Research

RESEARCH:

The Relationship between Production and Perception of Voiceless Sibilant Fricatives in Children with Repaired Cleft Palate:  This project is internally funded through the Faculty Enhancement Grant program at Portland State University.  The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between speech production and speech perception of [s] and [ʃ] in children with repaired cleft lip and palate (CLP) in order to investigate possible underlying factors contributing to speech sound disorders in this population of children.  In addition, it includes investigating the correlation between the acoustic analysis and the auditory perceptual analysis of speech produced by children with repaired CLP.  This project extends the data collected for my dissertation, including a greater number of children with repaired CLP. 

In addition, funding provided by an American Speech – Language Hearing Association (ASHA) Advancing Academic Research Careers (AARC) award will afford me the opportunity to work directly with Dr. Kathy Chapman, an accomplished researcher in the area of early speech and language development in children with CLP and professor at the University of Utah, as a mentor to continue data collection, prepare manuscripts and submit future grant applications.

Future goals:  Examination of the clinical utility of acoustic analysis methods for routine assessment and treatment protocols for children with repaired cleft lip and palate.