The LEAP Brain Imaging Lab serves individuals with communication disorders by conducting unique, collaborative research programs aimed and understanding and remediating communication disorders. Members of our lab publish research articles in high-quality academic journals, give research presentations at scientific and clinical conferences, and develop assessment and intervention programs that advance communication.
Data-driven and learner-focused research projects
Collaboratively solving real-world communication problems
Please peruse this website to learn more about our research. You can reach us at e.jones@usu.edu – we would love to hear from you!
The goal of this project is to evaluate the SKILL (Supporting Knowledge in Language and Literacy) program and it's efficiency to determine wether training in oral narration impacted the use of higher-level language, reading comprehension and written language.
This study was designed to compare two kinds of treatment, explicit treatment and implicit treatment. It is well established that school-age children with DLD have unusual difficulties comprehending and producing complex sentences. However, there is very little treatment research that focuses on the best approaches for helping children with DLD comprehend or produce complex sentences. Passives and Object Relative Clauses are especially difficult because the first noun in the sentence is not the subject. These sentences appear often in written language.
We are currently enrolling children in this study. If you are interested in having your child participate, please fill out the involvement card to the right or contact Emma Jones at 435-797-4044 or at e.jones@usu.edu.
Funded by the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Research Center at Utah State University.
The primary aim of this study is to compare behavioral and brain differences between elderly adults who do or do not have age related hearing loss.
There are two groups of participants:
Participants complete speech perception and auditory working memory tasks while we measure their brain activation using functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy. The overarching research hypothesis is that the level of brain activation and the neural connectivity patterns across temporal, inferior parietal, inferior frontal, and dorsolateral pre-frontal cortical brain areas will differ for the auditory processing of speech in noise and working memory tasks. We also hypothesize that neural activation patters will differ for individuals who do and do not wear hearing aids.
Because ARHL is highly prevalent, uncommonly treated, and recognized as one of the major risk factors for dementia, this project is of high public health significance and has a strong potential for guiding future research and practice in this area. We need to understand the behavioral and neuro-cognitive benefits of hearing aid use by experienced users without dementia to better understand the hearing aid benefits for individuals with dementia.
Funded by the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Research Center at Utah State University.
Nearly 50% of adults over 75 years in the United States have disabling age related hearing loss (ARHL). Yet, despite significant advances in hearing aid technology, a large percentage (78 %) of older adults with hearing loss do not own and use hearing aids. Age related hearing loss is associated with a higher incidence of dementia, social isolation, decreased cognitive functioning, poorer physical functioning and reduced quality of life. According to a 2020 Lancet Commissions report (Livingston et al., 2020), effective treatment of hearing loss improves quality of life and is associated with a reduction in new dementia cases. While studies have suggested that hearing aids improve social engagement and, in turn, cognition, there is no neurophysiological evidence supporting these observations.
We are conducting a small scale randomized controlled trial to assess the cognitive and neurophysiological benefits of hearing aids. We will measure brain activation using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which is a relatively low cost, non-invasive, and portable device for assessing cortical brain changes over time. fNIRS is quiet, minimally restrictive, and provides an environment that is more comfortable and conducive to capturing real world behavior. We plan to use fNIRS to assess changes in brain connectivity between the auditory cortex, inferior parietal cortex, and frontal cortex as a function of wearing hearing aids. The overarching research hypothesis is that intervention with hearing aids will improve listening comprehension and memory.
Participants with age-related hearing loss who have never worn hearing aids will be randomized to an immediate treatment group or a waitlisted control group. We will assess auditory processing and cognitive abilities before receiving hearing aids, 3 months after receiving hearing aids and 6 months after receiving hearing aids. Additionally, we will measure changes in brain activation in temporal, parietal and frontal lobe activation and connectivity following treatment. Results will inform the benefits of clinical assessment and intervention of age related hearing loss.
This project aligns with the National Alzheimer’s Project Act to “prevent, halt, or reverse Alzheimer’s disease and related Dementia. This study also aligns with plans to expand research in Utah focused on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. Because age related hearing loss is highly prevalent, uncommonly treated, and recognized as one of the major risk factors for dementia, this project is of high public health significance and has a strong potential for guiding future research and practice in this area.
My body of research spans basic scientific research, clinical assessments, and intervention studies. My career has been focused on elucidating the cognitive and linguistic complexities of developmental language disorders (DLD) and childhood stuttering, with a goal to improve diagnostic and treatment paradigms.
My foundational research made significant strides in characterizing the cognitive limitations observed in children with DLD. We found that these children experience challenges in forming and retaining precise mental phonological representations, particularly under multitasking conditions. Our investigations reveal decreased mental interactions between fluid intelligence, attention control, working memory, and long-term memory in this population. We've also used statistical modeling to demonstrate the pivotal role of working memory in mediating language comprehension and production.
Expanding the scope to neurobiology, my work has highlighted atypical functioning in neural networks responsible for attention, language processing, and speech planning in children with language disorders and stuttering. Using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), we have shown that real-world neuroscience methods can yield valuable insights into how neural mechanisms function in contextually relevant settings.
In the clinical arena, my team has researched the criteria for diagnosing language disorders in monolingual and bilingual children and in children who stutter. We have found that bilingual children can be reliably assessed for language impairments through English-based tests or dynamic assessment techniques if they are exposed to English for at least one year and for 30% of their daily activities. I have designed two internationally recognized diagnostic tests: the Test of Narrative Language and the Test of Childhood Stuttering.
In terms of interventions, I have served as the Principal Investigator/Project Director (PI/PD) for multi-site randomized controlled trials funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Education. Our studies have demonstrated that a variety of language intervention programs can be effective provided they incorporate key language intervention strategies. Moreover, we have rigorously evaluated the SKILL program aimed at enhancing both oral and written narrative comprehension and generation in children who are at-risk for language disorders and learning disabilities.
Through multidisciplinary approaches, my research aims to foster a more comprehensive understanding of communication disorders in children and to advance the field by developing effective diagnostic tools and treatment protocols.
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Ron Gillam, professor and Lillywhite endowed chair in the Department of Communication Disorders and Deaf Education within the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services at USU, is part of a collaborative research team that was recently awar...
Utah State University Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Resources professors Ron and Sandi Gillam, along with their colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin, were conducting a $3 million, multi-year trial funded by the U.S. Departmen...
A recent study from Utah State University suggests that tests administered exclusively in English can diagnose specific language impairment (SLI) in bilingual children who are learning English as a second language.
School of Graduate Studies - Thesis and Dissertation Requirements
College of Education and Human Services - Graduate Student Research Awards
Office of Research - Poster Templates
