Biofeedback Education for Speech Treatment Lab
The Biofeedback Education for Speech Treatment (BEST) Lab engages in clinical research using biofeedback technologies to enhance its understanding of diagnosing and addressing speech sound errors.
This is achieved by engaging children with persistent speech sound issues, individuals experiencing speech challenges due to hearing loss and those learning a foreign language in its research.
Student Involvement
The BEST Lab engages students by offering volunteer opportunities to obtain clinical hours and research experience as part of their thesis, Honors project or undergraduate research project.
Students interested in participating in any of its research studies should contact s.m.speak@tcu.edu.
Participate in a Study
The BEST Lab is always recruiting individuals with residual speech sound errors, speech sound errors due to hearing loss and individuals who are learning a foreign language to participate in our studies.
If you or someone you know would like to participate in one of the studies, contact s.m.speak@tcu.edu.
Research Areas
Biofeedback technologies like ultrasound imaging and electropalatography allow clinicians to see detailed causes of distortion when a speech sound is produced, providing better guidance for accurate speech sound production of a patient.
BEST Lab research areas focus on:
- Clinical and translational research in the remediation of residual speech sound errors
in children, speech errors due to hearing loss and errors due to foreign language
learning.
- Studies that are currently being done in this area include:
- The efficacy of ultrasound imaging biofeedback for remediation of English /r/ errors.
- The effectiveness of ultrasound imaging for teaching production of trilled /r/ to individuals learning Spanish as a foreign language.
- The effectiveness of electropalatography biofeedback for the remediation of English /r/ errors.
- Studies that are currently being done in this area include:
- Better understand the articulatory requirements of sounds that are commonly considered challenging to master production (for example, the Spanish trill /r/).
- Training of clinicians and other professionals in the use of biofeedback technologies
for remediation of speech errors and for foreign language instruction in sound production.
- A study currently being done in this area is:
- Studying training efficacy in ultrasound imaging for remediation of speech sound errors in clinicians.
- A study currently being done in this area is:
Lead Faculty
Ahmed Rivera Campos, Ph.D., CCC-SPL is an assistant professor in the Davies School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at TCU. He earned his master's in speech language pathology in Puerto Rico and a doctoral degree in communication disorders at the University of Cincinnati. Rivera Campos focuses his research, clinical and teaching efforts on using biofeedback technologies to study articulatory requirements of sounds and assess and improve speech errors. He teaches courses such as “Phonetics,” “Speech & Hearing Science” and “Evidence-Based Practice in the area of Communication Disorders.”