ROAR SLP Lab

About

The Responsive Outcomes & Assessments in Research for Speech-Language Pathology (ROAR SLP) Lab investigates how children develop language, speech, communication, literacy, and participation in everyday life; and how clinicians and researchers can better measure and support these outcomes. Guided by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework, our research examines communication across multiple levels, including body functions, everyday activities, and meaningful participation in home, school, and community contexts.

The ROAR SLP Lab projects focus on improving assessment and intervention practices for children with a wide range of communication profiles. We study the neurological foundations of communication, and speech-language development in both monolingual and multilingual children, and the ways SLPs can use assessment data to inform responsive clinical decision-making. A central emphasis of the lab is strengthening the psychometric foundations of communication assessments to ensure tools accurately capture children’s strengths, needs, and progress.

Our research uses traditional quantitative methods alongside innovative qualitative inquiry to better understand communication development and the experiences of children, families, and clinicians. Through partnerships with schools, families, clinics and hospitals, and community organizations we aim to ensure research addresses real-world needs.

Current and future projects focus on improving communication outcomes for children with varying communication needs including autism and related neurodevelopmental disabilities, and children considered at increased risk for communication challenges, including those who have experienced trauma, maltreatment, or early adversity.

Key Research Areas

1. Communication Development

Understanding how children develop speech, language, communication, and literacy skills and how these abilities support participation in everyday settings such as home, school, and community environments.

2. ICF-Guided Outcomes Research

Applying the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework to study communication across body functions, activities, and participation in meaningful life contexts.

3. Communication Assessment & Psychometrics

Strengthening the reliability, validity, and clinical utility of speech-language assessments so they more accurately reflect and convey children’s strengths, needs, and progress.

4. Implementation Science in SLP

Advancing the Academic & Social Impact Scale for Communication Disorders (ASIS-CD) through implementation science as part of the Advancing Academic-Research Careers (AARC) Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

5. Neural Foundations of Language

Building on prior postdoctoral research from a registered clinical trial led by Dr. Karla N. Washington using fMRI to examine the neural mechanisms underlying language development and treatment response in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).

6. CLD & Multilingual Language Development

Examining communication development in culturally and linguistically diverse speakers (e.g., bidialectal) and multilingual children and identifying culturally and linguistically responsive approaches to assessment and intervention.

7. Literacy & Communication

Using social stories to promote engagement and health literacy. Including an upcoming study exploring how literacy artifacts can illustrate the communication abilities of children from a variety of backgrounds. 

8. Mixed Methods in Communication Research

Combining traditional quantitative approaches with innovative qualitative inquiry to better understand communication development and lived experiences of children and their families.

9. Community-Engaged Research

Partnering with families, schools, clinics, hospitals, and community organizations to ensure research addresses real-world needs.

10. Neurodevelopmental & At-Risk Populations

Improving communication outcomes for children with autism and related neurodevelopmental disabilities, and children who are at an increased risk for communication challenges due to trauma, maltreatment, neglect, or early adversity.

Current Projects

• Digital Social Story Library for Medical Experiences

  Developing an accessible digital library of social stories to help children understand and prepare for medical procedures and healthcare experiences, grounded in the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and children’s right to be informed about events that affect them.

• ASIS-CD Development and Validation

  Leading the initial validation and early psychometric evaluation of the Academic & Social Impact Scale for Communication Disorders (ASIS-CD) through the Advancing Academic‑Research Careers (AARC) Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

• Communication Needs in Pediatric Oncology

  Examining the secondary communication needs of children with pediatric cancer and exploring how the inpatient oncology environment can be leveraged to passively support speech-language development during hospitalization.

• Literacy Artifacts and Communication Experiences

  Investigating how literacy artifacts can illustrate the richness of communication experiences among Jamaican Creole–English–speaking preschool children.

• fMRI Language Assessment Development

  Working under the mentorship of Dr. Karla N. Washington to extend prior postdoctoral work by conducting initial validation of a task designed to elicit sentence-level responses from 4–5-year-old children during functional MRI studies.

• Preparing Children for Neuroimaging

  Also working under the mentorship of Dr. Karla N. Washington to extend prior postdoctoral work by developing and studying a multi-sensory digital social story designed to help young children understand neuroimaging environments and successfully complete functional MRI procedures.

Team

• Leslie E. Kokotek, Director & PI of the ROAR SLP Lab, Leslie.Kokotek@Louisville.edu
• Frankie Rice, Graduate Assistant & Lab Manager for the ROAR SLP Lab
• Erin Lee, Graduate Thesis Student 

Recent Publications

Kokotek, L. E., Westby, C., & Washington, K. N. (in press). Forum: Epilogue on Addressing Childhood Trauma and Maltreatment through the Lens of the ICF. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools

Kokotek, L. E., Westby, C., & Washington, K. N. (in press). Forum: Addressing Childhood Trauma and Maltreatment through the Lens of the ICF. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 

Bazzocchi, N., Kokotek, L. E., Crowe, K., & Washington, K. N. (2025). Beyond test scores: Using drawings and language samples to characterize multilingual children’s language profiles. Seminars in Speech, 46(02), 087-106. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0044-1801814 

Washington, K. N., Crowe, K., McLeod, S., Margetson, K., Bazzocchi, N. B. M., Kokotek, L. E., van der Straten Waillet, P., Másdóttir, T., & Volhardt M. D. S., (2025). Methods of diagnosing speech sound disorders in multilingual children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Early Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-24-00099 

Westby, C., Kokotek, L. E., & Washington, K. N. (2025). ACEs, Intergenerational Trauma, and Historical Trauma: A Child’s Story. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Early Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_LSHSS-24-00123

Kokotek, L. E., Washington, K. N., & Bazzocchi, N. (2024). Using language sample analyses across English dialects: A case-based approach for preschoolers. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. Early online publication  https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2024.2374917  

Kokotek, L.E., Washington, K. N., Cunningham, B. J., & Acquavita, S. (2024). Speech-language outcomes in the COVID-19 milieu for multilingual Jamaican preschoolers and considerations for telepractice assessment. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Early online publication https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2024_AJSLP-2300164    

Abdulkader, D., Washington, K. N., Kokotek, L. E., Al-tuwairqi, A., & Al-tamimi, A. (2023). Intelligibility in Context Scale: Psychometric evidence and implications for Saudi Arabic-English-speaking preschoolers. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Early online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2023.2240040 

Washington, K. N., Wright Karem, R., Kokotek, L. E., & León, M. (2023). Supporting culturally responsive assessment practices with preschoolers: Guidance from methods in the Jamaican context. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Early online publication https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00304 

Kokotek, L. E., & Washington, K. N., (2023). Characterizing communicative participation in multilingual Jamaican preschoolers. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 32(2), 658-674. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_AJSLP-2200138  

Kokotek, L. E., Cunningham, B.J., & Washington, K.N. (2023). Construct validity of the Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS) total and profile scores for multilingual preschoolers: Considering functional speech skills. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 25(2), 245-255. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2022.2037709 

Canfield, J. P., Kokotek, L. E., Kim, S. H., Kinney, W., & Harley, D. (2023). Screening for Social Communication and Mental Health Needs in Schools: Initial Validation of the School-Based Social Communication Skill Set Screener (SBSCSSS). Children & Schools, 45(3), 169-178. https://doi.org/10.1093/cs/cdad011  

Kokotek, L. E., Washington, K. N., Cunningham, B. J., Wright Karem, R., & Fletcher, B. (2022). Focus on the Outcomes of Communication Under Six (FOCUS): Validation of language skills in the Jamaican Context. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 44(1), 2-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/15257401211068126  

Wright Karem, R., Washington, K. N., Crowe, K., Jenkins, A., León, M., Kokotek, L.E., Raisor-Becker, L., & Westby, C.  (2019). Current methods of evaluating the language abilities of multilingual preschoolers: A scoping review using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health–Children and Youth version. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 50(3), 434-451. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_LSHSS-18-0128 

Kokotek, L. E., & Combs, S. G. (2017). School-based SLPs & the caseload vs workload debate: Identifying current barriers to service delivery and considerations for technology as a facilitator. eHearsay, 7(2), 58-65.

A complete list of Dr. Kokotek's scholarly work can be found here.