Melissa Skoczylas, PhD, R.SLP, SLP(C)

Email

mskoczyl@ualberta.ca

I completed my Master’s in Speech–Language Pathology in 1998 here at UAlberta. Following my passion for language and literacy development in school-aged children with language disorders, I worked as a clinician at the Tevie Miller Heritage School Program for nearly 20 years. I have served as a clinical educator both at Tevie Miller and at Corbett Clinic. In 2011, I received the Clinical Educator of the Year Award. In 2010, I returned to the academic world, teaching the Language and Literacy course for the department, and received the Sessional Teaching Award for this work. I went on to teach Language and Literacy over several more years, earning the Sessional Award again in 2015. I have taught a number of CSD courses, including 211, 501, 518, and 511. In 2011, I paused my clinical career to pursue my doctorate, focusing on reading comprehension in children with developmental language disorder. My current research interests focus on the measurement and characterization of language and literacy abilities in school-aged children. In January, 2019, I joined the department on a permanent basis as the Academic Coordinator of Clinical Education. In this role, I oversee the clinical placement program for our students, and teach CSD 516. 

Research focus: My work focuses on the measurement and characterization of language skills in children with language impairment. I am particularly interested in the development of literacy and narrative skills, and the clinical implications of research findings in these areas. 

Overview of Research Program: My current research program comprises a set of projects investigating children's language skills in reading comprehension tasks and in natural language samples. We are investigating the relationship of oral language skills to the development of reading comprehension, including how eye-tracking measures may provide insight into subtle aspects of comprehension monitoring. In another arm of my research program, we are looking at measures that may help us to better understand and characterize children's language skills as evidenced in natural narrative language samples.