Language and Literacy Lab

Lisa Bowers, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Biography

Lisa Bowers is an associate professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program at the University of Arkansas. Her research focuses on the language and literacy abilities of children from diverse populations, including children with hearing loss and dyslexia. She is a member of several interprofessional research teams with scholars from Deaf Education, Counselor Education, Childhood Education and Special Education that focus on communication access and best practices in Interprofessional Education (IPE) and Practice (IPP) in educational settings.

Dr. Bowers is also the Director of the Service Learning Initiative (SLI). SLI is a campuswide initiative that formalizes and expands service learning opportunities for students taught by faculty while enriching and extending the U of A's impact with community partners.

Lab Research Summary

Research conducted in the language and literacy lab focuses on the auditory, language and literacy abilities of children from culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

Language and literacy abilities of students who are deaf — Children who are deaf often present unique spelling configurations that differ from their hearing peers. We are currently analyzing the writing samples from students from diverse educational settings (i.e., public school self-contained, public school mainstream, schools for the deaf) as well as varying communication philosophies (i.e., American Sign Language (ASL)-English bilingual, Listening and Spoken Language, Total Communication).

Language and vocabulary development of children from special populations — Graduate students in the CDIS program at the University of Arkansas participate in a service-learning project with Washington County Head Start Centers. We have partnered with Head Start to assess the language growth of children using standardized assessments, parent questionnaires, and reading logs.

Interprofessional Education (IPE) — IPE is critical to the advancement of interprofessional practice (IPP), in which professionals have a deeper understanding and appreciation of how to work as a team to achieve the best holistic outcomes for students. Our research team examines the impact interprofessional experiences have on pre-service professionals, their supervisors, and their students, particularly in educational settings.

Research Implications

Broadly, research outcomes from the lab are designed to better understand what auditory, language, and writing skills are necessary and what interventions are appropriate for children to successfully communicate with others, particularly in the academic setting when working collaboratively with other professionals.

Student Impact — Both undergraduate and graduate students are involved in all aspects of the research process, including literature review, data collection, analysis, and interpretation of results. Students regularly present at national conventions.

2021 Lab Members — Emma Villanueva, Lacy Simpson, Lauren Liftee, Colby Fowler, Alexa Schwarz

Selected Publications

Bowers, L., Young, H. & Glade, R. (in press). Training school professionals in a global pandemic: Insights from elementary education and speech-language pathology. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.

Perryman, K., Robinson, S., Bowers, L., & Massengale, B. (2020). Child centered play therapy and academic achievement: A prevention-based model. International Journal of Play Therapy, 29(2), 104–117. https://doi.org/10.1037/pla0000117

Young, H. D. & Bowers, L. (2018). Coordination of literacy efforts between literacy education specialists & speech-language pathologists: Are we on the same team? Literacy Research and Instruction, 57(4), 285-305.