Research Website

Kathryn P. Connaghan, Ph.D. (CCC-SLP)

Current Research Participation Opportunities

Research Program

My research focuses on advancing our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of speech impairment occurring in children and adults with motor speech disorders and how these affect day-to-day communication. These research questions arose from my experience as a speech-language pathologist, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of speech motor control and its disruption due to motor disorders seen in cerebral palsy (CP), acquired brain injury, Down syndrome, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). I'm particularly interested in understanding which particular aspects of speech impairment affect daily communication interactions and communicative and social participation. Identifying these features will inform optimal targets for assessment, treatment, and monitoring disease progression.

Research Interests

• The impacts of dysarthria on communicative interactions and social participation
• The role of prosody in motor speech disorders
• The characteristics of dysarthria secondary to CP, brain injury, Down syndrome, and ALS
• The development of speech metrics to identify onset of speech impairment and monitor change

Sample Publications and Presentations

Connaghan, K.P., Wertheim, C., Laures-Gore, J., Russell, S., & Patel, R. (2020). An exploratory study of student speech-language pathologist, and emergency worker impressions of speakers with dysarthria. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2020.1768286

Connaghan, K. P., Green, J. R., Paganoni, S., Chan, J., Weber, H., Collins, E., ... & Berry, J. D. (2019). Use of Beiwe Smartphone App to Identify and Track Speech Decline in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Proc. Interspeech 2019, 4504-4508.  

Berry, J.D., Paganoni, S., Carlson, K., Burke, K., Weber, H., Staples, P., Salinas, J., Chan, J., Green, J.R., Connaghan, K.P., Barback, J., & Onnela, J.P. (2019). Design and results of a smartphone-based digital phenotyping study to quantify ALS progression. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 6(5), 873-881. doi: 10.1002/acn3.770 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6529832/pdf/ACN3-6-873.pdf

Zimmerman, E., Connaghan K.P., Hoover, J., Alu, D., & Peters. J. (2019). Is feeding the new play? Examination of the maternal language and prosody used during infant feeding. Infant Behavior and Development, 54, 120-132.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016363831830273X?via%3Dihub

Connaghan, K.P. & Patel, R. (2017). The impact of contrastive stress on vowel acoustics and intelligibility on dysarthria. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 60(1), 38-50. doi:10.1044/2016_JSLHR-S-15-0291  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28114612

Berry, J.D., Paganoni, S., Carlson, K., Burke, K., Weber, H., Staples, P., Salinas, J., Chan, J., Green, J.R., Connaghan, K.P., Barback,J., & Onnela, J.P. (2019). Design and results of a smartphone-based digital phenotyping study to quantify ALS progression. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 6(5), 873-881. doi: 10.1002/acn3.770 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6529832/pdf/ACN3-6-873.pdf

Patel, R. & Connaghan, K.P. (2014). Park Play: A picture description task for assessing childhood motor speech disorders. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 16(4), 337-343. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24665912

Connaghan, K.P. & Moore, C.A. (2013). Indirect estimates of jaw muscle tension in children with suspected hypertonia, suspected hypotonia, and matched controls. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56, 123-139. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3974544/

Presentations

Connaghan, K.P., Baylor, C., Romanczyk, M., Rickwood, J., & Bedell, G. Social interaction and communicative participation experiences of youth with congenital dysarthria. Conference on Motor Speech: Motor Speech Disorders & Speech Motor Control, Santa Barbara, CA, 2020.

Connaghan, K.P., Gutz, S., Eshghi, M., Stipancic, K., Richburg, B., Nicholson, K., Yunusova, Y., Collins, E., Miller, T., Jockel-Balsarotti, J., Clapp, M., Garrand, E., Onnela, J.P., Berry, J.D., & Green, J.R. Effects of task repetition on acoustic measures of speech produced by persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Conference on Motor Speech: Motor Speech Disorders & Speech Motor Control, Santa Barbara, CA, 2020.

Connaghan, K.P., Green, J.R., Paganoni, S., Chan, J., Weber, H., Collins, E., Richburg, B., Eshghi, M., Onnela, J.P., & Berry, J.D. Tracking Bulbar Impairment Using the Beiwe Smartphone App. 30th International Symposium on ALS/MND, Perth, Australia, 2019.

Connaghan, K.P. Assessing pediatric dysarthria: Communicative participation. (Invited panelist). American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Orlando, FL, 2019. 

Rickwood, J., Romanczyk, M., & Connaghan, K.P. Beyond Intelligibility: Communicative participation of adolescents with motor speech disabilities. Poster presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Orlando, Fl, 2019. 

Connaghan, K.P. & Kopp, Z. Speech accommodation by adolescents across communication partners. Acoustical Society of America, Victoria, BC, Canada, 2018. 

Connaghan, K.P., Reilly, D., & Patel, R. Listener impressions of speakers with dysarthria secondary to cerebral palsy. Presented to the Conference on Speech Motor Control, Savannah, GA, 2018.