SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY

Research for speech-language pathology

Papers a speech-language pathologist can act on — aphasia, dysphagia, developmental language, fluency, voice and augmentative communication — read in full and summarised plainly.

10,216 PAPERS · PAGE 150 OF 205 · NEWEST FIRST

• SLPCohort2025Effects of Participation in a Structured Choral Program on the Voice of Older Adults.Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice FoundationHealthy older choral singers mostly rated their speaking voice as normal, and voice quality of life did not differ by experience. Airflow measures showed some improvement or maintenance, while singing accuracy changed little.
• SLPOther2025Smartphone Recordings are Comparable to "Gold Standard" Recordings for Acoustic Measurements of Voice.Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice FoundationModern iPhone and Samsung phone recordings captured the same voice quality differences as a research microphone. Scores can shift with distance and room noise. Keep distance and room consistent, or convert phone scores before comparing them.
• PTOTSLPOther2025Barriers to healthcare predict reduced health-related quality of life in autistic adults without intellectual disability.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic adults in Germany reported significantly lower health-related quality of life than the general population. The number of barriers they experienced in accessing healthcare was the strongest predictor of poor mental quality of life and a key predictor of poor physical quality of life.
• SLPSurvey2025Effects of Virtual Teaching on Swedish Teachers' Voices During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice FoundationTeachers reported fewer voice symptoms and less voice handicap when teaching virtually compared to face-to-face. Straining the voice and poor air quality were linked to more symptoms. Stress was also associated with voice problems. Most teachers had no significant voice issues.
• OTSLPQualitative2025Parental experiences of raising an autistic child in Ireland: A qualitative thematic analysis.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceParents found navigating support services more stressful than caring for their child. They relied on peer groups and partners to cope. They appreciated individual therapists but felt parent training courses substituted for direct care. Lack of central post-diagnosis information forced many to pay privately.
• PTOTSLPCohort2025Relation between Orotracheal Intubation, Inflammatory Markers, Breathing and Voice in Post-COVID-19.Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice FoundationPost-COVID patients who needed intubation had longer hospital stays and higher D-dimer levels, but voice and breathing measures did not differ significantly from those who did not need intubation. Across the group, worse voice performance was linked to higher vocal fatigue.
• PTOTSLPOther2025Towards personalized immersive virtual reality neurorehabilitation: a human-centered design.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationNeurorehabilitation experts described training environments for brain injury as specific, meaningful, versatile, educational, safe, and supportive. For virtual reality, they recommended adjusting stimuli, offering video instructions, realistic tasks, and monitoring fatigue. These are design recommendations, not tested treatments.
• SLPOther2025Dysphonia Severity Index and Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice Outcomes, and Their Relation in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19.Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice FoundationHospitalized patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 showed significantly worse voice quality than healthy matched controls on both objective (DSI) and perceptual (CAPE-V) measures. The two assessments correlated strongly in patients, suggesting either can help identify dysphonia during acute infection.
• SLPOther2025Comparative study of emotional facial expression recognition among Prader-Willi syndrome subtypes.Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDRThe genetic subtypes did not differ in non-contextualised emotion recognition. Children with Prader-Willi syndrome were slower and less accurate than controls, and some contextualised situations showed slower responses in the mUPD subtype.
• OTSLPSurvey2025Comparing eating and mealtime experiences in families of children with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dual diagnosis.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceFamilies of children with autism, ADHD, or both reported more chaotic mealtimes, higher food fussiness, and greater caregiver stress than families of neurotypical children. The dual diagnosis group faced the most intense combination of these difficulties, suggesting a need for family-wide support rather than just feeding therapy.
• PTOTSLPCohort2025Parental magnetic resonance imaging for the evaluation of fetuses with brain anomalies.Developmental medicine and child neurologyWhen a fetus had a brain anomaly similar to a parent's MRI, the child usually developed typically. This was especially true for isolated corpus callosum issues. Parents of fetuses with these 'concordant' findings were more likely to continue the pregnancy.
• SLPOther2024Relations among Socioeconomic Status, Perceived Stress, and the Home Language Environment.Journal of child languageMothers’ perceived stress was not linked to adult words or parent-child conversational turns in homes with infants or school-age children. Parental education, not stress, was linked to more adult words and conversational turns.
• OTSLPOther2024"I'm Trying to Reach Out, I'm Trying to Find My People": A Mixed-Methods Investigation of the Link Between Sensory Differences, Loneliness, and Mental Health in Autistic and Nonautistic Adults.Autism in adulthoodAutistic adults reported more loneliness, distress, anxiety, depression, and sensory differences than nonautistic adults. But loneliness was linked to distress similarly in both groups. Qualitative accounts described practical barriers, yearning for connection, and needing solitude after overwhelm.
• OTSLPCase-Control2024Changes in Autism and Co-Occurring Conditions from Preschool to Adolescence: Considerations for Precision Monitoring and Treatment Planning.Journal of autism and developmental disorders85.5% of children diagnosed with autism in preschool still had it by adolescence. Children with autism also gained ADHD, DD, sensory integration and speech-language conditions more often than children with other developmental or mental health diagnoses.
• SLPOther2024Frequent vs. infrequent words shape toddlers' real-time sentence comprehension.Journal of child languageToddlers understood frequent words better than infrequent ones, but unusual sentence frames did not disrupt their comprehension. This suggests that while word familiarity drives real-time processing, toddlers are flexible enough to listen through unexpected phrasing to find the meaning.
• OTSLPPilot2025The development, feasibility and acceptability of Empower-Autism: A new psychoeducational and psychotherapeutic programme for caregivers of children recently diagnosed with autism.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceCaregivers of recently diagnosed autistic children found a group mixing autism psychoeducation and ACT feasible: 14 of 19 in-person attended at least 3 of 5, 8 of 10 online attended at least 6 of 10, and satisfaction was high, but content felt too much.
• PTOTSLPQualitative2025Factors influencing participation and engagement in post-stroke cardiac rehabilitation and exercise: an exploratory qualitative study.International journal of rehabilitation research. Internationale Zeitschrift fur Rehabilitationsforschung. Revue internationale de recherches de readaptationStroke survivors and staff identified barriers like transport costs, fatigue, and lack of stroke-specific training. Enablers included social connection, adapted exercises, and supportive staff. Home-based classes were unpopular due to lost camaraderie. Prioritising accessible venues and staff upskilling may improve engagement.
• PTOTSLPOther2025Within-session propulsion asymmetry changes have a limited effect on gait asymmetry post-stroke.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationIncreasing paretic propulsion with biofeedback reduced propulsion asymmetry but did not significantly improve overall gait asymmetry. Clinicians should not expect single-limb propulsion training to automatically normalize the entire walking pattern.
• SLPSystematic Review2025Is there evidence that playing games promotes social skills training for autistic children and youth?Autism : the international journal of research and practiceGame-based interventions improved social skills in autistic children, but evidence is weak because many studies lacked pre- and post-measures and did not clearly define which skills were being taught or why.
• PTOTSLPOther2025Clinical utility and psychometric properties of tools for early detection of developmental concerns and disability in young children: A scoping review.Developmental medicine and child neurology67 validated tools are recommended for screening and assessing children from birth to 5 years 11 months. The ASQ-3 is best multi-domain screen; GMA is strongest early CP screen; SACS-R is best autism screen.
• SLPOther2024Speech patterns in responses to questions asked by an intelligent virtual agent can help to distinguish between people with early stage neurodegenerative disorders and healthy controls.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsPeople with Alzheimer's disease paused for a median 67% of their response time, compared to 30% for healthy controls. Shorter speech duration and more pausing helped distinguish groups, but the small sample size means this is not yet a clinical tool.
• SLPCohort20243-generation family histories of mental, neurologic, cardiometabolic, birth defect, asthma, allergy, and autoimmune conditions associated with autism: An open-source catalog of findings.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchAutism risk was linked to family histories of mental disorders across all relatives, and to nonmental conditions like asthma or diabetes specifically in mothers and maternal relatives. This catalog offers therapists a reference for identifying associated familial health patterns.
• SLPOther2024How Complex Verbs Acquire Their Idiosyncratic Meanings.Language and speechNative Russian speakers changed prefixes when verbs meant spatial actions and changed bases when verb meanings were unpredictable. The way prefixes and bases predict each other in Russian text tracked how transparent verb meanings were.
• SLPOther2024Speech-language pathologist involvement in the paediatric intensive care unit.International journal of speech-language pathologyOnly 8.5% of children in US paediatric ICUs for more than 72 hours were seen by speech-language pathology on the study day. Those with an endotracheal tube and those aged 7 to 12 were least likely.
• SLPOther2024Sociophonetic Variation in Vowel Categorization of Australian English.Language and speechListeners varied in how they categorised Australian English vowels undergoing change. Region, age and social group shaped responses, but hill-hell showed no variation.
• SLPOther2024The Effect of Habitual Speech Rate on Speaker-Specific Processing in English Stop Voicing Perception.Language and speechNorth American English listeners did not use a speaker’s habitual speech rate to judge whether English stops were /p/ or /b/. Across three experiments, fast and slow dialogue rate produced no systematic difference in stop perception.
• SLPOther2024Bilingual Children Shift and Relax Second-Language Phoneme Categorization in Response to Accented L2 and Native L1 Speech Exposure.Language and speechBilingual children changed how they heard English stop sounds after brief exposure to accented English or Spanish speech. Accented English made their English sound categories shift away from Spanish-like. Spanish speech made categories less strict.
• SLPCohort2024The use of formal language as a strong sign of verbal autistic children in diglossic communities: The case of Arabic.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchIn Kuwaiti kindergartens, children who used formal Arabic outside lessons were often classified as autistic, and greater use of formal Arabic went with higher autism severity. This is a possible language marker, not a tested diagnostic tool.
• SLPPilot2024Using a novel in-mask non-invasive ventilator microphone to improve talker intelligibility in healthy and hospitalised adults.International journal of speech-language pathologyThe prototype showed no overall intelligibility benefit in healthy talkers. In ICU patients, the updated microphone improved number intelligibility and comprehensibility, but speech was not rated more natural.
• SLPNarrative Review2024How to cut the pie is no piece of cake: Toward a process-oriented approach to assessment and diagnosis of speech sound disorders.International journal of language & communication disordersSpeech sound errors alone cannot tell you if a child has a phonological or motor planning deficit because the same error can arise from different underlying processes. Current diagnostic labels may miss these distinctions, but validated tools to test specific cognitive and motor processes do not yet exist.
• PTOTSLPSurvey2025Journeys towards accessing an autism diagnosis and associated support: A survey of families of autistic children in Ecuador.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceFamilies of autistic children in Ecuador face fragmented care, paying out of pocket for diagnosis and relying heavily on the internet for support. They urgently need clear diagnostic pathways and evidence-based information. Clinicians must recognise that families are proactive but lack professional guidance and accessible services.
• SLPSurvey2025Short report: Prison-reported rates of autism in female prisons in England.Autism : the international journal of research and practicePrison records show 4.78% of female prisoners in England are autistic, compared to 0.35% in the general female population. Rates varied widely between prisons, from 0% to 11.19%, reflecting inconsistent recording practices rather than true prevalence differences.
• PTOTSLPOther2025Clinician-caregiver informant discrepancy is associated with sex, diagnosis age, and intervention use among autistic children.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceClinicians rated boys higher than caregivers, but rated girls lower than caregivers. This discrepancy linked to earlier diagnosis and more intervention hours. Therapists should note that girls may appear less impaired in clinic than at home due to camouflaging.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2025Outcome measures in muscular dystrophy rehabilitation: an ICF content comparison approach to the most commonly used MD scales.Journal of rehabilitation medicineThe 116 included studies used 142 outcome measures, mostly covering activity, participation and body functions. Speech, swallowing, cognitive and environmental domains were not common.
• PTOTSLPCohort2025Health and Health Care Utilization Outcomes for Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury: A 1-Year Longitudinal Study.The Journal of head trauma rehabilitationOne year after injury, people with traumatic brain injury used significantly more health care than matched controls without injury. They had higher rates of emergency visits, hospital admissions, and new diagnoses, including headaches and anxiety. This suggests a need for closer long-term monitoring.
• PTOTSLPRCT2025Transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation combined with robotic-assisted body weight-supported treadmill training enhances motor score and gait recovery in incomplete spinal cord injury: a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationAdding transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation to robotic treadmill training improved leg strength and walking speed more than sham stimulation at one-month follow-up. The effect appeared after the stimulation phase ended, not immediately, and the study was small.
• PTOTSLPCohort2025Functional independence trajectories over 5 years in older veterans with traumatic brain injury: A model systems study.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationFunctional independence declined over five years in older veterans with TBI. Those with longer posttraumatic amnesia or preinjury substance use had lower scores and steeper drops. Clinicians should monitor these high-risk groups closely, as their recovery trajectory is worse than average.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2025Effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions in patients with colorectal cancer: an overview of systematic reviews.Journal of rehabilitation medicineExercise and prehabilitation improve fitness and quality of life, but evidence for fatigue and mental health is weak. Nutritional supplements cut surgical infections, while acupuncture speeds gut recovery. Results vary widely because studies used different doses and timelines, so no single best rehabilitation method was identified.
• SLPOther2024Maximum Anterior Tongue Strength and Maximum Lip Strength in Healthy Spanish Adults: A Proposal of Reference Values.DysphagiaIn healthy Spanish adults, tongue strength falls with age but does not differ by sex, while lip strength is higher in men and does not change with age. Use tongue reference values by age group and lip reference values by sex when interpreting IOPI scores.
• SLPPilot2024A preliminary study of the effects of stimulant medications on estimates of psycholinguistic abilities for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsChildren with ADHD scored higher on sentence recall and receptive vocabulary when tested on stimulant medication, with changes exceeding standard error margins. No significant improvements were found for reading, nonverbal IQ, or narrative tasks. This suggests medication status may influence specific diagnostic language markers.
• SLPOther2024Front Is High and Back Is Low: Sound-Space Iconicity in Finnish.Language and speechFinnish speakers consistently matched high-pitched sounds to forward movement and low-pitched sounds to backward movement. They also produced these pitch-vowel pairings faster when the mapping aligned with spatial direction. The effect held for static front/back concepts, not just motion.
• SLPCohort2024Comparing criteria for deviation from hearing aid prescriptive targets in children.International journal of audiologyTightening hearing aid fit to within 3 dB of target improves audibility and grammar skills in children, especially those with milder loss. Current 5 dB guidelines may be too loose for optimal language development. Speech recognition and vocabulary scores did not change with the stricter fit.
• SLPQualitative2024Nurse perspectives on supporting children and youth who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in the pediatric intensive care unit.Augmentative and alternative communication (Baltimore, Md. : 1985)Six pediatric ICU nurses valued AAC for children's care but said time, limited training, and shifting priorities often blocked communication access. They wanted SLP support and clear AAC options.
• SLPSurvey2024Does Orkish Sound Evil? Perception of Fantasy Languages and Their Phonetic and Phonological Characteristics.Language and speechGerman listeners judged fictional languages by sound alone, preferring those with familiar phonemes and voicing. Klingon and Dothraki sounded evil, but Orkish sounded pleasant, contradicting its design. This shows aesthetic judgments rely on similarity to the listener's native language, not just inherent harshness.
• SLPOther2024Processing of English Coda Laterals in L2 Listeners: An Eye-Tracking Study.Language and speechMandarin-speaking English learners found the 'l' sound at the end of syllables hardest after back vowels. In a word-label task, they often heard it as part of the vowel, even when they could match pairs in a simpler task.
• PTOTSLPCohort2024Do maternal and paternal education protect against developmental delays?Research in developmental disabilitiesMaternal education is associated with lower odds of developmental delays in children's second and third years, but not the first. Paternal education shows a similar trend only when maternal education is not considered, suggesting maternal factors are the primary driver.
• SLPCohort2024Morphosyntactic profiles among preschoolers with and without speech sound disorders.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsPreschoolers with speech sound disorders but normal language made more errors on subject pronouns, irregular past tense verbs, and yes/no questions than typical peers. Irregular past tense errors were linked to poor phonological awareness. Other morphosyntactic areas showed no group differences.
• SLPOther2025Phonemic and pitch variability in bilingual preschoolers: A comparison of Jamaican Creole and English.International journal of speech-language pathologyMean pitch and stop-timing measures did not differ between languages. Pitch variability was higher in English than in Jamaican Creole. Pitch variability and stop-timing variability were not related.
• SLPOther2025More than one way to improve a CAT: Outcomes and reflections on two iterations of the Queen Square Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Programme.AphasiologyPeople with chronic aphasia in intensive Queen Square programmes had better language, communication confidence and quality of life at follow-up. The study had no control group, so these changes cannot be proven to be caused by the programme.
• SLPOther2024Asymmetries in Infants' Vowel Perception: Changes in Vowel Discrimination in German Learning 6- and 9-Month-Old Infants.Language and speechGerman-learning infants discriminated the vowels at 6 months in both directions. At 9 months, they noticed the change only from the Polish vowel to the German vowel, not the reverse.