Publications

Instrumental articulatory techniques investigating lingual variability in typically developing children : a scoping review

Smith Amy, Kuschmann Anja, Lawson Eleanor, Cairney Maria, Cleland Joanne

Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics Vol 40, pp. 78-100 (2026)

https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2025.2486626

How does accent affect the identification of Speech Sound Disorders in Scottish-English speaking children?

Cleland Joanne, Gibson Lucy, Lawson Eleanor, Stuart-Smith Jane, Kuschmann Anja, Smith Amy, Taylor Lauren, Murali Mridhula, Young David

33rd world congress of the IALP (2025)

An ultrasound study of tongue shape variability in English-speaking typically developing children

Smith Amy, Lawson Eleanor, Kuschmann Anja, Cleland Joanne

Congress of the 20th International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association, pp. 1 (2025)

Does accent variation affect the identification of Speech Sound Disorders in Scottish-English speaking children?

Gibson Lucy, Lawson Eleanor, Stuart-Smith Jane, Kuschmann Anja, Smith Amy, Taylor Lauren, Murali Mridhula, Young David, Cleland Joanne

2025 International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference (2025)

Acoustic and articulatory variation across dialects in English approximant /ɹ/

Lawson Eleanor

R-atics 8, pp. 23 (2025)

Variation in Scottish /r/ in child speech

Stuart-Smith Jane, Lawson Eleanor, Gibson Lucy, Murali Mridhula, Smith Amy, Taylor Lauren, Cleland Joanne, Kuschmann Anja

R-atics 8, pp. 37 (2025)

More publications

Professional Activities

Mother Tongues Workshop

Participant

11/9/2025

An Ultrasound Study of Tongue Shape Variability in English-Speaking Typically Developing Children

Contributor

24/6/2025

Glasgow Science Festival: The sound of Science

Contributor

10/6/2025

I got hate comments because of my Indian Accent

Recipient

12/11/2024

A Speech Therapy Animation and imaging Resource (STAR).

Speaker

17/4/2024

Introduction to using Articulate Assistant Advanced for tongue imaging research

Consultant

6/12/2023

More professional activities

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

Introduction to Articulate Instruments Advanced for recording and analysis

Lawson, Eleanor (Principal Investigator) Dokovova, Marie (Principal Investigator)

Hands on activities and demonstrations of the AAA software facilitated in Cardiff Metropolitan University.

25-Jan-2023 - 26-Jan-2023

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

EPSRC IAA: Translating Ultrasound Speech Technology into Clinical Practice

Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator) Lawson, Eleanor (Research Co-investigator)

01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2025

More projects