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Current Research Studies:
Announcing our new NIH/NIDCD R01 Project: Measuring Language Comprehension in the Primary Grades
Even though reading is systematically monitored in educational systems, language comprehension is not. Currently, language assessment relies on parents or teachers to raise concerns, but they may mistake language comprehension difficulties for behavioral or attention issues. Current language assessments also rely on individual testing that takes up a great deal of speech-language pathologist's valuable time and resources.
Regularly assessing the language comprehension of all students can help us find students who are affected by DLD.
In order to do this, we are developing a classroom-wide language comprehension measure for students in grade K–2.
goals of our study:
goals of our study:
Our goal is to measure growth in language comprehension in a way that works for students in early elementary school. We are developing a classroom-wide language comprehension measure to predict which students can benefit from supports early in elementary school.
Our long-term goal is to improve the identification of DLD and support language and literacy development for all children.
Information for Families participating in current studies:
Information for Families participating in current studies:
Nearly 3.4 million children require speech and language services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and are at risk of falling behind in their academic and social-emotional development without timely intervention by Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs). Unfortunately, there is a significant shortage of SLPs and the COVID pandemic has further exacerbated this gap, making it almost impossible for SLPs to provide individualized services for children.
The NSF and IES AI Institute for Transforming Education for Children with Speech and Language Processing Challenges (or National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, in short) aims to close this gap by developing advanced AI technologies to scale SLPs’ availability and services such that no child in need of speech and language services is left behind. Towards this end, the Institute proposes to develop two novel AI solutions: (1) the AI Screener to enable universal early screening for all children, and (2) the AI Orchestrator to work with SLPs and teachers to provide individualized interventions for children with their formal Individualized Education Program (IEP). In developing these solutions, the Institute will advance foundational AI technologies, enhance our understanding of children’s speech and language development, serve as a nexus point for all special education stakeholders, and represent a fundamental paradigm shift in how SLPs serve children in need of ability-based speech and language services.
The Institute’s research will lead to advancements in AI, human-AI interaction, and learning science to improve educational outcomes for children with speech and language related challenges. These advancements and solutions can also benefit children without disabilities extending the reach of ability-based learning interventions. The Institute will engage participants across the Institute and related stakeholders to advance opportunities to meet their unique educational and workforce development needs.
Dr. Hendricks serves as a member of the Broader Impact Initiative Leads in the area of Validation of Impacts.
Link to UB Announcement:
AI for Exceptional Education in the News: onal Education:
Who, What, When, Where? Study (W4)
The Who, What, When, Where (W4) project is a study investigating how children from different backgrounds use certain grammatical structures. The goal of this study is to better understand how children use language so that we can develop assessments of language disorders that are valid for all children.
Families who participate complete a short screening. Depending on your child’s language skills, he or she may be invited to complete additional tasks. If eligible, your child will complete activities about your child’s knowledge of language, reading and general skills.
You and your child may be asked to participate in an additional activities as well.
This research is being funded by the National Institutes of Health 1R21DC018355 and the American Speech Language Hearing Foundation.
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