Congratulations to Dr. Lee Drown and Dr. Emily Jackson on successfully defending their dissertations this past summer! Read below to learn more about Dr. Drown’s and Dr. Jackson’s dissertations. 

 

Title: Establishing the psychometric properties of three measures of speech perception

Description: Relatively little research has determined whether extant measures of speech perception measure stable individual differences, or merely captures in-the-moment performance. Dr. Drown’s dissertation examined content validity and test-retest reliability in three established experimental measures of speech perception. Overall, the association between participant performance across different stimulus sets and time points ranged from low to moderate. Findings of this project show that individual performance is variable, even across a minimal change in stimuli and time point.

 

Title: Cultural variation in parental ethnotheories on early childhood language development and disorders: Exploring Hispanic and Non-Hispanic parents’ perspectives

Description: Dr. Jackson’s dissertation examined how Hispanic and non-Hispanic parents’ cultural beliefs influence their perspectives on early childhood language development and language disorders. Through in-depth interviews, she gained valuable insights into how cultural values shape parents’ beliefs and practices about child language development which highlight the importance of culturally responsive approaches for speech-language pathologists.