Special Education and Communication Disorders

Interim speech and language clinic coordinator Beth Dinneen provides a virtual tour of the new space in the Barkley Speech Language and Hearing Clinic dedicated to speech and language services. April 2023

This video shows an overview of what children can expect when they visit the Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Translation Lab for a brain-picture study using electroencephalography (EEG). Learn more about the AAC Translation Lab at https://go.unl.edu/aact.

George Toman, a Special Education Ph.D. student, shares about what made him interested in pursuing his doctorate and his interest in improving professional development opportunities to better benefit special education teachers.

Katie Ericson, a Special Education Ph.D. student, discusses what brought her to Nebraska for her doctorate, and how she hopes her research will help Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVIs).

Jake Greenwood is a Ph.D. student in biological systems engineering who has worked as a research assistant in Steven Barlow's Communication Neuroscience Lab for nearly six years. In this video, he discusses how he first got connected with Dr. Barlow, the research that he's been part of in the lab, and how the experience in the lab will help him in his future.

Austin Spoor is a first-year student in the Clinical Doctorate in Audiology (Au.D.) program, but has a graduate assistantship in assistant professor Kevin Pitt's Augmentative and Alternative Communication Translation (AACT) Lab. In this video, he discusses the research experience he has gained in the AACT Lab and how that experience will benefit him in his future as an audiologist.

Erin Pfister, a Ph.D. student in special education, discusses why she decided to pursue her doctorate and her research goals to help students who persistently struggle with math.

Manuel Vicente, a third-year Clinical Doctorate in Audiology (Au.D.), discusses his background in research, along with his capstone project studying how people with vestibular loss are affected by fatigue, and how research helps him as a clinician.

Bridget Leutzinger, a master's student in special education, discusses her thesis research project and why she decided to pursue a master's degree.

Assistant professor Susan Loveall discusses two research projects her team is currently working on in her Learning Lab for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Kendall Willems, a Ph.D. student in special education, discusses why she chose to pursue her Ph.D. at Nebraska and how she hopes research enhances her clinical psychology skills.

Ross Westemeyer, a Ph.D. student in the speech-language pathology program, discusses his interests in pursuing research and where he hopes to take his research in the future.

Professor Michelle Hughes discusses the three lines of research currently being conducted in her lab, the Cochlear Implant Research Lab.

Soyoung Park, a Ph.D. student in speech-language pathology, discusses what made her interested in research after nearly two decades as a speech-language pathologist, as well as her research interests within the field.

Associate professor Angela Dietsch discusses the two lines of research she is focused on currently in her lab, the Sensorimotor Integration for Swallowing and Communication (SISC) Lab. One area focuses on how different sensory inputs affect swallowing behaviors, while the other focuses on gender aspects of communication.

Kristen Job, a Special Education Ph.D. student, discusses her interests in creating interventions to help twice-exceptional students who are recognized as gifted and talented while also falling into one of the Special Education categories.

Danika Lang, a Special Education Ph.D. student, discusses her interests in research that helps students with emotional and behavioral disorders who also struggle with reading.

Assistant professor Yingying Wang discusses the two research projects her lab – Neuroimaging for Language, Literacy and Learning (NL3) Lab – is focused on currently.

Zach Cole is a Neuroscience Ph.D. student who works as a research assistant in the AAC Translation Lab at the Barkley Center. In this video, he shares about his experience as a student from outside the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders working in SECD assistant professor Kevin Pitt's research lab.

The Augmentative and Alternative Communication Translation (AACT) Lab focuses on the development and implementation of AAC devices for adults and children with severe physical impairments. In this video, Austin Spoor, a graduate research assistant in the lab, discusses two of the current studies using brain-computer interface technology – one for children and one for adults.

Jake Greenwood, a research assistant at the Communication Neuroscience Lab, discusses the overall research goals of the lab, including the technologies used and developed by lab personnel.

Kaitlyn Waszak, a Clinical Doctorate in Audiology (Au.D.) student, discusses her capstone research pilot study about auditory function following sports-related concussions.

Priya Premkumar, a Human Sciences Ph.D. student, discusses her interests in research related to cochlear implants and vestibular function.

Emily Walczak, a Clinical Doctorate in Audiology (Au.D.) student, discusses her capstone research about the effects of substance use on vestibular function.

Joslyn Parsons, a Clinical Doctorate in Audiology (Au.D.) student, shares about her capstone research project examining the effects of hearing aids and hearing loss on an individual's localization ability.