PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT OVERALL: CENTER FOR PERCEPTION AND COMMUNICATION IN CHILDREN The goal of Phase II of the Center for Perception and Communication in Children (CPCC), our Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) at the Boys Town National Research Hospital (BTNRH) in Omaha, Nebraska, is to expand the range of the current research program by providing a unique environment for the development of junior faculty who have an interest in identifying mechanisms and factors that influence children’s auditory and visual perception and communicative development. This focus reflects a critical need for translational, multi-disciplinary research investigating outcomes for children with communication disorders. Our goal is to continue to expand the scope of our research programs, ultimately becoming the national leader for research on speech, language, hearing, and cognitive development in children with communication disorders. Our approach for achieving this goal is to build and support independent, yet complementary, research programs that address (1) factors that influence speech, language, hearing, and cognitive development, (2) the impact of childhood hearing loss and developmental language disorders on speech, language, hearing, and cognitive functions in real-world environments, and (3) strategies to improve children’s speech, language, hearing, and cognitive outcomes. We will do this by developing and supporting a critical mass of NIH-funded research programs focused on issues related to perception and communication in children. We will also strengthen the research infrastructure available to Core Leads in Phase II, and extend the user base of these resources to include established CPCC investigators. The four initial projects in Phase II will investigate issues related to (1) cognitive mechanisms that facilitate speech understanding for listeners with cochlear implants, (2) differential diagnosis and outcomes for children with otitis media, (3) age effects in the perceptual and linguistic mechanisms that underlie auditory-visual speech enhancement, and (4) individual differences in the rehearsal strategies used by children to overcome working memory limitations. Research on these topics will be facilitated by three cores. Core A, the an Administrative Core, will coordinate interaction with an External Advisory Committee, an Administrative Advisory Committee, an internal Executive Committee, and research mentors. Core B, the Technology Core, will provide support for hardware and software development, data analysis, and room-acoustics issues. Core C, the Human Subjects Core, will collect clinical data, implement quality assurance procedures, and assist with selection and interpretation of clinical measures and recruitment of participants for research studies. The CPCC will continue to benefit from the combined research experience of the senior faculty who will serve as Core Leads and mentors, and from the unique patient resources and translational research environment at BTNRH.

PROJECT NARRATIVE OVERALL: CENTER FOR PERCEPTION AND COMMUNICATION IN CHILDREN The Center for Perception and Communication in Children (CPCC) will provide a framework to continue to expand the range of an existing, highly successful research program at the Boys Town National Research Hospital in Phase II of our Center of Biomedical Research Excellence. This goal will be accomplished by promoting the success of junior faculty members, and by strengthening the research infrastructure for all CPCC scientists. This will allow the research program as a whole to tackle more complex issues and directly address the problems encountered by children with hearing loss and children with normal hearing who have developmental language disorders.