Jennifer Kent-Walsh Archives | �鶹ԭ�� News

7 �鶹ԭ�� Health Professions Faculty Inducted to National Academies of Practice

Grayson Keglovic — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 18:31:33 +0000

Seven accomplished leaders, educators and researchers in the College of Health Professions and Sciences (CHPS) have been inducted as Distinguished Fellows in the National Academies of Practice (NAP). The prestigious distinction is awarded to scholars who have excelled in their field while demonstrating dedication to the advancement of interprofessional education, scholarship, research, practice and policy in support of interprofessional care.

The inductees and their respective academies are: Interim Dean Matthew Theriot (Social Work), Associate Dean of Research Jennifer Kent-Walsh (Speech-Language Pathology), Department of Health Sciences Chair Gail Kauwell (Nutrition and Dietetics), Director for the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders Ann Eddins (Audiology), Associate Professor Nicole Dawson (Physical Therapy), Clinical Associate Professor Carey Rothschild (Physical Therapy) and Assistant Professor Susanny Beltran (Social Work). The honors were bestowed at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., on March 15.

Prior to his appointment as interim dean, Theriot served as the director of the School of Social Work where he implemented a professional and community education program, grew interprofessional research opportunities, and elevated the school’s graduate rankings. As the interim dean, he provides leadership to the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, the Department of Health Sciences, the School of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Sciences, and the School of Social Work. Theriot’s career includes more than two decades of higher education teaching and research coupled with years of executive leadership roles centered around implementing strategic initiatives. He previously worked as a school social worker, mobile crisis counselor and child welfare worker. Theriot is active in professional service on a national level, chairing the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Membership and Professional Development.

Kent-Walsh is a Pegasus Professor and the associate dean of research and faculty excellence within CHPS, the director of the Florida Alliance for Assistive Services and Technology Center and leads the Assistive Technology Center Lab. Kent-Walsh has earned more than two dozen awards and accolades for excellence in teaching, service, research and innovation during her more than 20-year career in higher education and has worked extensively in interdisciplinary teaching and clinical roles. A highly accomplished researcher, she has secured millions in funding to further her research which focuses on aided language development and augmentative and alternative communication, has presented her work extensively nationally and internationally, and has led a variety of initiatives in the college to advance interdisciplinary research and practice.

An experienced educator, researcher and registered dietician nutritionist with more than four decades of experience in academia focused on nutrition and dietetics education and practice, Kauwell has served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Sciences for the last six years. Her mentoring skills and passion for educating future healthcare professionals have been recognized with multiple awards for teaching and mentoring excellence. Her research record, which focuses on folate and vitamin B12, has been published in top-ranked journals with findings translated into materials for healthcare professionals and consumers. Kauwell most recently spearheaded the development of the department’s first graduate program, the master’s in health promotion and behavioral sciences.

Eddins, a professor and the director of the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, has more than 30 years of academic and leadership experience in the field. She is a clinical audiologist and classically trained neuroscientist who has centered her clinical and research interests on neural encoding, neural plasticity aging and rehabilitative intervention — working to better understand the neural bases of auditory perception in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired individuals. Her research has been continuously funded by the NIH, NSF, private industry and foundations. Eddins is also a leader on a national level, serving as past President of the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences & Disorders and on the Board of Directors and journal editor for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Dawson has been involved with interprofessional education, practice and research throughout her 22-year career. An associate professor in the Division of Physical Therapy and director of the Aging and Longevity Initiatives for Vitality & Enrichment Lab, Dawson’s clinical work and research has centered around healthy aging and improving the quality of life for seniors. She is a Board Certified Geriatric Physical Therapist Emeritus who has been recognized by both the Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy and the American Physical Therapy Association for her outstanding work as an educator. She holds an appointment with �鶹ԭ��’s Faculty Cluster Initiative in Disability, Aging and Technology, an interdisciplinary collaboration that explores innovations to better support aging populations.

A clinical associate professor in the Division of Physical Therapy, Rothschild is a board-certified clinical specialist in sports physical therapy and orthopedic physical therapy, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and a Menopause Society certified practitioner. Her areas of interest are determining best practices for the assessment and treatment of persistent pain to improve the health of patients. Rothschild has more than 25 years of clinical practice experience, collaborating with interprofessional and intraprofessional teams to deliver cost-effective, collaborative and patient-centered care to those with chronic pain. She has been recognized nationally for her teaching excellence, and recently helped lead the implementation of a new Women’s Health Physical Therapy Residency program in conjunction with Orlando Health. She also serves as editor in chief of the prominent publication Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Practice.

Beltran, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and a co-director of the Center for Behavioral Health Research and Training is committed to fostering interdisciplinary education and research in social change and development. Her expertise is in gerontological social work and her research concentrates on end-of-life care, advance care planning and challenges that may come with working in hospice and nursing home settings. Beltran aims to enhance collaborative practice in the care of older adults and improve access and navigation of end-of-life care for older adults while preparing social workers for effective practice in interdisciplinary settings.

The NAP Academies also include dentistry, nursing, occupational therapy, optometry, pharmacy, podiatric medicine, psychology, respiratory care and veterinary medicine.

These faculty members join four CHPS faculty previously inducted into the NAP. In 2023, ��Ի��, and in 2024, Clinical Associate Professors Laurie Neely and Jennifer Tucker ’23 were inducted in physical therapy.

Leveraging the Power of Language Through Assistive Technology

Robert Stephens — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 13:35:05 +0000

A five-year $3 million clinical trial grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), widely considered the gold standard for biomedical and public health research funding, tells us something unique is again happening at the FAAST Center and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Lab at �鶹ԭ��.

“Both the scientific findings and, more importantly, the feedback from the families of children using AAC and their service-providers, have shown us the incredible power assistive technology can hold for children with significant speech impairments when combined with customized language therapy,” says Jennifer Kent-Walsh, founder of �鶹ԭ��’s Assistive Technology Center and a Pegasus Professor in the College of Health Professions and Sciences. “This new round of NIH funding means we can expand our work to provide clinicians with more evidence-based assessment and intervention options to help children develop language skills through use of AAC technologies.”

The NIH can clearly see from data that children with significant speech impairments and genetic conditions like Down syndrome and cerebral palsy are communicating at higher levels. They can also look at the flurry of activity and engagement among the children, families, service providers, �鶹ԭ�� students, community clinicians, caregivers and researchers at the center. Thousands of people have come for workshops, individualized training and therapy, and to borrow assistive technologies to help those struggling with language development, communication and a wide range of other needs.

“We are fortunate to have had support at �鶹ԭ�� to align the critical stakeholder groups required to simultaneously advance science and practice — community, clinical, academic, research, industry, and the next generation of speech-language pathologists and related service-providers,” Kent-Walsh says. “Two key aspects of the study this new funding will support relate to the critical need to design interventions that are implementable in real-life contexts for clinicians and accessible to as many children as possible for sustained periods of time in community settings.”

Kent-Walsh argues that engineering great technologies and even designing effective interventions can still miss the mark of meaningful scientific advancement in healthcare without implementation. This new funding will allow Kent-Walsh’s team to focus on validating interventions that are designed with and for clinicians supporting children using assistive technology to communicate. The fact that the NIH is funding this work is a sign of the significant and practical progress that’s been two decades in the making.

Kent-Walsh is the cornerstone of this classic from-the-ground-up story. She came to �鶹ԭ�� as an assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders in 2003. As a teacher and speech-language pathologist in Canada and England, she had witnessed first-hand the life setbacks that speech and language disorders can cause for children. At �鶹ԭ��, she would have the freedom to explore meaningful solutions, including technology-based ideas, to address these challenges. “The university always had an openness for innovation – particularly in areas relating to engineering and technology,” she says. “For me, it was exciting to have the opportunity to develop a program of assistive technology research in an environment already primed for technology development and with an emerging focus on health and wellness.”

“Communication is a basic human right which can, and must, be supported for all.”

During her time at �鶹ԭ��, Kent-Walsh has secured millions of dollars in funding from local, state and federal sources to expand research and optimize assistive technology service-delivery. In 2023, after being named a Pegasus Professor, Kent-Walsh saw a banner hung in her honor with the words that have driven her from day one:

“Communication is a basic human right which can, and must, be supported for all,” Kent-Walsh says.

When any of this is brought up — the research, the scientific findings and the successes — Kent-Walsh shifts the focus to the power of people working together.

“We have been able to learn and accomplish as much as we have to this point through true team science,” she says.

Cathy Binger at the University of New Mexico (UNM) has been Kent-Walsh’s primary research collaborator for the past two decades and she serves as the other principal investigator for this new grant. Their decades long partnership has afforded invaluable cross-institutional learning and funded training experiences for both �鶹ԭ�� and UNM students through clinical trial investigations like this one. Professor John Heilman, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, recently joined the research team as a language measurement expert. Other key team members include Professor Debbie Hahs-Vaughn from �鶹ԭ��’s College of Community Innovation and Education, who serves as biostatistician for the project, and associate clinical instructor Nancy Harrington who serves as project director for this multi-site clinical trial investigation. And then there is the project team — with additional clinical and academic connections for the project facilitated by the broader village of collaborators in the FAAST Center and AAC Lab, including associate clinical instructor Carolyn Buchanan and clinical instructor Punam Desormes.

“When we involve students and our community at large, the network of advocates expands to ensure that any child can gain access to assistive technology services,” Kent-Walsh says. “They know, and NIH knows, that there is a growing body of findings indicating that the use of AAC technologies, combined with tailored language intervention, is where the magic happens.”

The team’s overall goal is to reach as many children as possible in as many healthcare settings as possible, and ultimately, to improve lives.

Meet �鶹ԭ��’s 4 Pegasus Professors for 2023

Robert Stephens | Photos by Kadeem Stewart ’17 — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 18:00:38 +0000

Four �鶹ԭ�� professors have been named this year’s Pegasus Professors, �鶹ԭ��’s highest faculty designation.

Pegasus Professors are selected by the president and provost and are recognized for excellence in the teaching, research and service. This year’s honorees include innovative researchers who have not only made a difference at �鶹ԭ��, but nationally and internationally.

Stephen Fiore’s classrooms and cognitive science gatherings have birthed hundreds of ideas for dissertations, publications, research projects and even apps, in settings he calls “anti-disciplinarian.”

Jane Gibson is a medical geneticist and molecular pathologist who uses genomic technology to improve patient diagnostics and treatment, and shares a career of knowledge with the next generation of medical professionals.

Jennifer Kent-Walsh built a center from the ground up at �鶹ԭ�� to help people of all ages who live with barriers caused by communication disorders.

Marianna Pensky opened new doors 28 years ago as the first woman faculty in �鶹ԭ��’s Department of Mathematics, and has influenced the field through research and mentorship.

The four professors will be recognized Wednesday during the Founders’ Day Faculty Honors Celebration from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Student Union Pegasus Ballroom.

Stephen Fiore

Professor, cognitive sciences
Director, ,
,

Few people know: He spent so much time working in restaurants during college that he once considered a career in the restaurant business.

Stephen Fiore arrives 30 minutes early to move the furniture for the classes he leads. A handwritten note sometimes greets him. “Please put the chairs where you found them when you’re finished.”

Fiore is half-tempted to ask, “Why?”

The circular format he employs has proven to open the gates to some of the most constructive conversations about some of the strangest questions you can imagine. Do dogs think about the future? What does a tick experience when landing on a person’s flesh?

If the topics sound odd, that’s perfect.

“The best ideas across every discipline start with a little mind wandering,” Fiore says. “Then we move from wandering to actual ideas. The best discussions lead to the most important phase: how to do something with the idea.”

His students have done plenty with their off-the-wall questions over the years. They’ve pursued research projects, published papers and written dissertations. Two students recently joined Fiore’s Cognitive Science Lab, helping work on grants studying social cognition in human-robot interaction and how AI affects teamwork.

The common denominator is the questions that no one would dare ask out loud anywhere other than Fiore’s group settings. He calls his classes “gatherings.” He says they are “anti-disciplinary.” He never lectures.

“My role is to create the right environment for conversation,” he says, “and then I shut up and listen.”

The computer scientist learns perspectives from the anthropologist. The sociology graduate listens to the biology graduate. Together, they dig deeper than they could ever dig within their own colleges or own heads.

Does the ocean have a memory? The question could, and has, led to ideas to study beach erosion. How about ants … does the shape of their nests alter social behavior? This one has spawned theories about architecture.

“When we’re specialists in a field, we might not see the big picture, what I call ‘disciplinary myopia,’” Fiore says. “Or we might look down on ideas from other fields, what I call ‘disciplinary disdain.’ I try to help others avoid these see me practicing what I preach.”

Fiore’s methods are so intriguing that he’s been invited to give more than 120 presentations around the world and co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. He’s played a role in securing more than $30 million in grants. One question, however, causes him to stumble when it comes up: “How did he get here?”

“That’s not so easy to answer,” he says.

To summarize, Fiore attended junior college out of high school “for the heck of it.” He realized he enjoyed learning and studied at the University of Maryland before moving to the beach with two degrees and a craving for fun.

“I experienced the retirement life at 21 years old,” he says, “and got tired of it pretty quickly. It was time to find a real job.”

Fiore happened to pick up a brochure describing a seminar on the brain. A little more research led him to a field called “cognitive psychology.” He quit his job and went back to school to study how people think, remember, and solve problems. He also volunteered in labs where he worked with researchers from all fields of expertise.

“That’s where I learned how productive we can be when we work across disciplines,” Fiore says, “because no one is afraid to ask the ‘out there’ questions.”

Like, what new knowledge can be created from the collisions of ideas from people with vastly different perspectives?

“You know the saying, ‘Many hands lighten the load?’ It works with minds, too. We need to invite more of it.”

Jane Gibson

Professor, pathology
Chair,
Associate dean for Faculty Affairs
Director, Molecular Diagnostics

Few people know: She was a candidate for the astronaut program in the 1990s before realizing claustrophobia “probably wouldn’t bode well in a spaceship.”

As one of the foremost researchers and clinicians in medical genomics and genetics, Gibson knows the literal definition of “groundbreaking.” In fact, 15 years ago she could have taken her expertise anywhere in the country. She’d already set up the genetics program for Orlando Health and directed another for Ameripath (before it became Quest Diagnostics). But in 2008 she chose to take all her expertise to an empty field in Lake Nona.

“There was nothing but dirt, bulldozers and cows,” Gibson says of the site that would become �鶹ԭ��’s College of Medicine. “We didn’t even have running water. But that’s what excited us: we had a blank slate to create something extraordinary.”

Gibson’s mother always encouraged her to “shoot for the stars,” to look beyond what is and see what could be. Instead of seeing a field of cows and the shell of a building, Gibson and half a dozen other doctors envisioned the home of a world-class medical center. There would be a hospital, labs and freedom to extend the boundaries of medical science. Most important, there would be students with equally big dreams.

“It comes down to this: We want to expose them to the latest discoveries and technologies of a precision medicine and genomics era and then send them into the world to make lives better,” Gibson says.

She doesn’t simply talk about discoveries in genomics and precision medicine. She makes them. Her dad did the same thing as a plant geneticist. Gibson would watch him crossbreed vegetables to find more resilient varieties in his greenhouses. Early in her career, Gibson attended a conference in Colorado and happened to sit around a campfire with Mary-Claire King, who said she’d been researching how breast cancer and ovarian cancer ran in families. Her groundbreaking research is now legendary: A mutation of the gene called BRCA1, which causes hereditary breast cancer and is now tested along with other genes as a standard of patient care

“The genetic cause of cancer was mostly unproven at the time,” Gibson says. “But right after that, the field just exploded. Now we use the genomic testing every day in patient care. I’m blessed to have been on the leading edge of it.”

It all fits her decision to choose a pasture over an established institution 15 years ago. “To whom much is given, much is expected,” she says, quoting a verse that directs her life. Gibson and her colleagues consider the College of Medicine a gift to the Orlando community. From it, more than 1,000 graduates have gone out to advance research and to care for patients who need something more tangible than a ray of hope: they need smart practitioners.

A week before learning she had been selected as a 2023 Pegasus Professor, Gibson went to a doctor’s appointment — this time as a patient. In the office, she saw a reminder of why she chose this path: a former student, now a doctor, making lives better in our community.

“That’s what we envisioned when we entered uncharted waters,” Gibson says, “and it still inspires me every day.”

Jennifer Kent-Walsh

Professor, communication sciences and disorders
Founder and director,

Associate dean of Research,

Few people know: She was a Highland dancer and traveled across Canada and to Scotland to compete and perform in festivals representing her Scottish heritage.

Before she dove into speech-language pathology as her calling and before she developed the FAAST Assistive Technology Center at �鶹ԭ�� from scratch, Jennifer Kent-Walsh learned to pay attention. She grew up in communities on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, where people expected an honest answer when asked, “How are you?” And they’d listen.

“People looked out for one another,” Kent-Walsh says.

Her father was a minister, and her mother was a teacher and vice principal. Not surprisingly, Kent-Walsh started her career in classrooms, teaching in England and Canada. Something kept grabbing her attention.

“The students,” she says. “Some had communication disorders that created barriers to the power of education. In math, for example, the numbers weren’t necessarily the problem. It was often the words and understanding the language that caused students challenges.”

Her interest shifted to speech-language pathology for her graduate education. During a clinical placement, she met a young woman who completely lost the ability to speak due to complications during a routine surgery. Kent-Walsh saw it as another example of the profound impact communication disorders can have on patients and their families.

“When a person is unable to effectively communicate, it affects everything in life. I realized that I wanted to be involved in research so I could help find meaningful solutions to provide every person with effective ways of communicating, whether or not they have functional speech.”

Turns out, Kent-Walsh would build a place to do just that at �鶹ԭ��, where she was offered the opportunity to create an advanced research and educational center focused on assistive technology.

“The university had an openness to innovating and developing new curriculum and clinical experiences for students. For me, it was exciting and intimidating at the same time,” she says.

With encouragement from the department chair, Jane Lieberman, Kent-Walsh wrote the first research and service-delivery grants to get things started. She pulled together clinical faculty, academic faculty, students and community stakeholders, and together they began to work with clients and families to help break communication barriers experienced by adults and children with significant speech impairments. Along with her primary research collaborator at the University of New Mexico, Cathy Binger, the �鶹ԭ�� team paired language therapy with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies to support clients, their loved ones, and service providers. Since then, Kent-Walsh and her team have secured millions of dollars in funding from local, state and federal sources to advance their research and service-delivery missions.

“We’ve been intentional about leveraging the power of AAC technologies by employing both direct language interventions with clients and indirect interventions with the other significant people in their lives from day one,” Kent-Walsh says. “Parents of the children who participate in our research often tell us their kids are speaking more and they’re excited to use technology as one of many modes of communication — whether it’s a high-tech device like an iPad with a speech output application, picture symbols in a communication book, or gestures.”

Twenty years ago, Kent-Walsh had to convince others, one by one, to give these ideas a chance. Today, professionals from around the world access the published findings and contact her team of collaborators to learn how to apply them and to report the positive outcomes they have seen from implementing the AAC interventions developed at �鶹ԭ��. Thousands of undergraduate and graduate students have taken what they’ve learned into their own work. Some of them have returned to �鶹ԭ�� after practicing clinically to join Kent-Walsh and her team to advance research.

“We’re light-years ahead of where we were, not because of me, but because so many people have invested themselves in this mission to ensure every person is able to communicate effectively. … And there is still much more work to be done to ensure every person enjoys the right to communicate and to achieve their full potential,” she says.

Marianna Pensky

Professor, mathematics
,

Few people know: She’s only had one job interview in her life — at �鶹ԭ��.

In 1995, Marianna Pensky, a single mother from Russia with two sons, interviewed at a university in Orlando she’d never heard of. Pensky was a good match for the Department of Mathematics since they needed redeveloping of the probability and statistics sequence for the newly approved mathematics Ph.D. program, and she was an expert. The job was hers if she wanted it. At the urging of her sons, Pensky accepted it.

“I had only four days to sign the offer commit to immigrating and be completely on my own with children. I was scared to death,” Pensky says. “But everything worked very well.”

Pensky’s hiring is a milestone in �鶹ԭ�� history, as she’s the first woman faculty in the mathematics department.

“It is a huge mistake that many girls think that they have to choose between career and family, or that they cannot succeed in sciences,” she says. “Boys are not any better at sciences than girls.”

Pensky says the culture at �鶹ԭ�� helped her to explore and experiment with her research. She’s authored more than 100 publications, including a major work on reliability theory and journal articles about statistical inverse problems, Bayesian statistics, statistical genetics, wavelets and signal analysis. She’s also received uninterrupted U.S. National Science Foundation funding for more than 20 years.

Her work has paved the way for more women to join the math and statistics faculty. They serve as role models for female students to pursue careers in science and teaching.

Pensky has also influenced dozens of graduate students as an advisor and by serving on Ph.D. committees. She’s developed a variety of special topic graduate courses that covered novel areas of statistics. And through these course materials she’s impacted the research of computer science, engineering, physics and statistics students.

�鶹ԭ��’s mathematics department carries significance to Pensky’s personal life, too. It was there she met her husband. Their daughter arrived the same week as Pensky’s tenure letter. Now, she is a grandmother, and her family keeps growing.

When asked what makes her most proud of the Pegasus honor, Pensky stumbles over the word “proud.” She’d rather use “happy” because she values the feeling over pride and achievements.

�鶹ԭ�� Develops Course to Enhance the Care of Patients Recovering From COVID-19

Megan Pabian — Fri, 22 May 2020 20:42:05 +0000

�鶹ԭ�� has designed a new course in its graduate clinical speech pathology program with high relevance to COVID-19. The special topics course is titled ” and is geared toward preparing clinical professionals to meet the complex needs of patients hospitalized from COVID-19 and other related conditions.

Patients who are hospitalized due to COVID-19 are often put on ventilators to assist their breathing. Prolonged ventilator use puts a strain on the vocal cords and reduces respiratory muscle strength, which can impact breathing, speech and swallowing. Speech language pathologists are specialists in upper airway, aerodigestive and laryngeal function disorders and are a key part of patient recovery teams.

“This course provides up-to-the-minute information that fills a need in the education of both practicing clinicians, and students about to enter the field.” – Bari Hoffman Ruddy, associate dean of clinical affairs for the College of Health Professions and Sciences

“This course provides up-to-the-minute information that fills a need in the education of both practicing clinicians, and students about to enter the field,” says Bari Hoffman Ruddy, associate dean of clinical affairs for the College of Health Professions and Sciences, who co-designed the course with colleague Vicki Lewis, an instructor in the . “This specialized curriculum focuses on managing the potential medical issues patients may experience across the continuum of care. This course includes content that is not readily available and is ever-evolving as new data become available. We hope this course will yield workforce ready clinicians who are prepared to meet the challenges in today’s complex healthcare environment.”

Both Hoffman Ruddy and Lewis specialize in complex medical conditions with a focus on upper airway and disorders of the larynx (voice box) making them uniquely qualified to lead the course. Lewis has over 25 years’ experience in the acute care setting working closely with cardiothoracic surgery, otolaryngology, pulmonology and other medical specialists.

Due to the pandemic, the course delivery will be fully online. xStudents will be mailed simulation materials and medical supplies which will be utilized throughout the course. Students will engage in hands-on training in how to accomplish a range of procedures, such as tracheostomy care, speaking valve care, and infection prevention.

“This 3-credit hour master’s level course is available to current students in the graduate program in speech-language pathology and to clinical speech-language pathologists in the field interested in advancing their knowledge and skill set in medical speech-language pathology,” says Jennifer Kent-Walsh, interim director of the School of Communication Sciences and Disorder. “The course affords immediate engagement with content relevant to the post COVID-19 patient, and is expected to be an important steppingstone for future interdisciplinary healthcare course offerings in the College of Health Professions and Sciences at �鶹ԭ��.”

The course is offered in the Summer B term starting on June 23. Registration begins in early June.

“While COVID-19 will eventually be downgraded from a pandemic, what is here to stay is how we train our healthcare providers to respond to these types of situations,” says Hoffman Ruddy. “This pandemic has forever changed how we deliver care. The course will meet both the short-term needs of the healthcare industry and strengthen the curriculum of future healthcare professionals at �鶹ԭ��.”

Research Aims to Help Children with Communication Disorders Gain a Voice through Apps

Rachel Williams — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 18:59:08 +0000

Researchers at the �鶹ԭ�� and the University of New Mexico have been awarded a $2.7 million grant to study how language therapy, combined with technology, can help children with severe speech disorders communicate.

, and Cathy Binger, a UNM associate professor of speech and hearing sciences, will study what level of instruction and intervention is needed for children with severe speech impairments to maximize the capabilities of commercially available apps that verbalize words for a user.

Apps currently on the market allow a user to select images in sequential order that represent the words the user wants to communicate, and the app then verbalizes that sentence.

“If a young child with unintelligible speech, or no speech at all, comes up to you with an iPad and starts speaking to you in full sentences, this creates a big mind shift about what that child is truly capable of doing,” said Binger.

However, there have been little to no evidence-based training options available for children to learn how to use these apps as communication tools. Kent-Walsh and Binger are changing this through their research.

“This grant is the culmination of many years of work and a lot of pilot data showing that it is possible to teach children to use picture symbol-based apps to communicate in grammatically accurate phrases and sentences,” said Kent-Walsh.

The goal of this research is to better understand how to support the development of children with severe speech impairments. Children with disorders such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy or childhood apraxia of speech could benefit from this research, as well as any child whose communication needs are not being met. In the United States, about one in 12 – or about 8 percent – of children have communication disorders.

“When children can’t use their speech to communicate effectively, they often get frustrated and they may act out or shut down,” Binger said. “It can lead to all kinds of problems, like social issues and poor communication with family members. If these children are not provided with other ways to help them communicate, they also can end up with educational placements that may be inappropriate.”

Binger and Kent-Walsh’s new grant will focus on 3- and-4-year-old children who have severe speech impairments. At the onset, participating families will receive basic instruction in how to use the communication app, while some participants also will receive enhanced intervention sessions led by Binger and Kent-Walsh that are aimed at teaching them how to “speak” using the app. Results from each group will be compared to determine if the enhanced intervention had a positive effect on the child’s ability to communicate.

“We are thrilled to have come to a point where we are ready to roll out this intervention on a larger scale and track the communication performance of many children across states,” Kent-Walsh said.

The hope is that by providing these children with the necessary technology and instruction to more effectively communicate, they will be able to take full advantage of the same educational and social opportunities as their peers, which may, in turn, allow them to lead more fulfilling and successful lives.

The research will take place at �鶹ԭ��’s new (FAAST) Assistive Technology Demonstration Center in Research Park and UNM’s Speech and Hearing Clinic.

Kent-Walsh and Binger are seeking preschool-aged children with speech impairments to take part in this study (NIH#: R01DC016321) and a related study also funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH#: R15DC014585). Those interested in participating at �鶹ԭ�� should contact Kent-Walsh at jkentwalsh@ucf.edu. Those interested in participating at UNM should contact Binger at cbinger@unm.edu.

NIH Funds Study on Technology, Services for Children with Severe Speech Disabilities

Mon, 25 Jan 2016 13:00:22 +0000

Jennifer Kent-Walsh, professor of communication sciences and disorders, has been awarded a $437,812 grant from the National Institutes of Health to improve clinical services for young children with severe speech disabilities.

Kent-Walsh studies the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) by individuals with severe speech problems to express their thoughts, needs, wants and ideas. More than 4 million Americans, including many young children with developmental disabilities, rely on AAC aids and devices to supplement their natural speech.

In her new project, Kent-Walsh will evaluate the impact of an AAC intervention program for preschool children with severe speech disabilities that combines tablet technology with language-learning techniques.

The tablet technology is an iPad with an AAC application that displays an array of single-meaning graphic symbols on the screen that a child can select. Mass marketing of tablet technology has prompted an increasing number of families and clinicians to turn to tablets with AAC apps for young children with significant speech disorders.

However, simply providing a young child with an iPad with an AAC app will not lead to functional communication skills, according to Kent-Walsh, who directs the in �鶹ԭ��’s Communication Disorders Clinic.

Earlier AAC research suggested it may be very difficult for children to learn to combine graphic symbols to communicate grammatically correct sentences. But more recent studies, including a pilot project led by Kent-Walsh and funded by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation, have revealed more encouraging results.

“We’ve found that even very young children with significant speech disabilities have the potential to learn to produce grammatically correct sentences using AAC when we implement short targeted interventions,” said Kent-Walsh.

In particular, interventions focused on early language and literacy can effect dramatic changes in children’s sentence production using AAC, she said.

The new project will enable Kent-Walsh and her team to conduct a larger investigation of an AAC intervention program with techniques informed by studies of child language disorders. They will teach young children the rules governing language structure and grammar so the children can generate multi-symbol phrases and sentences. Learning the rules will teach the children that each word in a sentence is important ― and that the word order is equally important ― to clearly convey a message.

Kent-Walsh and her collaborators believe these findings on language-focused interventions have the potential to impact AAC clinical practice in the years ahead.

“Without intervention services, the educational, social and employment outcomes for these children are not nearly as favorable,” she said.

In addition to advancing scientific knowledge of how children can use AAC to communicate, the study will help prepare a new generation of speech-language pathologists with expertise in the field. Undergraduate and graduate students studying communication sciences and disorders at �鶹ԭ�� will participate in all aspects of the study, including working with Kent-Walsh and her colleagues Nancy Harrington, instructor of communication sciences and disorders at �鶹ԭ��; Cathy Binger, associate professor of speech and hearing services at the University of New Mexico; and Lesley Olswang, professor emeritus of speech and hearing services at the University of Washington.

“AAC technologies and services can supplement or completely replace natural speech in individuals with severe communication disabilities,” Kent-Walsh said. “We are eager to develop new interventions so speech-language pathologists can take full advantage of AAC to help these individuals express themselves as early in life as possible.”

Kent-Walsh is the lead author of one of just eight invited papers recently published in the 30th anniversary issues of Augmentative and Alternative Communication, a highly ranked rehabilitation publication and the official journal of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Her article, “Effects of Communication Partner Instruction on the Communication of Individuals using AAC: A Meta-Analysis,” appears in the journal’s most recent issue.

Free iPads Give Children with Speech Difficulties a Voice

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:18:28 +0000

Breven Walker (left) and Meredith Griffen use iPad "apps" to communicate. (Photos by Abi Bell)

Children with Down syndrome and limited speech recently received help learning to communicate using an iPad and special “apps” hand-selected by speech experts at the �鶹ԭ��.

Fifteen children, ages 3 to 11, and their parents participated in “iCan Communicate” from March 22-24.

The innovative program was offered collaboratively by �鶹ԭ�� and the Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida at the Florida Alliance of Assistive Services and Technology (FAAST) Assistive Technology Demonstration Center within �鶹ԭ��’s Communication Disorders Clinic.

On March 22, the parents took part in an iPad training session led by �鶹ԭ�� faculty and staff members and students. The following day, the parents assisted their children in therapy sessions to identify a relevant software application, or “app,” for the child’s individual communication needs.

During the sessions, the children tested various “apps” with guidance from �鶹ԭ�� graduate students studying speech-language pathology. Three faculty clinicians supervised the graduate students.

Each “app” offers the child colorful keys containing pictures, words, or both pictures and words. When the child presses on a key, a synthesized voice says the selected word or message. By selecting a series of keys, the child can form simple messages up to complex sentences.

Among the children was Brevan Walker, a 7-year-old boy who attentively practiced using an “app” to communicate about a bowling game he played during one therapy session. Associate Professor Jennifer Kent-Walsh, who directs the program and conducts research in the area of augmentative and alternative communication, monitored the session in a nearby room.

On March 24, the children met for a final therapy session at �鶹ԭ��’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Afterwards, they practiced using their iPads to communicate while enjoying a “Spring Fling” egg hunt and luncheon at the college. Three-year-old Meredith Griffen used her iPad to communicate about the candy and other surprises she found in the eggs she collected.

At the end of the program, the children received their own iPads to keep loaded with the “app” or “apps” identified by the graduate students and supervising clinicians. The Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida donated both the iPads and “apps.”

When applying to participate in the program, Meredith’s mother shared that she and her husband learned in January that Meredith sustained vocal fold damage subsequent to surgery to repair Meredith’s trachea and esophagus.

“Finding out that your child may not be physically able to speak can be devastating for parents,” Kent-Walsh shared. “We were thrilled to be able to have Meredith participate in this program at such a young age since it is critical to provide all children with the tools they need to continue to develop their language and communication skills. Meredith is a bright child with an effervescent personality. It’s incredible to see her already using her iPad to express herself more fully.”

�鶹ԭ�� and the Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida first offered the iCan Communicate program in October 2011 and plans for future programs are underway.

“I can’t think of another program quite like this in the country that provides free equipment and clinical services,” Kent-Walsh noted. “The ability to merge the expertise of our clinical team with the vision and the resources of the Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida has been fantastic.”

Although there has been great interest in providing this type of program for children with other diagnoses who have limited speech, the current collaboration focuses exclusively on children with Down syndrome, she added.

For further information on the �鶹ԭ�� Communication Disorders Clinic and FAAST Assistive Technology Demonstration Center, see . For further information on “iCan Communicate” and other “iCan” programs for individuals with Down syndrome, contact the Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida at .