Dr. Thomas Layton, chair of the North Carolina Central University Department of Communication Disorders will deliver a bilingual lecture on Autism Spectrum Disorders live, online to Orizaba, Mexico on June 27th at 11:00 a.m. 

This program will be available on www.nccu.edu and it will be broadcast on the University’s cable station.  The program will also be transmitted on a local television station in Orizaba.  Dr. Layton will be using SKYPE software and so will the audience in Orizaba.  This is the first international, bilingual broadcast in NCCU history.

In Orizaba, approximately 100 people, including parents of children with autism, physicians, rehabilitation workers, and educators, have signed up to attend this first internationally transmitted presentation.

This program will be available on www.nccu.edu and it will be broadcast on the University’s cable station.  The program will also be transmitted on a local television station in Orizaba.  Dr. Layton will be using SKYPE software and so will the audience in Orizaba.  This is the first international, bilingual broadcast in NCCU history.

Layton is an expert on autism spectrum disorders.  He has done extensive research on autism and presented nationally and internationally on many aspects of the spectrum.  He has helped to develop treatment methods for working with low functioning children with autism. NCCU’s department of communication disorders has the only bilingual program in speech-language pathology in North Carolina.  Raquel Strauss, M.S., CCC-SLP developed the program.  Strauss also launched a Mexican practicum for graduate students during the summer.  This summer, the students had to forego their usual five-week practicum because of the swine flu threat.  An opportunity arose to maintain contact with Orizaba via Layton’s lecture.

There are no speech-language pathologists or audiologists in that region of Mexico.  NCCU students who have had an opportunity to visit Orizaba have provided services to persons in that region free of charge in a hospital, a rehabilitation center, and a center for multi-handicapped children in Orizaba.  The students study Spanish eight hours a week at the Universidad del Valle de Orizaba (UniVO).  Their services are offered in Spanish.  The students use interpreters from UniVO if their Spanish skills are not strong enough.

NCCU’s association with UniVO began in 2006.  Dr. Emmanuel Oritsejafor, director of International Affairs, and Dr. Janice Harper, assistant vice chancellor for University Programs, developed a memorandum of understanding between the two universities, launching the service- language-culture program abroad.  Ms. Iliana Diaz, director of International Affairs at UniVO, has coordinated the scheduling of the students in professional placements as well as providing a Spanish instructor and interpreters.  NCCU is training graduate students in Communication Disorders to achieve bilingual competence so that upon graduation, they are prepared to address the concerns of a growing Hispanic population in North Carolina.

The Orizaba lecture can be viewed at www.nccu.edu/webcast