Affiliated Labs, Clinics and Centers

Labs, Clinics, and Centers

The School of Communication Science & Disorders is affiliated with the following laboratories, clinics, and centers. Click the links to learn more about each one.

Labs

  • The FSU Aphasia Research Laboratory is directed by Dr. Elizabeth B. Madden, CCC-SLP. Research in the Aphasia Lab is focused on stroke and aphasia rehabilitation with a specific interest in developing and evaluating spoken and written language treatments for aphasia, as well as understanding and addressing stakeholders’ (people with aphasia, care partners, therapists) interests and needs.
  • The School-based Practices, Effectiveness and Research (SPEAR) lab is directed by Dr. Hall-Mills. Projects in this lab typically focus on assessment, identification, and treatment of spoken and written language disorders in school-age children and adolescents, and explore issues of policy, practice, and advocacy for the SLPs who serve them.
  • The Arabic Language and Literacy (ALL) Lab is led by Dr. Sana Tibi. This lab focuses on investigating the cognitive and linguistic correlates of Arabic reading as well as developing literacy assessment tools with psychometric properties in collaboration with scientists from different national and international institutions. This lab also welcomes research on other languages, with a focus on morphological skills across languages.
  • The Bilingual Child Language and Literacy Lab is directed by Dr. Carla Wood. The lab aims to improve language and literacy outcomes for children from diverse backgrounds including children with differing abilities as well as children from diverse socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds.  To this end, lab members strive to engage in collaborative research and practice with scientists from interdisciplinary backgrounds; provide training and leadership development opportunities for next generation scholars; and disseminate evidence-based practice to varied stakeholders including local educational agencies, practitioners, and families of children.
  • The Motor Speech Disorders Lab (MSDLab), directed by Dr. Kaitlin Lansford, examines how communication partners understand and adapt to speech produced by people with dysarthria. Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder that arises from stroke, traumatic brain injury, and neurological diseases, such as Parkinson disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and often results in intelligibility disorders. The primary goal of our NIH-funded work is to improve communication with individuals with dysarthria through training the listener to better understand the speaker with dysarthria.
  • The AAC Connect lab, directed by Dr. Michelle Therrien, focuses on building connections to enhance the quality of life of individuals who use AAC. With this focus, we have collaborated with faculty and students across many university departments.  Previous projects have focused on understanding the experience of friendship and developing interventions to positively impact friendship experiences. We have also worked to support the connection between parents, speech-language pathologists, and teachers to increase participation of children who use AAC. This lab houses high-tech AAC systems such as iPads with a variety of AAC apps, and a Microsoft Surface with eye tracking/gaze technology.
  • The Children’s Literacy and Speech Sound (CLaSS) lab is directed by Dr. Kelly Farquharson, PhD, CCC-SLP. The mission of the CLaSS Lab is to help children with speech and language impairments achieve classroom success. To this end, we have studies that explore child-level factors, such as speech sound production, word reading, language, working memory, and spelling. We also study therapy-level or clinician-level factors, such as the intensity and dosage of the sessions, SLPs’ caseload size, years of experience, and job satisfaction.
  • The Language, Literacy and AAC Across the Lifespan (LangLitLife) lab, directed by Dr. Andrea Barton-Hulsey conducts research to understand factors that support language and literacy development in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The work of the LangLitLife lab is inclusive of individuals who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication systems, and seeks to inform both theory and practice in reading instruction across the lifespan. Research in the lab is organized around three themes: 1) Characterizing intrinsic and extrinsic factors related to reading outcomes; 2) Determining developmental trajectories of reading skills; 3) Developing assessments and interventions inclusive of children with limited speech ability.
  • The Language Sample Analysis Laboratory (LSA), housed within the student computer lab on the third floor of Warren, provides student clinicians with opportunities to learn about the use of computerized language sample analysis in the evaluation and assessment of children’s language performance.  The facility includes computer workstations with popular software programs (e.g., SALT) that are useful for transcribing and analyzing the audio and video recordings of speech samples. Each workstation is also equipped with a universal transcription system for ease and efficiency of the transcription process.  The laboratory also houses networked printers.
  • The AACcess Lab is currently under development, and will be housed in the Warren building. This lab is being designed to provide students with opportunities to use cutting edge assistive technology for optimizing client outcomes and their own learning. The lab will include a range of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems, including eye gaze technologies. It will also house virtual reality headsets to enhance student learning via simulation activities. Instruction and use of equipment will be tied to classroom, clinic, and research experiences.
  • The Speech Laboratory houses equipment used for the collection and analysis of speech samples from children and adults with typical and atypical speech. A professional grade wireless microphone system allows researchers and students to collect speech samples from mobile infants while wired systems allow us to collect samples from older children and adults. Multiple high-quality audio field recorders allow several researchers/students to be out in the field at the same time. The Speech Laboratory also houses computers that can be used for perceptual and acoustic analysis of speech. Perceptual analysis might include listening to a child’s speech using high-quality headphones, transcribing the child’s productions, and determining phonological process usage. Acoustic analysis might include the calculation of vowel durations and formant frequencies for an adult experiencing speech distortions following palatal surgery.
  • The Seminole Stuttering Center studies ways to improve the speaker’s experience of stuttering. We are particularly interested in challenging society’s negative stereotypes of stuttering and helping people who stutter cultivate positive stuttering identities.
  • The Speech Science Laboratory has specialized equipment in Diffenbaugh enabling analyses of duration, intensity, spectral and fundamental frequency aspects of speech.  Instrumentation and procedures for the forensic study of speech enable the detection of signals in noise and speaker identification from recorded speech samples.
  • The Voice Science Laboratory has equipment for measuring physiologic, acoustic, and aeromechanical aspects of the larynx and vocal tract. Topics being studied by investigations in the lab include the interaction of physiologic and acoustics aspects of voice onsets and the use of acoustic measures to differentially diagnose dementia types.
  • The American Sign Language (ASL) Lab and associated Deaf and Hard of Hearing Educational Outreach Program provide aspiring clinicians with supervised opportunities to facilitate ASL language development, while supporting the campus and the community. Participating students complete an associated research-based course that focuses on implementation of evidence-based strategies for facilitating first- and subsequent- language development.

Clinics and Centers