D. Kimbrough Oller, Ph.D., is Professor and Plough Chair of Excellence at the School of Audiology and Speech Language Pathology at the University of Memphis and an external faculty member of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research in Austria. He was the lead author of “Automated vocal analysis of naturalistic recordings from children with autism, language delay, and typical development,” published in the July issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
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In July the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published Read More
For hearing-aided children with moderate to severe hearing loss it can be said that the better the children's auditory/linguistic experiences, the better the children's outcomes are likely to be in a number of realms...
The early years of human life are often referred to as a “window of opportunity...
The ability to read is a vital fundamental life skill...
Great advancements in technology can transform the lives of young children. One such innovation is the cochlear implant...
As a doctoral student working with Dr. Laurence Leonard in the Child Language Research Laboratory at Purdue University, I spend a lot of time transcribing language samples...
Over the past 40 years, we've made great strides in understanding the language development challenges of children living in poverty; many of these advancements can be attributed to the work of Drs...
As the number of children being diagnosed with autism has increased dramatically over the past decade so has the quantity of new autism treatment methods...
As a pediatric cochlear implant surgeon, I've spent many years studying medicine and have devoted my professional career to helping children who are deaf to hear...
My first real introduction to the LENA Foundation and LENA System happened in October 2008 when I was participating in the Inter Mountain Area Speech and Hearing (IMASH) Convention in Salt Lake City...
Much research has been completed on infant volubility; however, limited research has been conducted on the volubility of five-month-old infants in varied interactive contexts...
A growing body of research now indicates that programs designed to aid parents in everyday communicative interactions with their child who has autism can be effective in supporting child development...
We created the LENA Language and Autism Screen (LAS) to facilitate the early identification and intervention that are so vital to optimizing treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD)...
As both a parent of a child with special needs and a speech-language pathologist, I intimately know the suffering that colors and clouds the minds of parents of children with developmental disorders or delays...
To talk or not to talk is not the question...
For nearly all, language is a birthright. The capacity for language acquisition runs deep in human biology...
The earlier that language delays and disorders, such as autism, are diagnosed and treated the better...
In my career as a teacher, administrator, and urban learning advocate, I have witnessed two events that rocked the world of early childhood education. I hope to witness a third.
The first event was in the mid nineties, when Drs...
Over the past 15 years, working in pediatric hospitals, schools, and homes, I have acquainted myself thoroughly with the time-consuming administrative tasks required of an SLP...
LENA Pro has the ability to revolutionize the way that we chart the developmental language progress of children with hearing loss...
My wife, Judi, and I started Renaissance Learning, Inc., an educational technology company. Together, we developed the Accelerated Reader (AR) reading management system used daily by 65,000 schools in the US...
The LENA System makes day-long, high fidelity recording possible and practical for the first time.
As a result, the naturalistic environment of infants and children can now be assessed with enormous new breadth of perspective...
Let's look at the facts: social communication development is among the core deficits in autism...
Does reading aloud help children become better readers?
Yes!! You can incorporate these six skills while reading aloud to your children:
Print Motivation: Share your love of books and reading - it will be contagious for your children; always read books that you enjoy...
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests that parents should refrain from letting children under age 3 watch TV. But sometimes I just need a break! Any tips? What do you recommend as some substitute activities?
Young children have a lot of needs and can be very demanding. Babies always seem to need to be held, fed, changed, and played with. When they're tired, they don't even just go to sleep on their own, but need to be rocked to sleep...
How can I engage with my twins more and increase my word counts? There doesn't seem to be enough energy or hours in a day!
Twins certainly have their own set of challenges. How do you give two children simultaneous, individual interactions? Perhaps the sum of three individuals can add up to more than 1 plus 1 plus 1...
My 15 month old daughter doesn't speak as much as my friends' children. How can I encourage her to speak more? And what should I look for in her that prompts me to visit a speech specialist?
There are things parents can do to increase speech and language skills of young children. For example, speaking to your child face to face, calmly, in a fairly quiet environment, and using lots of gestures with your speech...
With all the toys my child received during the holidays, how can I maintain an interest in reading?
The first thing is to change how you think about reading...
Does a language delay mean my child will be slow for the rest of his or her life?
Not necessarily. There are many different causes of language delays. Many of these result in transitory problems that resolve during the first few years of life with or without direct treatment...
My daughter has shown a very unique interest in colors, more so than my other children. Would you suggest letting her use painting computer games or should I let her run loose with her own paints? She is young and I worry she will try to eat the paints!
Painting provides a unique opportunity for children to develop their motor skills, creative abilities, and language capacity...
I consider myself to be a very talkative mother, but I continually score poorly in Conversational Turns. I don't see how I can engage in conversation with my child if they can't talk yet. What exactly are Conversational Turns and how do I increase them?
A Conversational Turn (CT) occurs when a child vocalizes (initiates) and an adult responds, and vice versa. Each time an exchange occurs, one turn is counted...