CYNTHIA CRESS, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders
202G Barkley Center
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0732
(420) 472-4431
Biography
Cynthia Cress is an Assistant Professor in the Special Education and Communication Disorders Department. She received her MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Communication Disorders. Her specialty areas are language development, early intervention, augmentative & alternative communication, and severe disabilities.
Dr. Cress teaches an undergraduate course in language development and graduate courses on Early Communication Intervention and Severe Disabilities/Autism. She has conducted research on communication development in infants/toddlers with physical and neurological impairments who are at risk for being nonspeaking. Results of her NIH-funded longitudinal research demonstrate distinctly different patterns of communication development in children with limited use of their voice and/or hands. Her home-based research and clinical work with families has formed the basis for new models of instruction for children with these types of disabilities as well as pilot versions of unique communication assessment tools and intervention models.
Dr. Cress has completed pilot work analyzing patterns of symptoms that co-occur among children who have received early feeding and swallowing information. She is an investigator on Jordan Green's NIH grant addressing the relationship of speech, movement, and communication patterns in typically developing infants/toddlers. Dr. Cress has an NIH subcontract with colleagues in Boston to refine and test a new software tool to promote more effective vocal practice in children at risk for being nonspeaking.
Recent Publications
Journal Articles
Arens, K., Cress, C. J., & Marvin, C. A. (in press). Gaze-shift patterns of young children with developmental disabilities who are at risk for being nonspeaking. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities.
Matthews-Somerville, R., & Cress, C. J. (in press). Parent perceptions of communication behaviors at formally assessed stages in young children at risk for being nonspeaking. Communication Disorders Quarterly.
Cress, C. J. (2004). AAC and language: Understanding and responding to parent perspectives. Topics in Language Disorders, 24, 28-38.
Smidt, M., & Cress, C. J. (2004). Mastery behaviors during social and object play in infants with physical impairments. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 39, 141-152.
Cress, C. J., & Marvin, C. A. (2003). Common questions about AAC services in early intervention. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 19, 252-272.
Research Projects
| VisiBabbl: A System for Early Speech Intervention | |
| NIH/NIDCD Small Business Technology Transfer Program: Phase II STTR R42 DC05534 | |
| Role: PI | 2004 |
| UCARE Undergraduate Research Funding | |
| Role: PI | 2004-2005 |
| Early Speech Motor Development | |
| NIH/NIDCD R01 Research grant 1 R01 DC006463-01A1 | |
| Role: Co-I | 2004-2009 |
