About the WISC Lab
The WISC Lab is dedicated to the study of communication development, assessment, and treatment in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. The lab is home to a 20 year longitudinal study of speech, language, and functional communication in individuals with CP. This research has been characterizing changes in speech production features, speech intelligibility, language / cognition, and functional communication and identifying early predictors of later outcomes to guide intervention decision-making. Our ultimate goal is to enhance developmental trajectories and communication outcomes for children with CP and other neurodevelopmental disabilities.
Research Focus Areas
Research in the WISC Lab has four primary themes, all focused on improving communication abilities in individuals with cerebral palsy (CP).
1.) Longitudinal development of speech, language, and communication from early childhood through adulthood in CP.
We seek to characterize changes in speech production features, speech intelligibility, language / cognition, and functional communication and to identify early predictors of later outcomes to guide intervention decision-making in children and adults with cerebral palsy. A primary goal is to generate theoretically driven, data-based longitudinal models of speech and language development that can be used to create and test clinical treatments.
2.) Characterizing auditory perceptual features of speech in typical children and children with CP.
We are developing and validating auditory perceptual assessment measures to establish benchmarks for identifying children with speech features suggestive of dysarthria. A primary objective is to quantify the contributions of the different auditory perceptual features of speech to intelligibility, which will have direct implications for personalized treatment.
3.) Development of an automated tool for characterizing articulatory goodness in children.
Our lab, together with colleagues at Arizona State University, is seeking to develop automated measures of articulation development in children with and without disabilities using machine learning for acoustic modeling. A key goal is to establish a new metric for measuring speech sound production and to develop growth curves for speech development based on this new metric.
4.) Establishing preliminary efficacy of speech supplementation interventions for improving intelligibility in children with CP.
We are currently running a clinical trial to quantify the effects of alphabet supplementation and topic supplementation on intelligibility in children with CP. A primary objective is to determine how much speech changes when speakers use speech supplementation strategies and to quantify the extent to which changes are clinically meaningful to listeners.
Want to learn more?
Explore our ongoing projects or reach out to collaborate with the WISC Lab team.