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About Me

I use my personal experiences as an individual with learning disabilities including ADHD and experiences with education and health policy as well as speech, language, and reading disorders to provide a bridge among families, providers, educators, and advocates for understanding the barriers faced by all groups.

Educational Achievements

Courses Taught

  • Child Language Disorders I graduate course as a Teaching Practicum with Christine A. Dollaghan, Ph.D. while at the University of Pittsburgh in Fall 2002 (Presented four lectures)
  • Psycholinguistics section of Child Language Acquisition undergraduate course with Christine A. Dollaghan, Ph.D. as well as Denise Balason in Fall 2004 (Presented two lectures)
  • Literacy and Literacy Development undergraduate course at George Washington University in Fall 2007 (Taught for 16 lectures)
  • Phonetics and Phonological Development undergraduate course and lab at George Washington University in Fall 2007 (Taught for 17 lectures)
  • Clinic supervision for at least three graduate students at George Washington University Speech and Hearing Clinic for Fall 2007 and Spring 2008
  • Speech Acoustics undergraduate lab at George Washington University in Fall 2007 (Taught for 8 labs)
  • Articulation and Phonological Disorders graduate course at George Washington University in Spring 2008 (Taught for 10 lectures)
  • Speech and Language Acquisition undergraduate course at George Washington University in Spring 2008 (Taught for at least 9 lectures)
  • Voice and Diction undergraduate course at George Washington University in Spring 2008 (Taught for 9 lectures)

New Courses or
Programs
Developed

  • Study Skills as a workshop for Region V Education Center: Beaumont, TX, presented with Deborah S. Nixon, M.Ed. in July 1996 (Presented one workshop)
  • Literacy and Literacy Development undergraduate course at George Washington University in Fall 2007
  • Pediatric Motor Speech Disorders guest lecture in a graduate class on Motor Speech Disorders taught by Tepanta Fossett, Ph.D., CCC-SLP at Loyola University on December 4, 2017, November 19, 2018, November 25, 2019, November 23, 2020, and November 29, 2021 (modified each year as appropriate with updated information)
  • Diagnosis of Speech Sound Disorders guest lecture in a graduate class on Diagnostics taught by Tommie L. Robinson, Jr., Ph.D., CCC-SLP on November 7, 2018, November 6, 2019, and November 4, 2020 (modified each year as appropriate with updated information)
  • Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Diagnosis and Treatment two guest lectures to a graduate course on Motor Speech Disorders taught by Dorothy Yang, Ph.D., CCC-SLP via Zoom with California State University – San Marcos

Publications

Papers In Refereed Journals

Curcio, S.N., Nixon, S.M., & Robinson, T.L. (2020).  Conducting Speech-Language Evaluations in an Outpatient Pediatric Setting during the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Journal of the National Black Association for Speech-Language and Hearing, 15 (2), 77-79.

Fossett, T. R. D., McNeil, M.R., Doyle, P. J., Rubinsky, H., Nixon, S., Hula, W., & Brady, J.  (2004). Assessing the validity of multiple-choice questions for RAPP story comprehension. Aphasiology, 18 (5-7), 493-519.

Nixon, S.M. (2005). Mental state verb production and sentential complements in four-year-old children.  First Language, 25 (1), 19-37. 

Nixon, S.M., Stahl, A.S., & Robinson, T.L. (2020). Challenges and Quasi-Solutions for Speech Sound Production and Motor Speech Services during the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Journal of the National Black Association for Speech-Language and Hearing, 15 (2), 80-82.

Invited Publications

Foorman, B. R. & Nixon, S. M. (2006). The influence of public policy on reading research and practice. Topics in Language Disorders, 26 (2), 157-171.  

Foorman, B. R. & Nixon, S. M. (2005). Curriculum Integration in a multi-tiered instructional approach.  Perspectives, 31 (4), 27-29.

Garcia, G. N., McCardle, P., & Nixon, S. M. (2007). Development of English literacy in Spanish-speaking Children: Transforming research into practice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in the Schools, 38, 213-215.

Nixon, S. M., McCardle, P., & Leos, K. (2007). Implications of Research on English Language Learners for Classroom and Clinical Practice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in the Schools, 38, 272-277.

Thesis

Nixon, S. (1994). Egyptian Religion. Unpublished undergraduate thesis, University of North Texas at Denton.

Nixon, S. (1997). Aphasia and Dyslexia: Is there a Bond? The Neurological, Processing, Theoretical, and Therapy Implications.  Unpublished undergraduate thesis, University of North Texas, Denton, TX.

Nixon, S. M. (1999). Effects of distraction on written fluency in individuals with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Unpublished master’s thesis: Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

Nixon, S. M. (2006). Are two sources of inconsistency greater than one?  Orthographic, phonologic, and semantic influences on visual and auditory lexical decision.  Unpublished doctoral dissertation.  University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

Unpublished Manuscripts

Nixon, S. M. et al. (2009). Validating Internet-based estimates of meaning dominance.

Nixon, S. M. [Feedback and feedforward consistency of onsets and rimes in English]. Unpublished raw data.

Nixon, S. M., Robinson, T. L., Ambrose, T., & Sideris, I. (2019).  Readability of pediatric speech-language pathology printed education materials.

Nixon, S. M., Ambrose, T., Sideris, I., Robinson, T. L. (2019).  Patient safety and health literacy in audiology: Readability of printed education materials.

Presentations

Regional Presentations

Nixon, S. M. (1999). Effects of distraction on written fluency in individuals with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  A presentation at the Research Roundtable at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

Nixon, S. M. (December, 2003). Feedback processing among orthography, phonology, and semantics for homophones and homonyms in visual and auditory lexical decision.  A presentation at the Research Roundtable at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

Nixon, S. M. (January, 2004). Visual and Spoken Language Processing: Orthographic, Phonologic, and Semantic Influences. A presentation at University of Texas-Dallas, Dallas, Tx.

Nixon, S. M. (November, 2021). Speech Sound Disorders.  A presentation for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Children’s National Hospital, Washington, DC.

Nixon, S. M. (April, 2022). Speech Sound Development.  A presentation for Dentistry at Children’s National Hospital, Washington, DC.

Nixon, S. M. & Robinson, T.L. (March 2019). Health literacy: Do our families understand what we’re saying? A presentation at the annual meeting DC Speech-Language-Hearing Association: Rockville, MD.

National Presentations

Dollaghan, C. D., Balason, D., Nash, T. C., Leavy, H., Nixon, S., Smolky, B., & Starmer, H.  (2000, November).  Verb lexicons of three-year-old children.  A presentation at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Washington, D.C.

Fossett, T.R.D., McNeil, M.R., Doyle, P.J., Rubinsky, H., Nixon, S., Hula, W., & Brady, J.  (2002, February 10-12). Passage Dependency for Multiple-Choice Questions.  A presentation at the 3rd Annual VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Conference. Crystal Gateway Marriott, Alexandria, VA.

McNeil, M. R., Doyle, P. J., Fossett, T. R. D., Rubinsky, H. J., Nixon, S., Hula, W. D., Brady, J.  (2003, May). Passage Dependency of Multiple-Choice Questions for an Auditory Linguistic Task.  A presentation at the annual Clinical Aphasiology Conference.

Nixon, S. M. (2002). The interaction between orthography and phonology: Reading and spelling consistency.  A presentation at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: Atlanta, GA.

Nixon, S. M. & Dollaghan, C. (2001). Mental state verb use by children with high and low MLUs.  A presentation at the annual Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders: Madison, WI.

Nixon, S. M. & Dollaghan, C. (2001). Mental state verb production in four-year-old children.  A presentation at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: New Orleans, LA.

Nixon, S. M., LaPointe, L.L., Duane, D.D., Azuma, T., & Case, J.L.  (November 2003). Too much noise? Auditory distraction and written fluency in adults with ADHD. A presentation at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: Chicago, IL.

Nixon, S., LaPointe, L.L., & Talamante, P. (November 1999). Stability of visual-constructive performance in right hemisphere syndrome. A presentation at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: San Francisco, CA.

Nixon, S. M., McNeil, M., Gibbon, D., Rubinsky, H., Doyle, P., Fossett, T. R. D., Park, G. H., & Hula, W. D. (May 2002). The serial position effect and lexical processing during story-retelling in adults with and without aphasia. A presentation at the Annual Clinical Aphasiology Conference: Big Cedar, MO.

Nixon, S. M., Robinson, T. L., Jr., Ambrose, T., & Sideris, I. (November 2019). Can our families understand the speech-language patient education materials? A presentation at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: Orlando, FL.

Nixon, S. M., Robinson, T. L., Jr., Ambrose, T., & Sideris, I. (November 2019). Can our families understand the audiology patient education materials? A presentation at the annual meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: Orlando, FL.

International Presentations

Nixon, S. M. (2002). Lexical Diversity and word frequency.  Part of a larger talk by C. Dollaghan, T. Campbell, H. Rusiewicz, T.ash, J. Brady, & S. Nixon, The Wheat from the Chaff: Defining Normal and Abnormal Language 3, 4, and 6 years.  A presentation at SRCLD-IASCL: Madison, WI.