Communication Sciences and Disorders at Pennsylvania State University
Background: After graduating from Duquesne University, I began my career as a medically focused speech-language pathologist at two companies: Good Shepherd Rehabilitation and Lehigh Valley Health Network. I primarily worked in an inpatient rehabilitation facility and served as the SLP in charge of all outpatient AAC evaluations through Good Shepherd’s assistive technology program. I really enjoyed my work with patients with acquired cognitive and communicative disorders, especially people with aphasia. After a few years of clinical work, I decided to pursue a doctorate focused on clinical research for people with aphasia.
Current interests: At this moment, I am beginning to shift my focus to my dissertation topic which will resume a line of research I started when I was in my master’s program. I am interested in the facilitative effects that drawing can have on word retrieval abilities in people with aphasia. In my previous work, I found that when people with aphasia drew semantically rich representations of a target concept, they were better able to name it. This suggests that drawing may act as a nonverbal route to access the semantic system and support word retrieval abilities. In my dissertation work, I plan to use neurostimulation in neurologically intact subjects to further develop the theory behind this phenomenon.
Dissertation Chair: Dr. Chaleece Sandberg
Sample publications/presentations: Kinney, J.*, Wallace, S. E., & Schreiber, J. B. (2019). The relationship between word retrieval, drawing, and semantics in people with aphasia. Aphasiology, 34(2), 254-274. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2019.1602862
*My maiden name is Kinney
Presentation topic: Evidence for restorative effects from compensatory techniques (e.g., drawing, gestures) in people with aphasia
Research challenges: Right now, I am struggling with learning new (to me) research methods involving neurostimulation and (potentially) eye-tracking. Coming from a clinical background, I am most comfortable working with and planning studies around behavioral data. I am excited to step outside of my comfort zone and would love to hear other people’s experience with try new techniques and methods when planning research.