Intellectual Disabilities Communication Lab at UIUC

Tomorrow night, State Farm Center lights up for World Fragile X Day.

Though rare, Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability. An estimated 1 in 7,000 males and 1 in 11,000 females have FXS.

Help us spread awareness about the research into this genetic disorder.

(📸: World Fragile X Day 2024 / Laura Mattie)

UIUC Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab

Congratulations, Dr. Bosley! 👏

This award-winning instructor successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation. ✅

Last Friday, Speech and Hearing Science doctoral candidate Beka Bosley defended her dissertation, titled "Let’s ask caregivers what they need when they read together: Interviews with caregivers of school-age children with Down syndrome.”

Bosley will join the faculty of Lamar University this fall as assistant professor of speech and hearing sciences in Beaumont, Texas. She worked as a speech-language pathologist in Champaign schools and won a campus award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2025.

Many thanks to her committee for their guidance and support — Dr. Savanna Brittlebank, Dr. Laura Mattie, and Dr. Catherine Cheung from Northern Illinois University.

Congratulations! She is the first Ph.D. from the Intellectual Disabilities Communication Lab at UIUC led by Associate Professor Marie Moore Channell.

✈️ Champaign > Denver > Chicago
The IDCL had a busy June!
From the T21 Research Society’s International Conference to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Sesquicentennial Conference, we…

📈 Presented new research findings
🤝 Connected with colleagues and friends
💙💛💙 Celebrated community
📢 Called for continued progress

Thank you to all who made these events happen! Global Down Syndrome Foundation
NIH INCLUDE Down Syndrome
National Down Syndrome Society
AAIDD



Department of Speech & Hearing Science at Illinois
College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois

This project includes people with Down syndrome. Great to see the impact of this work in the disability community being recognized!

We are thankful to our many colleagues who have contributed to this project, including our partner lab, Dr. Laura Mattie’s UIUC Development in Neurogenetic Disabilities Lab, Clinical Associate Professor Clarion Mendes, Dr. Heejin Kim, Dr. Mark Hasegawa-Johnson (Lead Investigator), Communications Director Meg Dickinson, and MANY community partners who help make sure people with disabilities and speech differences have the opportunity to contribute to this study.



Forbes

Department of Speech & Hearing Science at Illinois
College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois

Speech Accessibility Project named to Forbes Accessibility 200 list Forbes included the project and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in its Accessibility 200 list. It includes global leaders in communication, mobility, education, software, consumer products, robotics, sports and recreation, travel, the workplace, entertainment and more.

That’s a wrap! The 2025-2026 IDCL worked hard and played hard!
✨They contributed to 3 funded research projects, led 3 of their own, presented to (and with) community partners, helped write scientific papers, hosted a global disability advocate’s visit to campus, volunteered with local disability advocacy organizations, won fellowships and scholarships for their academic excellence and commitment to community service, welcomed a visiting scholar from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile into the IDCL family, and much, much more!

✨This was a special bunch. ✨

🎓Abbie, Liz, and Megan (not pictured) are entering the professional world as SLPs, and Beka (not pictured) will be a professor starting this fall.

👏 Way to go, everyone! Thank you for all you do for the Down syndrome and disability community! 💛💙💛



Department of Speech & Hearing Science at Illinois
College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois

Congratulations, IDCL graduates! 🎓Abbie Keasler, Liz Gremer, and Megan Alajoki completed their master’s degrees in our clinical speech-language pathology program. The world just gained 3 very special SLPs! 💙🧡💙


Department of Speech & Hearing Science at Illinois
College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois

🚨Free webinar! Learn from Dr. Genova, one of our collaborators!

Join NDSS and Helen Genova, associate director of the Center for Autism Research at Kessler Foundation, as she walks attendees through the web-based program, KF-Stride™ on Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 1 PM ET.

👉 Backed by research, this program is designed to help teens and adults identify their personal strengths and express them to achieve their goals. Created with neurodiverse learners in mind, the KF-Stride™ curricula cover a range of topics such as employment readiness and wellness.

Register for free at https://ndss.org/ndss-webinars

This was our first presentation as a team! We had a great time. 💛💙💛 Shoutout to our colleagues Dr. Meghan Burke at Vanderbilt and Dr. Susan Loveall and her UNL Learning Lab for their support!

College of Applied Health Sciences at Illinois

At the University of Illinois Public Engagement Summit las month, Prof. Marie Moore Channell and her co-researchers presented the talk:

"Experiences of Co-Researchers with Down Syndrome Partnering with Academic Researchers to Develop and Implement a Health Study."

Channell and Ph.D. student Alex Barkhimer were joined by co-researchers Joey Kane, Meghan Maynard, Paul Safanik and Charlotte Woodward over Zoom.

With this steering committee, Channell is leading an NIH-funded study, aimed at developing community resources to support the well-being of adults with Down syndrome: https://ahs.illinois.edu/health-study-involves-adults-with-down-syndrome-every-step-of-the-way/