The Motor Speech Research Study from Ontario wins National SAC award of Excellence in Applied Research

awardwinning “The Motor Speech Research Study” is a key research project that informed the development of an evidence-based care pathway, supporting the identification and intervention planning for children over 36 months of age with severe speech sound disorders. This study was awarded the prestigious Excellence in Applied Research award by the Speech-Language and Audiology Canada (SAC) organization on April 29th 2016. This award acknowledges and honours excellence in a research project that provides support for evidence-based clinical practice by promoting Canadian research in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology that emphasizes the importance of evidence-informed practice. The project involved a province-wide motor speech clinical research study conducted by a team comprising of principal investigator Dr. Aravind Namasivayam, Ph.D., S-LP (C) and several internationally recognized researchers and Speech-Language Pathologists (S-LPs), including Dr. Robert Kroll (Adjunct Professor, status-only, Executive Director, The Speech and Stuttering Institute, Toronto), Ms. Margit Pukonen, (Adjunct Lecturer status-only, Clinical Program Director, The Speech and Stuttering Institute), Ms. Debra Goshulak (Senior S-LP; The Speech and Stuttering Institute), Dr. Pascal Van Lieshout (Professor & Chair, Department of Speech-language Pathology, University of Toronto), Dr. Ben Maassen (Professor, University of Groningen, The Netherlands), Dr. Toni Rietveld (Professor Emeritus, Radboud University, The Netherlands) and Dr. Frank Rudzicz (Scientist, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute). The project was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services and a competitive research grant from the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America (CASANA) awarded to Dr. Aravind Namasivayam.