Prof. Karla N. Washington is an Associate Professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Toronto and Director of the PedLLS Outcomes Lab. A speech-language pathologist and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair, she studies speech and language development and disorders in monolingual and multilingual preschoolers. Her work examines how children learn and use language in typical and clinical contexts, with a focus on environmental and personal influences on outcomes.
Her program integrates behavioural, arts-based, acoustic, and neuroimaging methods to advance culturally responsive assessment and intervention. She leads interdisciplinary collaborations in Canada, Jamaica, and the U.S. Prof. Washington is Editor-in-Chief of Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools and a Fellow of ASHA.
Prof. Washington’s research examines speech and language development and disorders in monolingual and multilingual children, guided by the ICF framework. Her work focuses on communication development, assessment, and intervention outcomes in language and speech sound disorders.
Using behavioural, child‑centred, acoustic, and neuroimaging methods, including analyses of children’s drawings, her program investigates the memory–language interface, variability in speech production, functional communication, and treatment-related change. Current Canadian and U.S. federally funded projects explore neural and behavioural markers of language learning and intervention response, as well as diagnostic accuracy for multilingual and bidialectal preschoolers.
Her scholarship advances theory, practitioner training, and clinical tool development, particularly in understudied contexts such as Jamaican Creole–English bilingualism, through interdisciplinary and international collaborations.
Research Foci:
Child development and disorder
Assessment and intervention
Cultural and linguistic diversity
ICF framework and functional outcomes
Speech acoustics and neurobiological mechanisms in child speech and language
Prof. Washington teaches graduate-level courses in speech-language pathology focusing on child language development, disorders, and culturally responsive practice. Grounded in critical pedagogy and evidence-based principles, her teaching emphasizes active learning, clinical reasoning, and research–practice integration. She supervises students across undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels and has led interdisciplinary leadership training initiatives. As founder and academic lead of an international education abroad program within the Jamaican Creole Language Project, she mentors emerging clinicians and scholars to serve diverse populations.
Active Research Funding:
Washington (Co-PI), LITTLE LEARNERS, Spencer Foundation Vision Grant, 2026-2027
Washington (PI), Characterizing accuracy and variability in speech sound productions across bidialectal and bilingual preschoolers, National Institutes of Health, 2025-2030
Washington (Canada Research Chair), Monolingual and multilingual paediatric speech-language pathology, CIHR, 2023-2028
Washington (PI), Neuroimaging reveals treatment-related changes in developmental language disorder: A randomized controlled trial, National Institutes of Health, 2021-2027
Washington (PI), NIH Supplement: Neuroimaging and treatment mechanisms, 2023–2025
Awards:
2025 | Teaching Excellence in an Academic Course
2023 | Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Monolingual and Multilingual Paediatric Speech-Language Pathology, CIHR
2023 | American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA] Change Maker Awards (2023)
