About our research

The Hispanic/Latino population is the fastest growing minority group in the U.S. Approximately 20% of the U.S. population identifies as Hispanic/Latino, and 30% of them prefer to communicate in Spanish. However, the number of Spanish-speaking audiologists remains disproportionate to the Spanish-speaking population. In addition, bilingual (Spanish and English) audiologists might still lack the Spanish language skills needed to provide effective and safe care in a clinical setting. We believe that bilingual audiology students (Hispanic and non-Hispanic), if given the tools to expand their Spanish language skills for clinical care, hold the potential to bring language-concordant audiology services to the Hispanic community in the U.S. Therefore, we seek to:

  • Help bilingual (ES/EN) AuD students expand their Spanish language skills by teaching them Medical Spanish specific to hearing services so they can provide safe and effective clinical services to Spanish-speaking patients.

  • Measure their Medical Spanish linguistic skills prior and post taking our curriculum using evidence-based grading tools.

  • Follow up their progress at years 1 and 3 post curriculum to test if they can sustain the language skills acquired.

  • Our pilot study has received funding support from ASHA. Start date September 2025!

Pilo Study

The initial phase of this project involves conducting a pilot study to assess our teaching modality, materials, and assessment tool. Participants who qualify will receive two text books and gain access to the Medical Spanish for Audiologists curriculum . Potential participants must meet the following criteria:

  • They completed an AuD degree in the U.S. in 2025.

  • They possess Spanish language skills at an intermediate or advanced level (determined by a validated self-assessment language tool part of the recruitment process).

  • They can commit to a 35 hr. course over a peridod of eight weeks (Sept - Oct 2025)

For potential participants

There are only 6 spots open for this course. Participants invited to register for this course must PASS the survey, the language proficiency self-asseessment scale, and a 15 min phone interview.

Participants accepted to join the course must: watch a 1-hour pre-recorded webinar and complete assigments, quizes and/or additional readings on weekly basis. These activities can be done at their own time. They must also attend weekly 1-hour virtual-group-live sessions with a standardized patient where they will practice the topics learned each week. These weekly meetings will be held at 6 PM PT each week. Our curriculum follows a clinical encounter format, and each session helps participants build their knowledge progressively. The last virtual session is an individual session with a standardized Spanish-speaking patient. This session will be recorded and will serve as the participant's final assessment. The recorded session will then be analyzed, and a report with individualized feedback will be provided to each participant at the end of the curriculum.
Recruitment has closed

Research Team

  • Principal Investigator: Laura Coco, PhD, AuD, San Diego State University

    Dr. Coco is a multilingual audiologist and health services researcher. Dr. Coco received her AuD degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015. She received her PhD from the University of Arizona in 2021 and completed a 1-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC) and Oregon Health & Science University. Dr. Coco's research focuses on improving access to hearing healthcare services for Latino adults. Her specialty is the use of a community-based participatory research approach and tele-audiology service delivery as strategies to improve access to hearing healthcare services for rural and under-resourced populations. Her community-engaged, patient-oriented research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research, the VA Rural Health Resource Center, and multiple other community and foundation sources.

  • Coinvestigator: Alejandra Ullauri, AuD, MPH, Audiology En Español

    Dr. Ullauri is a bilingual audiologist licensed in the state of Illinois, and the founder of Audiology En Español. Dr. Ullauri is also the author of Audiology Services in Diverse Communities. She is a native Spanish speaker, born and raised in Ecuador. Dr. Ullauri studied Audiology in the U.S. and in Australia, and she has been fortunate to practice the profession in both languages: two years in the United Kingdom, twelve years in the U.S., and seven years in Ecuador. She is a member of the National Association of Medical Spanish and a verified Physician Oral Language Observation Matrix (POLOM) Rater. Dr. Ullauri currently participates as a subject matter expert on pediatric hearing screening methods at the National Center on Health, Behavioral Health, and Safety. During the Medical Spanish for Audiologists Pilot Initive, Dr Ullauri will serve as course instructor, virtual live sessions facilitator, final assessment moderator, and POLOM rater.