Dr Anja Kuschmann

Reader

Speech and Language Therapy

Personal statement

I am a Reader in Speech and Language Therapy with a research interest in exploring typical and atypical speech production processes across the life span.

My current research focuses on dysarthria, describing its acoustic properties and determining its impact on communication in children and adults with motor disorders. I am also interested in understanding how speech changes as children grow, and how older age affects speech production processes.

I gained my PhD on intonation in foreign accent syndrome from the University of Strathclyde. A subsequent British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship enabled me to extend my work in this field and investigate intonation and prosody in children with cerebral palsy.

My work is funded by the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

Ongoing projects include:

ESRC funded research on how children‘s speech changes as they grow (Variability in Child Speech - VariCS) with Dr Joanne Cleland, Dr David Young (University of Strathclyde) and Prof Jane Stuart-Smith (University of Glasgow)
ESRC funded research into the role of cognition and speech in older adults’ communication patterns (PhD student: Laura Manderson; with Dr Louise Brown Nicholls and Prof Anja Lowit, University of Strathclyde)

Expertise

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Area of Expertise

Motor speech disorders in adults and children
Typical speech production across the life span
Speech development in multilingual children
Acoustic analyses for the assessment of motor speech disorders

Prize And Awards

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy: Recipient; 2020
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship: Recipient; 2013

More prizes and awards

Publications

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Publications

The impact of a university-based intensive comprehensive aphasia programme (ICAP) on language, functional communication and quality of life in people with chronic aphasia: Molino Monia, Kuschmann Anja, Egan Aisling; Aphasiology (2024); https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2024.2368623
Die sprachtherapeutische Versorgung von Kindern mit Dysarthrien : Eine Online-Umfrage zum Status quo und Implikationen für Forschung und Praxis: Schoelderle Theresa, Haas Elisabet, Kuschmann Anja; forum:logopädie Vol 2024, pp. 16-21 (2024)
Variability in DDK rate productions in typically-developing children in Scotland: Murali Mridhula, Taylor Lauren, Cleland Joanne, Young David, Stuart-Smith Jane, Kuschmann Anja; 2024 Colloquium of the British Association of Academic Phoneticians (2024)
Investigating variability in child’s speech (VariCS) : introducing the VariCS corpus: Kuschmann Anja, Murali Mridhula, Taylor Lauren, Smith Amy, Cleland Joanne, Stuart-Smith Jane, Young David; 2024 Colloquium of the British Association of Academic Phoneticians (2024)
Comparing DDK rate variability in typically developing children in central Scotland: Murali Mridhula, Cleland Joanne, Young David, Stuart-Smith Jane, Taylor Lauren, Smith Amy, Kuschmann Anja; Conference on Motor Speech (2024)
Variability in sound prolongation in typically developing children: Kuschmann Anja, Murali Mridhula, Cleland Joanne, Young David, Stuart-Smith Jane, Taylor Lauren, Smith Amy; Conference on Motor Speech (2023)

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Teaching

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Teaching

I teach on the BSc Hons Speech and Language Pathology undergraduate programme and supervise MPhil and PhD students.

My undergraduate teaching covers the following areas:

Psycholinguistics
Neurology and Paediatrics (Module lead)
Childhood Dysarthria – Assessment and Intervention
Multilingualism
Research Investigation

Research

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Research Interests

My research focuses on dysarthria in children and adults. I am interested in understanding the underlying nature of their speech problems, how these problems manifest, and how current treatment approaches target these difficulties. I harness the power of detailed acoustic analyses to aid the understanding of these aspects. My goal is to undertake research that advances our theoretical understanding of speech disorders and drives clinical practices, which can improve well-being, social and communication participation for those affected by motor speech disorders.

While my main focus is on describing patterns of disordered speech, I am also interested in exploring speech processes in typical speech across the life span, with a particular focus on determining variability in typical speech patterns and what these can tell us about disordered speech.

PhD and MPhil students

Amy Smith, PhD candidate: Measuring Variability in Child Speech Using Instrumental Articulatory Techniques
Laura Manderson, PhD candidate: Ageing and communication: Understanding the roles of cognition, speech production, and social participation
(completed) Manali Sharma, MPhil: Comprehension and Production of passive constructions in bilingual aphasia (Hindi and English)
(completed) Charya Jayasri Udara Bandara Kapurupastha Bandarage, MPhil: Quantifying undifferentiated lingual gestures of children with velar fronting problem using ultrasound tongue imaging

I am happy to supervise students with research interests involving any area of motor speech disorders.