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Research

Life-Changing Research

Since our founding, Boys Town has been committed to saving the lives of children and healing families. Research is critical to our mission and plays an important role in the development and delivery of our youth care and healthcare services for families, children and patients.

Because of research, we know how to:

  • Empower parents to help their children who have behavioral concerns
  • Help a child achieve positive change in their behavior and psychological well-being
  • Understand how things like substance abuse and childhood traumas affect developing brains, and affects responses to therapies
  • Support language and communication development in children as they grow
  • Screen newborn babies’ hearing at birth and apply early intervention strategies to improve communication skills for children who are deaf/hard of hearing
  • Provide the best clinical support for individuals with hearing aids and cochlear implants

Areas of Research

At Boys Town, we focus on six areas of research, including hearing, speech and language, behavioral health, neurobehavioral, neuroscience and balance. Our research is unique because we take our findings from the lab and translate them to the latest, most innovative care for children, families and patients we serve. We share this research with others to impact healthy outcomes across the country.

Balance Research
Our Balance and Vestibular Research labs study the genetic development and maintenance of the vestibular system and seek​ to understand vestibular physiology in both health and pathology.
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Center for Perception and Communication in Children
Funded by a COBRE grant, our goal is​ to be the national leader for research on speech, language, hearing, and cognitive development in children with communication disorders.
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Child and Family Translational Research
We conduct applied research focused on understanding the nature of problems children and families face in today's world and identifying the most effective ways to help them.
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Hearing and Speech Perception Research
​​​Our Hearing and Speech Perception labs support basic research efforts aimed at understanding hearing, promote translational clinical hearing research, and train early-stage hearing scientists in areas related to hearing, audiology, auditory develo
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Institute for Human Neuroscience
The Institute for Human Neuroscience at Boys Town National Research Hospital is revolutionizing child and adolescent brain research.
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Sensory Neuroscience Research
he Center for Sensory Neuroscience aims to understand neurosensory systems function at the molecular level in both healthy tissues and genetic disease states with a particular focus on hearing.
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Speech and Language Research
We combine clinical​ services, innovative research and national outreach focused on language, communication development and early interventions for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
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