Leah Fabiano, professor and PhD program director in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders (CSD), was awarded a $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) that will fund her research program over the next four years.
Her project, “Assessment of Speech Sound Disorders in Bilingual Latinx Spanish-English Speaking Children: An Evidence-Based Procedure,” will continue work initiated during her previous R01 grant focused on developing an assessment procedure for bilingual preschoolers.
This study will help prevent misdiagnosis of speech sound impairments in bilingual children, who experience a disproportionate rate of both over- and under-diagnosis. The project will also develop a novel theoretical model that will predict speech sound productions in bilingual children to aid speech-language pathologists in identifying speech sound impairments in this pediatric population.
This work will fund PhD students, a postdoctoral fellow and multiple student workers in the department and engage the local Latinx community in scientific research.
Why is this research so important to the public?
By 2030, one-third of U.S. public school children will be Latinx. Latinx children are three times as likely as their white peers to be diagnosed with a speech or language disorder, and these diagnoses are often incorrect. This research project will allow speech-language pathologists to efficiently and effectively diagnose Latinx children with and without communication impairments, even if the clinicians don’t speak Spanish.
We live in a diverse society of communicators. In Pittsburgh alone, there are 95 different languages spoken within our city limits. We have an obligation to provide speech-language evaluation services that are appropriate for all children to give them the best possible chance at communication success.
What kinds of people are on your research team and what will they bring to the project?
The Bilingual Phonology Lab will partner with UPMC Clínica Pediatrics’ Dr. Diego Chavés-Gnecco, professor in the School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, and Dr. Maya Ragavan, associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, local community health workers connected with the Latinx community, and Pittsburgh school district Head Start programs and preschools.
Mark Zhang, associate professor in the CSD department, and Lauren Terhorst, professor and associate director of statistics education in the Pitt Data Center, will provide statistical support on the project. Brandon Garivaldo, CSD PhD candidate, will provide expertise as a bilingual speech-language pathologist and researcher trained in theoretical and clinical approaches to diagnosis of speech sound disorders in bilingual children.
What makes doing this research at Pitt unique?
Pitt has a unique opportunity to do this work as the Latinx community has grown rapidly over the past 10 years in the neighborhoods of Brookline and Beechview. Pittsburgh can be a model for the rest of the country in how to implement cutting-edge assessment procedures in the schools to support both clinicians and children.
What excites you the most about this project?
This project has the potential to increase the well-being of children and families, placing children on the correct educational track from the very beginning. Children without speech impairments can be in the classroom full time without being pulled out for unnecessary speech therapy services and bilingual children who need services can be identified and treated swiftly and accurately. We can address both health and educational disparities at once, which is a service the Latinx community deserves.
