Professor Joanne Cleland
Speech and Language Therapy
Personal statement
I am a Professor of Speech and Language Therapy in the Department of Psychological Sciences and Health. My expertise is in developmental Speech Sound Disorders with an emphasis on innovative assessment and intervention tools. My work spans theoretical research using instrumental articulatory approaches to applied clinical research working with practitioners. I joined the department in 2015 having previously worked at Queen Margaret University where I completed my PhD in 2010 and my clinical qualification as a Speech and Language Therapist in 2002.
I am the vice president of the International Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics Association; the UK representative on the Child Speech committee for the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders; and a member of the UK and Ireland Child Speech Research Network. My work is funded by the ESRC, NIHR, Chief Scientist Office of Scotland and the EPSRC.
Prize And Awards
- Meritorious Poster Submission
- Recipient
- 21/8/2023
- Manuel Garcia Prize
- Recipient
- 1/8/2023
Publications
- Children’s rights to the best possible care : Establishing processes for data collection in routine care to address questions of intervention effectiveness for children with speech sound disorder.
- Wren Yvonne, Burr Samantha, Cleland Joanne, Stringer Helen, Harding Samantha
- Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1044/2026_LSHSS-25-00202
- Two-stage GAN for field-of-view standardisation and tongue region enhancement in ultrasound for cleft palate speech pattern analysis
- Al Ani Saja, Cleland Joanne, Zoha Ahmed
- Proceedings of 2025 International Conference on Medical Imaging and Computer-Aided Diagnosis (MICAD 2025) 6th International Conference on Medical Imaging and Computer-Aided Diagnosis Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering Vol 1520, pp. 85-95 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-95-7425-4_8
- English (Scottish) speech development
- Scobbie James M, Cleland Joanne, Lawson Eleanor, Schaeffler Sonja
- The Oxford Handbook of Speech Development in Languages of the World (2026) (2026)
- Naïve listener judgements of speech sound change during speech intervention for children with cleft palate ± lip using a Visual Analogue Scale, compared to expert ratings
- Cairney Maria, Shiramizu Victor, Cleland Joanne
- Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics Vol 40, pp. 544-566 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2025.2571661
- Understanding the experiences of children with speech sound disorder in speech and language therapy using emotional mapping
- Harding Samantha, Burr Samantha, Cleland Joanne, Helen Stringer, Wren Yvonne
- Child Language Teaching and Therapy Vol 42, pp. 207-224 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590261444674
- Speech perception and phonological awareness skills in Thai-speaking children with speech sound disorders
- Ratanakul Ketnipa, Cohen Wendy, Tse Dwight, Cleland Joanne
- Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1159/000552670
Research Interests
My research focuses on developmental Speech Sound Disorders in children. I am interested in how we can optimise the diagnosis and treatment of Speech Sound Disorders to improve patient outcomes. I have a particular interest in visual biofeedback, that is, technologies which can be used to image the articulators (principally the tongue) moving when we speak. My most recent research uses ultrasound tongue imaging to measure tongue movement and allow children with speech sound disorders a method of using real-time visual biofeedback of their own tongue movements to modify incorrect articulations and therefore improve their speech. I work with families of children with Speech Sound Disorders and clinicians to determine how we can make ultrasound technology accessible to clinicians and parents.
Current and recent research projects include:
Speech Therapy Animation and Imaging Resources
Professional Activities
- Using Ultrasound for the Assessment and Treatment of Speech Sound Disorders
- Consultant
- 2/6/2026
- Auditory variation in Scottish coda /r/ in child speech
- Contributor
- 20/3/2026
- Cross-Faculty Connections: Growing Networks and Building Opportunities with and for Children and Young People
- Participant
- 26/2/2026
- REF (External organisation)
- Advisor
- 2026
- Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Conference 2025
- Participant
- 26/11/2025
- UK Language Variation and Change (UKLVC)
- Participant
- 2/9/2025
Projects
- APP81531: Child Lingual Evolution Apparent-time Research (CLEAR)
- Lawson, Eleanor (Principal Investigator) Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2026 - 30-Jan-2028
- Does lexical feedback improve the understanding of the speech of children with speech sound disorders?
- Cairney, Maria (Principal Investigator) Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator) Lawson, Eleanor (Co-investigator) Ratanakul, Ketnipa (Researcher)
- 01-Jan-2025 - 02-Jan-2026
- Maximising the Impact of Speech and Language Therapy for children with Speech Sound Disorder Phase 2 (MISLToe_SSD-2): A feasibility study of collection of the Core Outcome Set in Wales
- Cleland, Joanne (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2025 - 31-Jan-2027
- STAR-Gate: a user evaluation and co-production project for the Speech Therapy Animation and Imaging (STAR) web resource
- Timmins, Claire (Principal Investigator) Lawson, Eleanor (Co-investigator) Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2025 - 01-Jan-2025
- STAR-gate: a user evaluation and co-production project for the Speech Therapy Animation and imaging Resource (STAR) web resource.
- Lawson, Eleanor (Co-investigator) Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator) Timmins, Claire (Principal Investigator)
- STAR-gate: a user evaluation and co-production project for the STAR web resources.
For over a decade, the project team have led several clinical studies using ultrasound tongue imaging (UTI), to evidence the effectiveness of this technique for improving speech errors in children with speech sound disorder (SSD). Papers published in both the previous and current REF period by our group have shown that this approach can be game changing, especially for SSDs which are difficult to treat through conventional therapy. However, ultrasound technology is not widely available to speech and language therapists (SLTs) and educators. To democratise access to visual representations speech production, we created two ESRC-funded Web-based resources:
Seeing Speech: STAR www.seeingspeech.ac.uk/speechstar/ for Speech Therapy training.
SpeechSTAR www.speechstar.ac.uk for use in clinic with children who have SSDs.
These sites contain video databases of (non)disordered child speech, imaged using UTI; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) speech samples, and MRI-based vocal-tract animations.
Initial feedback gathered through site surveys has been excellent; however, many respondents are encountering the site for the first time and are not sure how to navigate the resources. Our proposed project (STAR-gate) will maximise the accessibility of STAR and SpeechSTAR by engaging key user groups (i) SLTs; (ii) clients/carers (iii) SLT students; (iv) Clinical-Phonetics lecturers. We will work with HEIs and SLTs across the British Isles, to evaluate STAR/SpeechSTAR, and co-create video-based content for these Web sites.
Objectives:
Before the next REF exercise, to gather evidence of how STAR has changed the practice of the user groups.
To develop written materials facilitating use of STAR for Clinical Phonetics teaching (publications/ working papers, co-created with Clinical Phonetics lecturers).
To gather evidence to support grant applications to further develop the STAR and SpeechSTAR websites, according to user needs.
To co-create video-based user guides, sharing how STAR and SpeechSTAR can be used in SLT teaching, training, CPD and in clinic. - 01-Jan-2025 - 01-Jan-2026
- BletherNet: Neural Networks for Understanding Tongue Shapes in Disordered
- Lawson, Eleanor (Principal Investigator) Murali, Mridhula (Researcher) Kirkland, Paul (Academic) Cleland, Joanne (Academic)
- A project investigating the use of neural networks in the automatic classification of /r/ tongue shapes, imaged with Ultrasound Tongue Imaging
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2024
Contact
Professor
Joanne
Cleland
Speech and Language Therapy
Email: joanne.cleland@strath.ac.uk
Tel: Unlisted