Danika Pfeiffer

Old Dominion University | ODU · School of Speech-Language Pathology

Purpose: This purpose of this national survey study was to assess K-5 school-based speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs’) perceived knowledge, training, support, and experiences related to collaborative language and literacy instruction with general education teachers. Method: The authors developed and disseminated a 47-item electronic survey guided...

Purpose Understanding the experiences of families of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) during COVID-19 educational disruptions is essential for designing responsive supports during pandemic recovery efforts and beyond. This qualitative study describes the experiences of families of first- and second-grade children with DLD during...

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceptions of communication sciences and disorders (CSD) assistant professors in the United States related to barriers and facilitators to engaging in open science (OS) practices and identify opportunities for improving OS training and support in the field.Method: Thirty-five assist...

Open access to research findings, syntheses of research, and papers providing guidance on implementing research-based practices is critical for informing policy and practice in special education and related fields. Yet most published articles are behind paywalls and cannot be accessed freely by many practitioners, policymakers, individuals with dis...

Purpose: Caregivers of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) face numerous challenges, including limited understanding of DLD and inconsistent access to information about oral language and DLD. This explanatory sequential, mixed methods study quantified and described caregiver perceptions of learning about DLD through an online, async...

Infancy, a formative period for development, has been identified as an advantageous time to provide family-centered support for children with delays. Families should be included as stakeholders during development of such interventions to ensure social value. We describe a preliminary randomized controlled trial evaluating Infant Achievements (IA),...

A majority of children’s language learning experiences occur in inclusive early child care and education settings. Few evidence-based professional development (PD) programs exist to empower early childhood education providers to use language instruction practices with children in inclusive classrooms. There is little research on providers’ implemen...

Purpose: Understanding the experiences of families of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) during COVID-19 educational disruptions is essential for designing responsive supports during pandemic recovery efforts and beyond. This qualitative study describes the experiences of families of first- and second-grade children with DLD during...

Background Many diagnostic evaluations abruptly shifted to telehealth during the COVID‐19 pandemic; however, little is known about the impact on diagnosis patterns for children evaluated for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of this clinical research study was to examine (1) the frequency of diagnoses evaluated beyond ASD; (2) the frequen...

Purpose Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have multiple roles and responsibilities related to language and literacy instruction in schools. The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative study was to analyze school-based SLPs' perceptions related to effective language and early literacy instruction for pre-K children with developmental language dis...

Purpose The purposes of this alphabet knowledge (AK) tutorial are to provide (a) a description of its developmental sequence, (b) evidence-based assessment considerations, (c) evidence-based intervention guidance, and (d) a discussion of three service delivery models that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can use when providing intervention that...

Gastrointestinal symptoms (GI) are very common among individuals on the autism spectrum. Prior research reports mixed findings regarding whether individuals with autism and co-occurring intellectual disability (ID) have elevated risk of gastrointestinal symptoms relative to individuals with autism alone. GI symptoms can be challenging to assess in...

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the outcomes of two instructional methodologies (traditional and peer-assisted learning; PAL) used in a clinical methods course for undergraduate speech-language pathology (SLP) students. The sample included 53 undergraduate SLP students (near-peer learners) as well as 27 graduate SLP students...

Early childhood care and education providers provide instruction to diverse learners, including children with developmental delays, but often lack training in the use of evidence-based instructional strategies to support children’s meaningful learning engagement. This preliminary study examined effects of the Early Achievements for Child Care Provi...

Purpose Interprofessional collaboration in schools is fundamental to the success of all students. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the impact of an innovative one-credit-hour undergraduate course on students' knowledge of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative's (IPEC) core competencies for interprofessional practice. Met...

Restricted access to journals can make it challenging for clinicians to keep up with new research. Check out these five free, legal ways to read what you need. https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/2022-0919-slp-aud-research/full/

Delays in early language development are characteristic of young autistic children, and one of the most recognizable first concerns that motivate parents to seek a diagnostic evaluation for their child. Although early language abilities are one of the strongest predictors of long-term outcomes, there is still much to be understood about the role of...

The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS‐2) has been widely used for ASD assessment. While prior studies investigated sensitivity and specificity of ADOS‐2 Modules 1–3, there has been limited research addressing algorithm cut‐off scores to optimize ADOS‐2 classification. The goal of this study was to assess algorithm cut‐off...

A research-to-practice gap exists between evidence-based practices (EBPs) and actual practices implemented with children with developmental disabilities (DD) in early childhood care and education (ECCE) settings. Many ECCE providers lack the training needed to support these chil-dren's learning. Ten center-based providers working in inclusive ECCE...

Importance: There are long-standing disparities in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across race and sex. Surprisingly, few studies have examined whether these disparities arise partially out of systematic biases in the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2), the reference standard measure of ASD. Objective...

Despite the importance of collaboration in schools, few studies have examined interprofessional education (IPE) interventions for graduate speech-language pathology (SLP) students designed to prepare them with the skills necessary to effectively work on school-based teams. The current pilot study implemented a five-week practice-based IPE intervent...

Lay abstract: Gastrointestinal problems are common in the autism spectrum disorder community and may affect both the person with autism spectrum disorder and their families. However, little research is available on the experiences of families who have a child with both autism spectrum disorder and gastrointestinal symptoms. We held one-on-one inte...

The purpose of this mixed-method study was to examine racial differences in parental beliefs and concern about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) versus clinical judgment. The sample included 489 children with ASD undergoing their first ASD evaluation. Parent belief that their child had ASD was highest among parents of White children. White children wh...

Background Eliciting parents’ concerns about their children is an important initial step in the ASD diagnostic process. This information is often collected through forced-choice questionnaires utilizing professional terminology and may limit the potential concerns that can be reported. Parent concern studies to date have largely used deductive qual...

Purpose Cross-informant ratings are considered best practice for assessing children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, informant disagreement often occurs, which can pose significant challenges to various aspects of clinical services. This study explored the degree of parent and speech-language pathologist (SLP) agreement on ratings of c...

Lay abstract: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be diagnosed as early as 18 months of age. However, the average age at diagnosis in the United States is over 2 years later. A lot has been written about the many barriers families face when seeking a diagnosis for their child. One area of research that has received no attention is whether separatio...

Purpose This study examined the models of collaboration used by school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) during the provision of special education services including factors predicting use of the interprofessional collaborative practice (IPP) model and barriers to collaboration. Method School-based SLPs responded to a survey on models of c...

Clinical Question: Do preprofessional speech-language pathology (SLP) and generaleducation students (P) who have interprofessional opportunities when providing language interventions to children with language impairments (I) compared to not having interprofessional opportunities (C) show improvement in their Interprofessional Education Collaborativ...