About Us

Who We Are

We are an interdisciplinary team of academic faculty, students, clinicians, and volunteers doing research in the area of oral motor control. Team members come from a wide variety of academic backgrounds, including speech-language pathology, psychology, engineering, biomedical engineering, linguistics, neuroscience, and computer science. The lab has supported successful thesis completions for students at the masters and doctoral level and has been a fruitful training facility for many research assistants, who participate and contribute to the various projects in the lab.

If you are interested in joining our enthusiastic team as a research assistant, graduate student or collaborator, please contact Dr. Pascal van Lieshout.

Our Research

The Oral Dynamics Lab (ODL) is a specialized facility for research in the area of speech and oral motor control. The research in the ODL concentrates on speech and swallowing behaviours in normal and disordered populations, including stroke patients with aphasia and verbal apraxia, individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), cerebral palsy, or speech sound disorders, people who stutter, and individuals suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Concepts and tools of dynamical system theory are used to study speech motor control.

History

The Oral Dynamics Lab (ODL) was founded by Dr. Pascal van Lieshout when he was appointed an assistant professor at the Graduate Department of Speech-Language Pathology in 1998. He has always been interested in working with the latest technology in speech research and this has continued in the way he designed the ODL, acquiring state-of-the-art technology in speech kinematics (3D articulography; APAS 3D video) and other areas.

Dr. Van Lieshout has cross-appointments at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.