Communication Sciences & Disorders (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
mcfadd@wisc.edu
Background: I completed my clinical fellowship in the Communication Aids and Systems Clinic at the Waisman Center providing AAC evaluations and treatment for children and adults. Meeting with individuals and families who had struggled for years to find the right communication system solidified my desire to pursue research.
Current Interests: The focus on my dissertation is on describing patterns of mother-child interaction in children with cerebral palsy who present with a wide range of speech/language skills. I’m very interested in methods of video coding and analysis, the development of behavioral coding schemes and the use of language sample analysis as outcome measures for individuals with significant speech impairments.
Sample Presentation/Publication: For my MS thesis, I sought to determine how well a widely used parent questionnaire reveals differences in social function in children with CP who represent different speech-language profile groups. This paper, “Assessment of social function in four-year-old children with cerebral palsy was fundamental in leading me towards my dissertation project and focusing on measuring behavior directly within interactions.
Dissertation Chair: Dr. Katherine Hustad
Presentation Topic: Quantifying Interaction Behavior in Mothers and Their Children with Cerebral Palsy
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