Research

Faculty in the Division of Communication Sciences and Disorders are well recognized for their expertise in wide-ranging areas within the discipline, authoring highly regarded textbooks, scholarly works, and original research articles that have been published in prestigious national and international journals. CSD boasts several faculty-led research laboratories furnished with state-of-the-art equipment. These labs not only support faculty scholarship, but also serve as a welcoming home for any undergraduate or graduate student interested in participating in research activities or in conducting their own investigations.

School-Age Language Acquisition and Disorders Lab (SALAD)

The School-Age Language Acquisition and Disorders Lab (SALAD) in the Division of CSD is directed by Dr. Jayne Brandel. The dual purpose lab provides clinical research opportunities to both graduate and undergraduate students regarding language-based disorders for school-age students as well as resources for practicing speech-language pathologists in the West Virginia schools.

Language and Literacy Laboratory

Directed by Dr. Michelle Moore, the Language and Literacy Lab explores phonological, orthographic, and memory processes in language and literacy for both typical and impaired learning. This work is done with an eye toward finding theoretically-motivated ways to improve the diagnosis and treatment of language and reading impairments in children.

Speech Motor Control Laboratory

Directed by Dr. Kimberly Meigh, research in the Speech Motor Control Lab is focused on examining speech production at the level of memory processing. Specifically, the Lab utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate normal speech acquisition and transfer effects during motor learning. The goal is to take a theoretical step back from traditional models of speech motor control to re-evaluate the basic premise of “what is learned” during speech acquisition, and how this memory is represented.