Home > Events > LLRC Research Engagement Series: Nan Bernstein Ratner (UMD)

LLRC Research Engagement Series: Nan Bernstein Ratner (UMD)

Time: 
Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
Location: 
1220 Benjamin Building


Understanding the Relationships Between Language Proficiency and Spoken Fluency

Abstract: Recently, federal funding established a FluencyBank initiative designed to facilitate basic and applied research in understanding fluency development, pre-requisites for oral fluency, and the causes of fluency disorders, such as stuttering. I will discuss how traditional boundaries between “language” and “speech” are becoming increasingly blurred as we move from traditional measures of language skill, such as productivity and error-free production, to more fine-grained measures such as rate and fluency of spoken language, in both children and adults. TalkBank initiatives, such as FluencyBank, disseminate both the tools and data sharing opportunities to advance our understanding of interactions between speech and language.

Bio: Nan Bernstein Ratner is a Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park and certified speech-language pathologist with 40 years of experience. Dr. Bernstein Ratner’s primary areas of research are fluency development and disorder (stuttering), psycholinguistics and the role of adult input and interaction in child language development. The author of numerous research articles, chapters and edited texts, she is widely published in the area of stuttering and fluency disorders, as well as child language acquisition and language disorders. Dr. Bernstein Ratner is a Fellow and Honors recipient of the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association (ASHA). She is also a recipient of the International Fluency Association Distinguished Researcher award from the International Fluency Association and currently serves as its President-Elect. Further, Dr. Bernstein Ratner is a recipient of the University of Maryland Dean’s Medal, intended as the highest honor the College of Behavioral and Social Science can bestow to a member of the College community with an outstanding record of sustained contributions that have had major impacts on the college.