Emily Lorang, PhD, CCC-SLP | Morse Scholar Alumni

Emily Lorang is a certified speech-language pathologist and postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at Michigan State University. She works in Dr. Courtney Venker’s Lingo Lab. Dr. Lorang’s program of research is devoted to understanding the complex factors associated with successful language learning and functional communication in Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, and autism spectrum disorder.

Dr. Lorang has two main lines of research. One line examines how the early environment, namely parent language input, impacts language development in young children. The long-term goal of this work is to optimize parent-coached early interventions.

Her second line of work examines how biological, psychological, and social factors affect the ability to communicate in real-time. In particular, Dr. Lorang is interested in how mental health symptoms, such as anxiety, contribute to communication skills in different social contexts for autistic individuals and individuals with fragile X syndrome. The overarching goal of this work is to identify and address barriers to successful communication across daily environments.