

📊 Final poster presentations highlighted their confidence, hard work, and preparation for future clinical practice, national conferences, and potential publications.

👏 Well done, 570-3 students!

08/04/2025

🎉 Congratulations to Elizabeth Norton, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Director of the Language, Education and Reading Neuroscience (LEARN) Lab, and PhD candidate Hudi Licht, Lab Member, on receiving a grant from the 🏆!

Moebius syndrome is a rare condition that limits facial and eye movement and often includes significant language and communication challenges. This study will work with experts and community members to adapt child communication assessments for children with Moebius—for example, adjusting “social smile” as a milestone—and then track development using the lab’s remote assessment methods.

Learn more 🔗 http://learnlab.northwestern.edu/moebius

08/01/2025

🎉 Congratulations to NU faculty Bonnie Martin-Harris, PhD, and Ying Wu, PhD, on receiving funding support from the Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund!

Their project is developing an AI-powered tool to improve how clinicians assess swallowing disorders (dysphagia), making evaluations more accurate, efficient, and reliable. ✅⏱️🔍

Why it matters: Dysphagia affects millions, can be caused by a number of medical conditions, and can lead to serious—even life-threatening—complications. With the help of this award, Northwestern clinicians and researchers remain at the forefront of innovation, improving patient care today while preparing the next generation of clinicians to provide excellence wherever they practice.

We’re proud to see our faculty pushing the boundaries of research to enhance patient care and train the next generation of clinicians.

👉 Read more: http://bit.ly/45v36E2

07/29/2025

📬 The next issue of NUCASLL News is almost here!
We’ll be sending it out within the next few days—don’t miss your chance to subscribe and get updates delivered straight to your inbox.

Each issue features practical tips, upcoming events, outreach highlights, and short articles written by our very own clinical team, all focused on supporting speech, language, and hearing health in our community.

➡️ Sign up now (https://nucasll.northwestern.edu/newsletter/) to be on the list before this month’s newsletter goes out!

07/25/2025

🗣️ NUCASLL’s Intensive Aphasia/Apraxia Program (IAP) team—Drs. Belma Hadziselimovic, Karen Kinderman, Sarah Penzell, and Aaron Wilkins—along with eight MS SLL graduate students, welcomed a new client in early July for four weeks of intensive speech and language therapy.

Using a 4x4x4 model (4 weeks, 4 days/week, 4 hours/day), the IAP provides personalized, high-intensity therapy services and an invaluable clinical training experience for our graduate students. Many clients also continue their journey with us through our Aphasia Center group programs. 💬🧠

We’re proud to offer this impactful program for the second time this academic year. 💙

07/18/2025

Supporting Community Wellness in Irving Park 🏥👂👣
CSD faculty and NUCASLL clinician Dr. Katherine Swem, AuD, and Doctor of Audiology students from NUCASLL partnered with Northwestern’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program to provide free hearing screenings and balance and fall risk assessments at the Irving Park Hearing & Balance Fair.

Hosted by Irving Park Community Food Pantry and Irving Park Lutheran Church, the event brought together a range of services to support community members—including social work resources 🧑‍⚕️, hearing and balance education 🎧, and advocacy opportunities with local leaders 🗣️.

NUCASLL is proud to support equitable access to care and to collaborate on interprofessional outreach like this. 💜

04/09/2025

Big thanks to the Evanston RoundTable for featuring tonight’s stuttering event on campus at NU! There’s still time to register and we hope to see you there!

San Francisco-based filmmaker Maya Chupkov will be bringing her message of strength and resilience to the Chicagoland stuttering community in partnership