Professor Ellis Weismer’s work is focused on comparing the developmental course and nature of language processing in children with various types of language delay or disorders compared to children with typical language development. To date, most of her published research has focused on toddlers with late onset of language development (‘late talkers’) and children and adolescents with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) who exhibit substantial language deficits in the absence of other accompanying problems such as hearing impairment, mental retardation, or social-emotional disturbance.
A new NIH-funded longitudinal project will characterize early language and communication skills in children on the autism spectrum compared to late talkers without autism. The goal of this research is to address theoretical issues concerning the dimensional vs. distinct category account of language disorders and to inform practical issues related to early differential diagnosis and predictors of language outcome.
Leonard, L., Ellis Weismer, S., Miller, C., Francis, D., Tomblin, J.B., & Kail, R. (In press). Speed of processing, working memory, and language impairment in children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Ellis Weismer, S. Language and communication on the autism spectrum. To appear in M. Barnes (Ed.), Genes, Brain and Development: The Neurocognition of Genetic Disorders. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Moyle, M.J., Ellis Weismer, S, Lindstrom, M., & Evans, J. (In press). Longitudinal relationships between lexical and grammatical development in typical and late talking children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Ellis Weismer, S. (2007). Typical talkers, late talkers, and children with specific language impairment: A language endowment spectrum? In R. Paul (Ed.)., The influence of developmental perspectives on research and practice in communication disorders: A festschrift for Robin S. Chapman. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Ellis Weismer, S. (2005). Speech perception in specific language impairment (pp. 567-588). D. Pisoni and R. Remez (Eds.), Handbook of Speech Perception. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers
Ellis Weismer, S., Plante, E., Jones, M., & Tomblin, J.B. (2005). A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of verbal working memory in adolescents with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 405-425.
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