Description

Speech is one of the most complex human abilities and yet it usually develops in a largely unconscious way. Infants start making sounds and babbling with very little prompting, and then toddlers gradually produce words and sentences on their own.

For some children, however, learning to speak is challenging. Hearing-impaired children or children who stutter, for instance, face enormous difficulties communicating with others.

Professor Lucie Ménard’s research focuses on how speech development typically develops in children and how it varies in children with speech disorders. In this Ian Gordon Fellow Public Lecture, Professor Ménard discusses how new technologies such as motion capture and virtual reality are helping speech therapists better understand and treat children with speech disorders.

Professor Ménard is the founder and director of the Phonetics Laboratory at Université du Québec à Montréal, chair of the Department of Linguistics, and adjunct-director of the Center for Research on Brain, Language, and Music in Montreal, Canada.