Category: College of Applied Health Sciences

Pamela Hadley honored with Stenberg Endowed professorship

May 6, 2025 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Pamela Hadley, center, with faculty and staff of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Photo by Craig Pessman)

The daughter of a farmer in rural Illinois, Pamela Hadley had no “schema” for becoming a university professor. But a high school career filled with self-expression helped guide her toward an illustrious academic career that was culminated with a top honor.

Hadley, the head of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science and a professor, was appointed as the inaugural Charles and Kay Stenberg Endowed Professor in Disability Research in a ceremony on April 30.

The appointment is a testament to Hadley’s decades-long dedication to advancing the science of language development in young children, particularly those with developmental language disorder, said Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences.  

“Pam Hadley has made significant contributions to language science through highly regarded translational research, mentored numerous students into clinical and academic careers, and benefitted the department, university and profession at large through a variety of service activities,” Hanley-Maxwell said.  

The named professorship “is an honor that is accorded to outstanding scholars who have well-established records of excellence in research, teaching, and public engagement,” Hanley-Maxwell added.

The professorship was made possible by a generous endowment from Charles and Kay Stenberg, both Illinois alumni who experienced firsthand the challenges of navigating life with disabilities in an era before the Americans with Disabilities Act. Though they have passed, their legacy lives on through their commitment to disability research and through the continued support of Kay’s brother, Hugh Wishart. 

“Chuck and Kay were passionate about accessibility and believed deeply in supporting research that improves the lives of people with disabilities,” Hanley-Maxwell said.
Hadley also expressed deep gratitude to the Stenberg family, colleagues, students, and family members who shaped her journey. 

“This is rightfully a shared honor,” she said. “I’m profoundly humbled to be named the Charles and Kay Stenberg Professor. The Stenbergs faced and overcame many barriers, and they endowed this professorship to help others do the same.”

Hadley reflected on a life shaped by both personal experience and professional purpose. Raised in rural Henry County, Illinois, she credited her parents for instilling in her a love for inquiry and compassion. Her father, a farmer, encouraged her to solve story problems at dinner. Her mother, a nurse, brought her along on Saturday visits to residents in a skilled nursing facility. “We’d call that volunteering as a conversational partner today,” she joked, noting it was her first exposure to the impact of communication in caregiving.

Her academic journey took her from Augustana College, where she experienced immersive clinical training, to the University of Kansas, where she joined a research preschool program that would shape her scholarly trajectory. 

“It was in that preschool that I first noticed how children with communication disorders were not socially integrated,” she said. That observation led to a research assistantship, publications, and ultimately a Ph.D. in  child language under the mentorship of Professor Mabel Rice.

Pam Hadley has made significant contributions to language science through highly regarded translational research, mentored numerous students into clinical and academic careers, and benefitted the department, university and profession at large through a variety of service activities.

Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell

Dean, College of Applied Health Sciences

Over her career, Hadley has led pioneering longitudinal studies that have reshaped how clinicians and researchers understand early language development. Her work has focused on early identification and intervention for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)—a condition that affects 7 to 10 percent of school-aged children and often goes undiagnosed until it has already begun to impact learning and social development.

She led a groundbreaking multi-site clinical trial, supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, evaluating a parent-implemented language intervention. 

“I’m thrilled to report that the caregiver-implemented intervention resulted in positive effects on vocabulary and grammar,” she said, noting that the professorship would play a critical role in disseminating these findings to clinicians and families.

As head of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science, Hadley led with empathy and pragmatism during the COVID-19 pandemic. She established virtual check-ins, championed remote accessibility, and helped the department resume clinical services quickly and safely. Her leadership style, she said, is grounded in the deep respect she holds for her colleagues and their shared mission: “to promote improved communication and health for individuals with disabilities across the lifespan.”

Throughout the ceremony, attendees were reminded of Hadley’s enduring commitment to education. Undergraduate and graduate students alike benefit from her guidance, both in the classroom and in the lab. As one of the few national experts on early grammatical assessment and intervention, her work translates directly into tools and strategies used by speech-language pathologists and parents.

In concluding her remarks, Hadley acknowledged her most personal source of support—her family. Her husband, Matt Rispoli, a retired SHS faculty member, and their daughters have shared in the journey. 

Watch a video of the investiture ceremony

“They’ve always graciously shared me with my students and my work,” she said, adding that the family’s shared love of hiking serves as a cherished escape from her many professional responsibilities.

As Dean Hanley-Maxwell presented the medallion that accompanies a named professorship, she emphasized what the moment represented: a celebration of achievement, but also a reaffirmation of the university’s mission to foster research that has real-world impact. 

“Pam, your outstanding work has added to the prestige of this college and university,” she said. “We are grateful for and proud of your commitment to helping children with language disabilities get a better start in life.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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Improving clinical practice and quality of life

May 03, 2024 | Anna Flanagan

Speech and Hearing Science Associate Professors Marie Moore Channell and Laura Mattie have long been interested in the development of communication and life skills in individuals with neurodevelopmental and intellectual disabilities.

Channell directs the Intellectual DisAbilities Communication Lab, where her research team works toward a comprehensive understanding of skills that support day-to-day communication for people with Down syndrome in order to identify and develop strategies for supporting their social and academic success. In Mattie’s Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab, research addresses the early development of individuals with Down syndrome and fragile X syndrome. She, too, aims toward promoting the developmental success and well-being of people with these neurogenetic disabilities.

The scholars’ shared interests have led to fruitful collaborations in the past. They led a team of researchers who used a large, national database developed by the Down Syndrome Cognition Project to characterize variability in IQ, executive functioning, adaptive and challenging behavior, and autism symptomatology among individuals with Down syndrome.

In a paper titled “Capturing cognitive and behavioral variability among individuals with Down syndrome: a latent profile analysis,” published in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (2021, 13:16), Channell, Mattie and their co-authors describe three latent classes, or subtypes, of people with Down syndrome that emerged from their analyses.

Those in the “normative” group showed a profile of cognition and behavior that is typically represented in the literature on Down syndrome. Those in the “cognitive” group had lower cognitive scores and adaptive behaviors such as self-care and daily living skills than their peers with Down syndrome, along with high rates of autism symptoms.

Those in the “behavioral” group showed cognitive scores and adaptive behaviors similar to their peers with Down syndrome but had high rates of autism symptoms and challenging behaviors such as hyperactivity and conduct problems. Thus, with a large enough sample size, different patterns of autism symptoms and other characteristics can be seen across individuals with Down syndrome. The ultimate goal in precisely characterizing individual variability within Down syndrome is to optimize daily living through targeted treatments and interventions.

Overcoming diagnostic hurdles

Channell and Mattie currently are collaborating as principal and co-principal investigators on a study funded by the National Institutes of Health INCLUDE Project, which supports research related to the health and quality of life of individuals with Down syndrome. Working with researchers at Emory University, Johns Hopkins University and the Kennedy Krieger Institute, their study seeks to increase understanding of the co-occurrence of autism with Down syndrome to improve its diagnosis and treatment.

“There is a stereotype of people with Down syndrome as happy, social people who can’t have autism,” Channell said. “It’s more common than previously thought, but underdiagnosed.”

Interventions and therapies that people with autism receive could be a beneficial add-on to services offered to individuals with Down syndrome. Part of the problem in diagnosing autism in this population is that autism screening tools that were developed for the general population need to be adapted. To work toward the goal of developing better tools to screen for autism in people with Down syndrome, Channell, Mattie and their collaborators are conducting a nationwide survey of caregivers of youth with Down syndrome in which they are completing existing screening tools and other developmental questionnaires. The researchers will then examine and adapt the screening tools as needed so they can be used by practitioners to determine whom to refer for a full autism evaluation.

They are casting a wide net in hopes not only of representing all the varying abilities within Down syndrome, but also of including groups that are not well represented in the existing research.

“Underrepresentation is a big problem in research related to Down syndrome,” Mattie said. “We have a diverse board of stakeholders, are building relationships with the Black Down Syndrome Association, and targeting rural and Hispanic families as well.”

The questionnaires and other screening tools completed by caregivers are just one element of an autism diagnosis. There also is an in-person evaluation component, which is conducted by either developmental behavioral pediatricians or clinical psychologists who are specifically trained in autism diagnostics and assessment, as well as neuropsychological methods. The difficulty with this aspect of diagnosis is two-fold, Mattie said.

“First, the number of developmental behavioral pediatricians and clinical psychologists with this specialized training is limited, so there’s a bottleneck,” she said. “Also, while they may have expertise in autism, they don’t necessarily know about Down syndrome. So the ability to identify a true co-occurring condition is really lacking.”

Channell and Mattie may be conducting the first large-scale study using the broad screening measures doctors and clinicians give to families when autism is first suspected. Theirs may also be the first study that will explore the use of telehealth to conduct diagnostic evaluations of autism in children with Down syndrome.

“If we can figure out how to make that work, we can increase access to evaluations by specialists,” Channell said. They are working with a clinician at Kennedy Krieger, Natasha Ludwig, who will conduct the evaluations of autism in the telehealth sessions, and with Amy Cohen, director of the University of Illinois Autism Clinic, who will review and “score” the evaluations as well to ensure that evaluation tools will lead to consistent results when used by different clinicians.

With the dual focus on developing effective autism screening and diagnostic tools for individuals with Down syndrome and increasing access to specialists who are skilled in both autism and intellectual disability, Channell and Mattie intend to make a significant and lasting impact on improving the quality of life of a population that has historically been underdiagnosed and underserved. That’s good news for the individuals themselves and their caregivers, as well as the scores of clinicians who dedicate their professional lives to providing the best services possible to their clients.

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Improving clinical practice and quality of life

May 21, 2024 | Anna Flanagan

Laura Mattie and Marie Channel are collaborating on a study funded by the National Institutes of Health INCLUDE Project, which supports research related to the health and quality of life of individuals with Down syndrome

Marie Moore Channell and Laura Mattie (Photo provided)

Speech and Hearing Science Associate Professors Marie Moore Channell and Laura Mattie have long been interested in the development of communication and life skills in individuals with neurodevelopmental and intellectual disabilities.

Channell directs the Intellectual DisAbilities Communication Lab, where her research team works toward a comprehensive understanding of skills that support day-to-day communication for people with Down syndrome in order to identify and develop strategies for supporting their social and academic success. In Mattie’s Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab, research addresses the early development of individuals with Down syndrome and fragile X syndrome. She, too, aims toward promoting the developmental success and well-being of people with these neurogenetic disabilities.

The scholars’ shared interests have led to fruitful collaborations in the past. They led a team of researchers who used a large, national database developed by the Down Syndrome Cognition Project to characterize variability in IQ, executive functioning, adaptive and challenging behavior, and autism symptomatology among individuals with Down syndrome.

In a paper titled “Capturing cognitive and behavioral variability among individuals with Down syndrome: a latent profile analysis,” published in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (2021, 13:16), Channell, Mattie and their co-authors describe three latent classes, or subtypes, of people with Down syndrome that emerged from their analyses.

Those in the “normative” group showed a profile of cognition and behavior that is typically represented in the literature on Down syndrome. Those in the “cognitive” group had lower cognitive scores and adaptive behaviors such as self-care and daily living skills than their peers with Down syndrome, along with high rates of autism symptoms.

Those in the “behavioral” group showed cognitive scores and adaptive behaviors similar to their peers with Down syndrome but had high rates of autism symptoms and challenging behaviors such as hyperactivity and conduct problems. Thus, with a large enough sample size, different patterns of autism symptoms and other characteristics can be seen across individuals with Down syndrome. The ultimate goal in precisely characterizing individual variability within Down syndrome is to optimize daily living through targeted treatments and interventions.

Overcoming diagnostic hurdles

Channell and Mattie currently are collaborating as principal and co-principal investigators on a study funded by the National Institutes of Health INCLUDE Project, which supports research related to the health and quality of life of individuals with Down syndrome. Working with researchers at Emory University, Johns Hopkins University and the Kennedy Krieger Institute, their study seeks to increase understanding of the co-occurrence of autism with Down syndrome to improve its diagnosis and treatment.

“There is a stereotype of people with Down syndrome as happy, social people who can’t have autism,” Channell said. “It’s more common than previously thought, but underdiagnosed.”

Interventions and therapies that people with autism receive could be a beneficial add-on to services offered to individuals with Down syndrome. Part of the problem in diagnosing autism in this population is that autism screening tools that were developed for the general population need to be adapted. To work toward the goal of developing better tools to screen for autism in people with Down syndrome, Channell, Mattie and their collaborators are conducting a nationwide survey of caregivers of youth with Down syndrome in which they are completing existing screening tools and other developmental questionnaires. The researchers will then examine and adapt the screening tools as needed so they can be used by practitioners to determine whom to refer for a full autism evaluation.

They are casting a wide net in hopes not only of representing all the varying abilities within Down syndrome, but also of including groups that are not well represented in the existing research.

“Underrepresentation is a big problem in research related to Down syndrome,” Mattie said. “We have a diverse board of stakeholders, are building relationships with the Black Down Syndrome Association, and targeting rural and Hispanic families as well.”

The questionnaires and other screening tools completed by caregivers are just one element of an autism diagnosis. There also is an in-person evaluation component, which is conducted by either developmental behavioral pediatricians or clinical psychologists who are specifically trained in autism diagnostics and assessment, as well as neuropsychological methods. The difficulty with this aspect of diagnosis is two-fold, Mattie said.

“First, the number of developmental behavioral pediatricians and clinical psychologists with this specialized training is limited, so there’s a bottleneck,” she said. “Also, while they may have expertise in autism, they don’t necessarily know about Down syndrome. So the ability to identify a true co-occurring condition is really lacking.”

Channell and Mattie may be conducting the first large-scale study using the broad screening measures doctors and clinicians give to families when autism is first suspected. Theirs may also be the first study that will explore the use of telehealth to conduct diagnostic evaluations of autism in children with Down syndrome.

“If we can figure out how to make that work, we can increase access to evaluations by specialists,” Channell said. They are working with a clinician at Kennedy Krieger, Natasha Ludwig, who will conduct the evaluations of autism in the telehealth sessions, and with Amy Cohen, director of the University of Illinois Autism Clinic, who will review and “score” the evaluations as well to ensure that evaluation tools will lead to consistent results when used by different clinicians.

With the dual focus on developing effective autism screening and diagnostic tools for individuals with Down syndrome and increasing access to specialists who are skilled in both autism and intellectual disability, Channell and Mattie intend to make a significant and lasting impact on improving the quality of life of a population that has historically been underdiagnosed and underserved. That’s good news for the individuals themselves and their caregivers, as well as the scores of clinicians who dedicate their professional lives to providing the best services possible to their clients.

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2024 SHS Awards

Congratulations to the recipients of 2024 scholarships and awards. The undergraduate and graduate students recognized within these pages have shown outstanding dedication and creativity in the pursuit of their personal and professional goals. We are very proud of your achievements. Click the link to read the PDF program.

2024 SHS Scholarship Ceremony – 4/16/24

‘What Did You Say?’ Understanding speech in noise a common problem

May 19, 2023 | Anna Flanagan

While some might assume that hearing in noise is a problem of aging, it turns out that children can also have difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments

A common complaint that audiologists hear from clients coming in for hearing assessments is difficulty hearing in noisy backgrounds. It’s a problem that affects millions of adults and can become more of a problem with age, but it also affects children and adolescents as well.

While the problem might be common, adequate ways of addressing the problem are not. Effective solutions require a deep understanding of the reasons the problem is occurring. Three faculty in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science—Assistant Professor Mary Flaherty, Associate Professor Dan Fogerty and Assistant Professor Ian Mertes—focus their research in this area with the goal of gaining that deep understanding and finding solutions in order to improve the quality of life of those who struggle with understanding speech in noise.

“If people are unable to hear clearly in noisy environments such as restaurants, it can negatively impact their ability to socialize and communicate in those settings and, ultimately, to enjoy those settings,” Mertes said.

Mechanics are There; Understanding is Not

While some might assume that hearing in noise is a problem of aging, it turns out that children can also have difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments. It’s known that children with normal hearing have fully developed auditory systems by their first birthday, but that their brains take longer—into their teenage years—to develop the ability to process speech in noise effectively. What isn’t known is why this is. That’s what Mary Flaherty wants to find out.

“We know it has something to do with attention and sound-source segregation, separating different sounds in the environment,” she said. “We also know children just need more information than adults. They aren’t as good as adults at putting puzzles together when they are missing pieces. But we don’t really understand what it is that children need to help them.” 

Flaherty’s concern is that children who struggle with understanding speech in complex acoustic environments may fall behind in school. Moreover, the true problem may go undiagnosed and the child labeled negatively by teachers and classmates. And if this is true of children with normal hearing, imagine the extra burden faced by children with hearing loss who experience greater difficulty understanding speech in noise.

Adults use cues such as voice pitch to focus on one speaker in noise and ignore everyone else. Children cannot do that. So what cues can help children? Flaherty currently is investigating talker familiarity. She worked with a graduate student in audiology to develop a game that familiarizes children with a voice while they’re playing. A pilot study in which children played the game 10 minutes a day for five days found that their speech-in-noise perception for that particular voice increased. Flaherty plans to pursue research that tests this phenomenon in the classroom.

This summer, she will collaborate with researchers at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago to investigate hearing-in-noise difficulties faced by children who use hearing aids. Among the issues she will investigate is whether talker familiarity also can help children with hearing loss, which has never before been studied. As she continues her research efforts, Flaherty hopes to identify primary factors that account for the long trajectory of children’s development of speech-in-noise perception, and to use the knowledge to improve hearing in noise, especially for clinical populations. She also collaborates with SHS colleague Pasquale Bottalico on classroom studies that they hope will lead to a method of predicting which children may have difficulty understanding speech in noise, identifying characteristics that they have in common, and recommending effective interventions.

More Cues, but More Potential Deficits with Age

Dan Fogerty focuses on older adults in his studies of how noise interferes with speech processing, how it impacts understanding a message and how it requires listeners to recruit other cognitive and sensory processes to help make sense of it.

A predominant perspective on how noise makes speech understanding difficult is that it exerts two primary effects: energetic masking and informational masking.

“In energetic masking, the noise covers up the speech energy in time and frequency,” Fogerty said. “Informational masking refers to all of the other things that might make it difficult, such as the message or familiarity of a competing talker that can draw your attention.”

Sometimes the noise dominates the signal received by the brain, depriving the listener of information. Speech dominates the signal at other times, and from these glimpses of information, listeners can piece together an interpretation of what is being said. Fogerty’s research uses glimpsing theory to examine what cues are available to the listener at any given time, but also extends the theory to how speech information changes over time.

“Amplitude modulation, the temporal rhythm of speech, is critical for understanding speech,” he said. “We’re finding that if the competing sounds vary similarly to the rhythmic aspects of speech, it can make speech understanding difficult. If we separate out these properties so that noise is varying at a faster or slower rate, then people are better able to glimpse or extract information.”

Fogerty’s primary research populations are individuals who have mild or moderate hearing loss as well as individuals who are aging with the typical sensory and cognitive changes that occur but without dementia or significant cognitive decline. He also tests college-age individuals so that effects related to aging or hearing loss are clearer. One thing he notes is important to remember is that being older doesn’t always mean performing more poorly on speech understanding tasks.

“We have a lot of older adults who do just as well or better than college students on some tasks,” he said. “That’s important for us because we want to know what is preserving their ability to understand speech in noise. What strategies are they using that are particularly helpful?”

His research goals are to contribute to the design of better hearing devices, but also to address issues that might not have a technology solution.

“That’s why we’re so interested in finding out what the abilities are that people bring to the task of listening in noise, and whether certain skills can be sharpened through training,” he said.

The Physiology Behind it All

From animal and human studies, we know that when sound enters the ear, the brain has the ability to fine tune the sound by controlling how the middle and inner ear responds. Animal studies have shown that these responses can help encode sounds in background noise. 

Ian Mertes is studying these top-down mechanisms in young adults with normal hearing to determine if they also help humans understand speech in noise. Both mechanisms rely on the brain stem. One mechanism contracts a muscle, which pulls on a bone of the middle ear, affecting how noise is transmitted through the auditory system. It can reduce the noise. The brain stem also can change how the inner ear amplifies sound, which also can turn down noise. 

“I’m looking at how these two mechanisms, which are reflexes, work together,” Mertes said. “They may work at different frequency regions, the lower frequencies or pitches and the middle frequencies or pitches. Working together, they may help people hear in background noise.”

Using otoacoustic emissions, a clinical audiology test of inner ear function, his studies have shown the physiological mechanisms are correlated with the ability to understand speech in noise. But, he said, it’s complicated.

“It can depend on how we do the physiological measurement, the types of sounds we present to the ears, and the speech perception task,” he said. His current focus on individuals without hearing problems gives him the “best look” at normally functioning auditory systems. “They have the most robust physiological responses and are able to participate in the perceptual tasks, and that can help me create a good template for adapting those measurements when I extend my work to clinical populations.”

Working with Vanderbilt University colleague Ben Hornsby, an associate professor of hearing and speech sciences, Mertes also plans to add another auditory concept called listening effort to the physiological picture of understanding speech in noise. Do individuals with weak top-down reflexes have to put more effort into completing speech perception tasks? What are the consequences of this additional effort?

The in-depth knowledge Mertes is gaining through his research may help explain why some young adults with clinically normal hearing report having difficulty hearing in background noise, another area of interest to him.

Summing up what he hopes will be the outcome of his research program, he said, “I’d ultimately like to make a significant contribution to treatment—strengthening auditory reflexes or simulating them in devices, increasing understanding of messages while reducing the effort it takes to reach that understanding.”

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AHS Get to Know: Laura Mattie, Ph.D.

April 03, 2024 | Ethan Simmons

Laura Mattie joined the College of Applied Health Sciences in 2015. She leads the Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab, or “DND” Lab. 

Photo by caption

How would you describe your primary research interests? 

My primary research interest is learning how young children with neurodevelopmental disabilities develop early social and communication skills to inform parent-implemented early language interventions.

Why did you decide to apply to work at Illinois?

I applied to Illinois because it was one of the only job postings that targeted expertise in children with disabilities and family well-being, which signified that my work was already valued.

What are you working on right now? 

I have 4 main projects right now: 

  • The Power of the Point Project focuses on the predictors of early language development in toddlers with Down syndrome and fragile X syndrome.
  • ASD Screening Tools in Down Syndrome is a large-scale survey of caregivers of individuals 6-18 years old that aims to determine how to best use autism screening tools for this population.
  • The Speech Accessibility Project aims to make voice recognition technology useful for individuals who may have diverse speech patterns and disabilities, including people with Down syndrome.
  • A Foundational Study of Adaptive Behaviors in Individuals with Down Syndrome is a survey of caregivers to learn about the practical, conceptual, and social skills used in everyday life by their children with Down syndrome who are between birth to 22 years old.

What’s a fun fact you’d like to share about yourself? 

I am a twin mom to 15-month-old girls, so much of my free time is chasing after them! When I do have some down time, I enjoy rewatching TV shows like “The Office” and “Parks & Recreation,” reading, and snuggling with our dogs.

Editor’s note:

To reach Ethan Simmons, email ecsimmon@illinois.edu.
 

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