I am a Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, and a past Chair of both my department and the University Senate.  I also helped found the UMD Infant & Child Studies Consortium  and the University of Maryland Autism Research Consortium.  Previously, I was the Director of Graduate Studies for both HESP and the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, and I am also a member of the Center for the Comparative & Evolutionary Biology of Hearing, the Maryland Language Science Center, and the Maryland Institute for Literacy and Equity. In 2013, I was honored with the BSOS Outstanding Graduate Advisor award, and in 2020-2021 I was named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. My research focuses on speech perception and language acquisition. More specifically, I am interested in how the brain recognizes words from fluent speech, especially in the context of noise, and how this ability changes with development. For more information on my research, please select the research tab, above.  Or download my public-oriented research statement.

 

Visit our labs: The Language Development & Perception Lab,  the Brain Injury & Language Development Lab, and the Canine Language Perception Lab.

I am also the PI of a grant-funded program, UMD-REACH, designed to enhance research opportunities and training for undergraduate students from groups underrepresented in the sciences.

Areas of Interest

  • Speech Perception
  • Language acquisition
  • Word-finding errors
  • Word recognition
  • Bilingualism
  • Autism
  • Concussion
Personal Website
Language Development & Perception Laboratories
Course Name Course Title Semester Syllabus
HESP499 Independent Study Fall 2017
HESP818F Seminar in Language Processing: What did you say? Hearing Language in the Real World Fall 2016
HESP499 Independent Study Fall 2016
HESP499 Independent Study Spring 2016
HESP724 Research Design Spring 2014
HESP400 Speech and Language Development in Children Fall 2013

My research focuses on speech perception and language acquisition. More specifically, I am interested in how the brain recognizes and learns words from fluent speech, especially in the context of noise, and how this ability changes with development. Recent research has examined topics such as:

  • Infants' ability to recognize their name in the context of noise
  • The effect of noise on children's ability to learn new words
  • Children's and adults' ability to comprehend degraded speech, such as that produced by a cochlear-implant
  • How information from one stream of speech can influence the perceptual processing of an alternate stream of speech 3
  • The effects of lexical neighbors on children's and adult's word naming, both those who are typically developing and those who have word-finding difficulties or who stutter
  • Whether infant perceptual abilities and parental input predict later language development
  • The effect of sports-related concussions on children's and adults' language processing
  • The impact of language switching on listeners' comprehension
  • The ability of young children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to understand speech in noise
  • Dogs' abilities to understand human speech 

We are also working to develop a new software system for testing young infants in listening studies; information is available at http://langdev.umd.edu/bittsy/

You can download my public-oriented research statement here.

Or visit our labs:  The Language Development & Perception Lab,  the Brain Injury & Language Development Lab, and the Canine Language Perception Lab.

 

ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1626-4241

Primary Investigator

Co-Investigator

Researcher

  • Campus
    Director of Graduate Studies, Program in Neuroscience & Cognitive Science: 2012-2014
  • Campus
    Director of Graduate Studies, Hearing & Speech Sciences: 2005-2014
  • Campus
    Chair of Admissions Committee, Hearing & Speech Sciences: 2005-2014
  • Campus
    Chair of Admissions Committee, Program in Neuroscience & Cognitive Science: 2012-2014
  • Campus
    Director of Ph.D. program in Hearing & Speech Sciences: 2006-2014
  • Campus
    Director of Masters Program in Speech-Language Pathology: 2005-2014
  • Campus
    Associate Director, Maryland Language Science Center: 2013-2023
  • Campus
    Chair, Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences: 2014-present
  • Campus
    Chair-Elect, then Chair, then past-Chair, University of Maryland Senate
  • Campus
    Co-Chair, University of Maryland Accreditation Review Committee

Current Students

Former Students

  • Cathy Eaton
    Faculty, Rockhurst University
  • Giovanna Morini
    Assistant Professor, University of Delaware
  • Chris Heffner
    Asst. Professor at the University of Buffalo
  • Melissa Stockbridge
    Postdoctoral scholar at Johns Hopkins Medicine
  • Amritha Mallikarjun
    Postdoctoral researcher at Penn Vet Working Dog Center
  • Brittany Jaekel
    RQM+
Rochelle Newman
0100 Lefrak Hall
Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences
Phone
(301) 405-4226
Email
rnewman1 [at] umd.edu