The Centre of Excellence (CoE) at the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH) in Mysuru, which will be inaugurated on June 20 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will consist of 11 state-of-the-art centres - clinical, research and outreach - catering to the needs of persons with communication disorders and carrying out extensive research in the field.
The four-storeyed building with a plinth area of 2,71,249 square feet will house the most modern facilities, serving the needs of speech and hearing impaired under one roof. Funded by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the CoE has come up at a cost of ₹155.49 crore.
The CoE aims to bridge the gap between the need and availability of professionals for assessment and rehabilitation of persons with communication disorders and conduct basic and multidisciplinary research for creating database, tests and norms of the Indian population, according to the institute.
It aims for capacity building for enhancing the reach of clinical services for persons with communication disorders besides raising public awareness on communication disorders.
The Centre for Speech and Language Disorders in children, adults and senior citizens is expected to handle 5,900 people (treatment and rehabilitation) and 4,800 (assessment) a year. The centre’s activities include assessment, treatment and rehabilitation services including voice disorders, craniofacial anomalies and cleft palate, neurogenic speech disorders, autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, mental retardation and syndromes and specific language deficit, childhood aphasia and allied disorders.
Other centres coming at CoE are Centre for Persons with Tinnitus and Vestibular Disorders, Centre for Hearing Impairment in Children, Adults and Senior citizens, Centre for Persons with Swallowing Disorders, Centre for Surgical Rehabilitation of Communication Disorders, Centre for Speech and Language Sciences, Centre for Hearing Sciences, Centre for Prevention of Communication Disorders and Epidemiological Research and Cognitive Behavioural Science in Communication Disorder, Centre for Rehabilitation Engineering, Acoustics and Biomedical Engineering, and Centre for AAC and Sign Language. Outreach centres include Centre for Public Education in Communication Disorders.
The centres assess, treat and rehabilitate people with tinnitus and vestibular disorders, hearing impairment swallowing difficulties, and provide medical and surgical rehabilitation for voice disorders associated with benign conditions and cochlear implants, middle ear implants, bone anchored hearing aids.
One of the centres designs and develops assistive technology devices, augmentative and alternative communication devices (tailor made) for persons with communication disorders. It also aims to design and develop instruments and gadgets for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes and linking informatics and speech technology for speech-based work on the human computer interface, according to a note from the institute.
