MURFREESBORO TN - As a free community service during National Audiology Awareness Month, MTSU undergraduate communication disorders majors will test the hearing of students at John Pittard Elementary School, 745 DeJarnette Lane in Murfreesboro, from 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15.Using seven portable audiometers, the MTSU students will document the responses of children in second, fourth and sixth grades, as well as kindergarten. The youngsters will don headphones and raise their hands if they hear the tones emitted through the audiometers. In addition, the student clinicians will use two tympanometers to test for middle ear disease.

Nearly 15 percent of children between the ages of six and 19 in the United States have low-frequency or high-frequency hearing loss of at least 16 decibels in one or both ears, according to a six-year study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We are grateful for this partnership with John Pittard Elementary School,” said Elizabeth Smith, coordinator of the MTSU Speech Clinic, in a press release. “It’s a service to them, but it’s also a great opportunity for our students.”

The pre-professional communication disorders program at MTSU prepares its majors for graduate school work and, eventually, careers in speech-language pathology and audiology. MTSU has the only program in the state of Tennessee with an undergraduate clinic.“When our students leave here, they have hands-on experience that no other students in the state have,” said Smith. “That’s why graduate schools go after our students.”