I am interested in the link between communication disorders in children and social deficits. In addition, they report less satisfaction with the peer relationships they do have and are often less respected than their classmates with normal speech and language. My research is designed to explore these social deficits with an ultimate goal of evolving treatment procedures for the reduction of negative social outcomes. Elizabeth Burroughs Quality of life issues in children's communication disorders. I am planning research that will look at the extent to which impaired communication in children is associated with reduced quality of life.
Current theory suggests that self esteem is a potential index of quality of life in children.
I will be determining the relationship between communicative competence and self esteem. Ultimately, I would like to evolve a means of assessing treatment efficacy in terms of improved quality of life. This is a collaborative effort with faculty in the Gerontology Program. A clearer understanding of the both the mean performance and the dispersion are of interest for clinical reasons and as a potential contribution to theories of motor function and aging. The research in this area focuses on the acoustic attributes of the speech stream that normal listeners use during speech perception.