Positions

Research Areas research areas

Overview

  • How do children acquire language? My research focuses on the perception and production of prosody (i.e., the melody and rhythm of speech) at different stages in development, and how these early language processes impact successful communication. The goal of my work is to provide a better understanding of how the complex interaction between prosody and meaning develops over infancy and early childhood in both typical and atypical developing populations. My current work focuses on how to naturally assess prosodic abilities across the lifespan. Past work has also explored how prosody impacts early word learning as well as how the acoustic correlates of prosody are realized in the speech of minimally verbal school-aged children with autism. Additionally, I am interested in the role of prosody in the diagnosis and treatment of motor speech disorders. These lines of research not only inform how we classify language and learning difficulties across disorders but also offer insight into intervention, treatment, and earlier diagnosis.

    I direct the Communication, Acquisition, and Translational Studies Laboratory (CAT Lab). See above for link to website.
  • Teaching Activities

  • Advanced Research Experience Taught course
  • Advanced Research Experience Taught course
  • Autism Spectrum Disorders Taught course
  • Clinical Phonetics Taught course
  • Language Acquisition Taught course
  • SpcTopic/Child Lang Acquistion Taught course
  • Student Research Experience Taught course
  • Advanced Research Experience Taught course 2023
  • Language Acquisition Taught course 2023
  • SpcTop/Child Lang Acquistion Taught course 2023
  • Student Research Experience Taught course 2023
  • Advanced Research Experience Taught course 2022
  • Autism Spectrum Disorders Taught course 2022
  • Clinical Phonetics Taught course 2022
  • Student Research Experience Taught course 2022
  • Advanced Research Experience Taught course 2022
  • Autism Spectrum Disorders Taught course 2022
  • Language Acquisition Taught course 2022
  • Student Research Experience Taught course 2022
  • Clinical Phonetics Taught course 2021
  • Spc Top/Child Lang Acquisition Taught course 2021
  • Student Research Experience Taught course 2021
  • Adv Rsrch Exp/Comm Sci & Dis Taught course 2021
  • Autism Spectrum Disorders Taught course 2021
  • Language Acquisition Taught course 2021
  • Clinical Phonetics Taught course 2020
  • Rsrch Exp/Comm Sci & Disorders Taught course 2020
  • Spc Top/Child Lang Acquisition Taught course 2020
  • Language Acquisition Taught course 2020
  • Rsrch Exp/Comm Sci & Disorder Taught course 2020
  • Top/Child Language Acquisition Taught course 2020
  • Autism Spectrum Disorders Taught course 2019
  • Language Acquisition Taught course 2019
  • Rsrch Exp/Comm Sci & Disorder Taught course 2019
  • Clinical Phonetics Taught course 2018
  • Motor Speech Disorders Taught course 2018
  • Rsrch Exp/Comm Sci & Disorders Taught course 2018
  • Spc Top/Child Lang Acquisition Taught course 2018
  • Acquisition of Language Taught course 2018
  • Autism Spectrum Disorders Taught course 2018
  • Rsrch Exp/Comm Sci & Disorder Taught course 2018
  • Acquisition of Language Taught course 2017
  • Education And Training

  • B.A., University of Rochester
  • M.A., University of Rochester
  • M.S., Brown University
  • Ph.D., Brown University
  • Northeastern University , Communication Sciences and Disorders, Postdoctoral Research Associate - Communication Disorders (prosody) 2014 - 2016
  • Boston Univeristy , Psychological and Brain Sciences; Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, NIH T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Autism Spectrum Disorders 2016 - 2017
  • Full Name

  • Jill Thorson
  • Mailing Address

  • University of New Hampshire

    Communication Sciences & Disorders

    4 Library Way, Hewitt Hall

    Durham, NH  03824

    United States