Federal Grant Award Summary

Father Flanagan's Boys' Home received a $134,495 Project Grant award (CFDA 93.173: Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders) from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders on July 10, 2026, with a completion date of June 30, 2029. This K01 Career Development Award funds research into the neural dynamics underlying speech processing in children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL), a condition affecting over 3 million school-age children in the United States. The project will characterize behavioral speech perception in the normal-hearing ear of affected children (Aim 1) and examine neural dynamics using magnetoencephalography (Aim 2) to test the hypothesis that consistent, quality bilateral auditory input during development is critical for robust neural representations of phonemes.

The research addresses a significant unmet healthcare need by moving beyond the traditional explanation of speech perception deficits in children with UHL as purely spatial or binaural hearing issues. Leveraging cutting-edge multimodal neuroimaging technology available at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, the project will generate empirical evidence to guide evidence-based rehabilitation interventions. The deliverables include comprehensive characterization of speech perception challenges and neurophysiological findings that will advance clinical understanding and support the principal investigator's career development in combining neurophysiological and behavioral methodology to improve outcomes for this vulnerable pediatric population.