Meghan M. Davidson
- Lab Director, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Contact Info
1000 Sunnyside Ave
Lawrence, KS 66045
Biography —
Meghan M. Davidson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is an assistant professor and director of the Comprehension and Language Learning (CALL) Lab at the University of Kansas. Dr. Davidson studies how people understand spoken and written language specific research interests in the contributions of different cognitive, linguistic, and social factors in the development of reading abilities across the autism spectrum. Dr. Davidson has a B.S. in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences from the University of Arizona, and an M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology and Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed her postdoctoral work as a Callier Center for Communication Disorder Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Favorite Childhood Book: Stellaluna
Stellaluna Book Cover
Research —
My research focuses on spoken and written language comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across the lifespan. My specific research interests are in the contributions of different cognitive, linguistic, and social factors in the development of reading abilities across the autism spectrum. Current projects are focused on investigating the role of spoken language and social communication in story comprehension with an emphasis on determining child and text influences. I employ eye tracking and text analysis methodologies as part of this work. The overarching goal of my work is to determine profiles of strength and weakness in comprehension and underlying skills in order to identify targeted areas for effective clinical treatment.
Teaching —
Dr. Davidson teaches undergraduate research methods (SPLH 660) as well as undergraduate and graduate courses in language development (SPLH 566/816), and she mentors the graduate teaching assistant for the language sampling analysis course (SPLH 565). She also mentors undergraduate students in her lab.
Selected Publications —
Davidson, M.M. & Ellis Weismer, S. (2018). A preliminary investigation of parent-reported fiction versus non-fiction book preferences of school-age children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Language Impairments, 3, 1-12.
Davidson, M.M., Kaushanskaya, M., & Ellis Weismer, S. (2018). Reading comprehension in children with and without ASD: The role of word reading, oral language, and working memory. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48(10), 3524-3541.
Davidson, M.M. & Ellis Weismer, S. (2017). Reading comprehension of ambiguous sentences by school-age children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research, 10(12), 2002-2022.
Davidson, M.M. & Ellis Weismer, S. (2017). A discrepancy in comprehension and production in early language development in ASD: Is it clinically relevant? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 47(7), 2163-2175.
Ellis Weismer, S., Davidson, M.M., Gangopadhyay, I., Roebuck, H., Sindberg, H.A., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2017). The role of nonverbal working memory in morphosyntactic processing by children with specific language impairment and autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 9(28), 1-16.
Kaushanskaya, M., Park, J., Gangopadhyay, I., Davidson, M.M., & Ellis Weismer, S. (2017). The relationship between executive functions and language abilities in children: A latent variables approach. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 60(4), 912-923.
Gangopadhyay, I. Davidson, M.M., Ellis Weismer, S., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2016). The role of non-verbal working memory in morphosyntactic processing by school-aged monolingual and bilingual children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 142, 171-194.
Kover, S.T., Davidson, M.M., Sindberg, H.A., & Ellis Weismer, S. (2014). Use of the ADOS for assessing spontaneous expressive language in young children with ASD: A comparison of sampling contexts. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57(6), 2221-2233.
Davidson, M.M. & Ellis Weismer, S. (2014). Characterization and prediction of early reading abilities in children on the autism spectrum. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44(4), 828-845.
Davidson, M.M., Ellis Weismer, S., Alt, M., & Hogan, T.P. (2013). Survey on perspectives of pursuing a PhD in communication sciences and disorders. Contemporary Issues in Communication Science and Disorders, 40, 98-115.
Awards & Honors —
Loan Repayment Program Award
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
2017
New Century Scholars Doctoral Scholarship
American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation (ASHFoundation)
2015
Ph.D. Scholarship
Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CAPCSD)
2015
Memberships —
Dr. Davidson is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, International Society for Autism Research, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, and the Society for Text and Discourse.