Meet Lindsay Butler, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. Dr. Butler is an assistant professor in the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Department at UConn, and is the director of the Brain & Language on the Autism Spectrum Lab.
Dr. Butler began her undergraduate career as a Spanish major at University of Wisconsin – La Crosse, and decided to get her Master’s in Linguistics after she took an introduction to linguistics class and found it fascinating. After her B.A., she then continued on to get a Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of Arizona. As she was working toward her Ph.D., she learned about the field of speech, language and hearing sciences, and decided to return back to school to get her M.S. in communication sciences and disorders at Penn State, completed a clinical fellowship, and became a speech-language pathologist (SLP). Once working as an SLP, Dr. Butler realized that she still wanted to remain involved in research as well as her clinical practices, so she took a postdoctoral position at Boston University, focusing on researching Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Dr. Butler says that her current research goal is to understand more about kids and adolescents on the autism spectrum who have little or no spoken language to see how much language they are able to understand – since language tests aren’t always feasible for people with ASD and minimal spoken language. She mentions that once we are able to learn more about language comprehension, we will then be able to improve interventions and other communication supports for this population.
One of the current projects that Dr. Butler’s lab is working on is called ReLMS (Receptive Language for Minimally Speaking Children and Adolescents on the Spectrum). This project aims to learn more about language comprehension in those with ASD and minimal spoken language. The lab aims to start using near-infrared spectroscopy for brain imaging in a person’s home environment within the coming year.
When asked what the best part of her job is, Dr. Butler says that it is getting to do, “something that no one else has done before!”
If you or someone you know are interested in participating in Dr. Butler’s research, please reach out to blast-off@uconn.edu or fill out the lab’s Research Interest Form.
