Within a three-minute walk from the Memphis Speech and Hearing Center, the School of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology also operates a language and speech research facility at the Adams Pavilion of the MED (a regional medical and research facility managed by the University of Tennessee Medical School). The Speech and Hearing Annex is located in a portion of the fourth floor of the building which contains a number of laboratory facilities serving multiple research focus areas for the School of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology. The facilities include: a vocal interaction laboratory designed for work with adults; an infant and child vocalization recording suite with control room; a more general developmental language and communication research laboratory with ongoing work in derivational morphology, early identification of language and communicative disorders (esp. autism spectrum disorders), and bilingualism; as well as a coordination and reception area, a computer server room, a technical manager’s office and a doctoral student computer lab. The facilities at the Annex are served by a unified network computer system and all share resources in the form of equipment and coordination by a central administrative coordinator who assists in scheduling, space allocation, and finance.

Funding at the Speech and Hearing Annex is from multiple sources, both federal (currently two grants from the National Institutes of Health as well as a Predoctoral fellowship), state (as a Center of Excellence), and private (Autism Speaks). The shared resources of the Speech and Hearing Annex create an inviting atmosphere for students and faculty, and indeed, much research by both Ph.D. and Master’s level students is conducted there. Four faculty members currently find their primary research laboratories embedded within this rubric, and faculty from other disciplines are involved in a growing effort spanning the School of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology and the Main Campus of The University of Memphis.