Research Interests: Evaluation and treatment of adults with neurogenic communication disorders, and children with feeding and swallowing disorders
I provide supervision and instruction for speech language pathology graduate students in the Communication Disorders department. I have worked in a variety of medical and educational settings with the adult and pediatric populations over the past twenty years. My personal interests include adult neurogenic communication disorders, pediatric speech/language and feeding/swallowing disorders, and social communication disorders with adults who have Asperger’s syndrome. I provide direct client intervention and student training in these areas through a variety of practicum settings.
I currently teach courses in the areas of adult neurogenic communication disorders, pediatric motor speech and swallowing disorders, and public school methods for the speech language pathologist. I provide frequent continuing education courses to professional speech language pathologists in a variety of educational and medical settings throughout the community including local school districts, Rehabilitation hospitals, Region X, the Texas Speech Language and Hearing Association, and local Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) agencies. I also have provided direct consultation work for local school districts for evaluation and treatment of children with feeding and swallowing disorders. I have developed a modified barium swallow study program with a local pediatric imaging center for student training where over 500 children in the community have been served in the last few years.
I have also developed an adult social communication group that supports young adults in the community with Asperger’s syndrome. In this group, discussion regarding social communication skills needed for the college and work settings is provided. Additionally, the group members volunteer at a local non for profit agency to better generalize social communication skills to an outside setting under my supervision. I have also helped to develop a continuing education group for professionals in the community regarding pediatric dysphagia in coordination with Callier Speech Language Pathologists. This group meets twice per year and provides evidenced based practice education from local community professionals.