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.
Area of Expertise
I am a Speech and Language Therapist with expertise in articulatory analysis, clinical trials, include single case experimental designs, mixed methods including qualitative research, and co-production.
Prize And Awards
- Meritorious Poster Submission
- Recipient
- 21/8/2023
- Manuel Garcia Prize
- Recipient
- 1/8/2023
Publications
- 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, pp. 1-23 (2026)
- Does child speech help us ‘look forward’ to sound change? Social and developmental factors in vowel variation in Scottish 5-11 year-old children
- Stuart-Smith Jane, Tanner James, Christodoulidou Polychronia, Murali Mridhula, Smith Amy, Taylor Lauren, Cleland Joanne, Kuschmann Anja
- LabPhon20 (2026)
- Diadochokinetic rate performance and variability in 5-12-year-old children in Scotland
- Kuschmann Anja, Murali Mridhula, Taylor Lauren, Stuart-Smith Jane, Young David, Cleland Joanne
- Colloquium of the British Association of Academic Phoneticians 2026 (2026)
- A study of voice quality and acoustic variability in sound prolongation performance in a large corpus of 5–12-year-old children
- Murali Mridhula, Cleland Joanne, Taylor Lauren, Young David, Stuart-Smith Jane, Kuschmann Anja
- Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica Vol 78, pp. 60-73 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1159/000546421
- Protocol for a systematic review of interventions not delivered by speech and language therapists for children with speech sound disorders
- Cairney Maria Viliam, Kevill Sarah, Cleland Joanne
- International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders Vol 61 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70187
- Maximising the Impact of Speech and Language Therapy for children with Speech Sound Disorder (The MISLToe-SSD) Study : developing a Core Outcome Set (COS) for routine data collection from UK NHS Speech and Language Therapy Services
- Stringer Helen, Burr Sam, Cleland Joanne, Harding Sam, Wren Yvonne
- International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders Vol 61 (2026)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70188
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
- Cross-Faculty Connections: Growing Networks and Building Opportunities with and for Children and Young People
- Participant
- 26/2/2026
- Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Conference 2025
- Participant
- 26/11/2025
- UK Language Variation and Change (UKLVC)
- Participant
- 2/9/2025
- "How we speak" workshops in primary schools in Glasgow and Fife
- Contributor
- 8/2025
- An Ultrasound Study of Tongue Shape Variability in English-Speaking Typically Developing Children
- Contributor
- 24/6/2025
- Investigating variability in a large cohort of typically developing children in Scotland – preliminary analysis of non-speech tasks
- Contributor
- 22/10/2024
Projects
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Translating Ultrasound Speech Technology into Clinical Practice
- Cleland, Joanne (Principal Investigator) Lawson, Eleanor (Principal Investigator) Smith, Amy (Researcher)
- Impact Acceleration Account project, Funded value £2,389
Speech and Language Therapy at the University of Strathclyde have been at the forefront of developing ultrasound technology for the diagnosis and treatment of speech disorders in children. Speech disorders are common in childhood, affecting social, emotional and educational prospects. Most intervention approaches involve the speech and language therapist (SLT) listening to children’s speech errors and providing verbal feedback. While this can be effective, our research at Strathclyde demonstrates that children benefit from visual feedback of their tongue movements. By placing a medical ultrasound probe under the child’s chin, we can show them their tongue movements in real-time, allowing the SLT to give them more accurate feedback to help correct speech errors.
Through two EPSRC funded projects (Ultrax and Ultrax2020) joint with the University of Edinburgh, we have improved the ultrasound technology, making it more suitable for use in the speech therapy clinic and have developed automatic ways (using artificial intelligence) to classify speech disorder types. We have also run two Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funded intervention studies (one ongoing) which show that this can be an effective treatment. In parallel to this, Eleanor Lawson (Chancellor fellow since 2022, formerly at Queen Margaret University) has developed a suite of web resources (funded by AHRC, ESRC, RSE and the Carnegie Trust) which host ultrasound, MRI and animations of speech movements for training clinicians and linguists in speech production. An ongoing ESRC project (lead by Lawson with Cleland as Co-I) is currently developing a website “Speech Therapy Animation and imaging Resource- STAR”, which will house example ultrasound videos of speech disorders for training SLT students, with a secondary aim of improving understanding of and promoting ultrasound tongue imaging in SLT. All of these research projects include ongoing collection of impact evidence gathered using questionnaires and focus groups.
It is clear that what is missing from both our research and impact are training materials for clinicians specifically in how to use ultrasound in intervention with children. This funding would allow us to develop multi-media resources specifically for this purpose, accelerating the clinical implementation of our work. We have already developed an open access manual for delivering ultrasound-based intervention https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/63372/ , and we have developed teaching materials for in-person training with ultrasound. This funding would specifically be used to develop videos of clinicians delivering ultrasound intervention- featuring real children with speech disorders (with consent- covered by our current NHS ethical approval and additional consent to use the videos for marketing purposes) at the Glasgow Children’s Hospital. We would also use the funding to record and edit ultrasound analysis videos (i.e. videos showing tongue movements, rather than videos showing the SLT and child) of real teaching moments in intervention to illustrate the key steps in helping children to improve their speech errors. Both materials will be made in collaboration with the Glasgow Children’s hospital who are currently undertaking ultrasound-based therapy as part of a CSO funded clinical trial (PI Cleland). - 01-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2023
- Variability in child speech (VariCS)
- Kuschmann, Anja (Principal Investigator) Barry, Sarah (Co-investigator) Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator) Young, David (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 25-Jan-2026
- EPSRC IAA: Translating Ultrasound Speech Technology into Clinical Practice
- Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator) Lawson, Eleanor (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2025
Contact
Professor
Joanne
Cleland
Speech and Language Therapy
Email: joanne.cleland@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3037