BGSU :: Departments :: Center for Neuroscience, Mind & Behavior

Center for Neuroscience, Mind & Behavior

LYNNE HEWITT

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Associate Professor
Communication Disorders
Bowling Green State University
Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo.

PHONE	(419) 372-7181
Email	lhewitt@bgnet.bgsu.edu
OFFICE	251 Health Center

Research Interests:

Language development and disorders in autism
Pragmatic language impairment in adults with Parkinson disease
Theoretical basis of clinical language practice

My research focuses on language impairment in children and adults, with a current primary emphasis on autism spectrum disorders and Parkinson disease. I am interested in investigating the source of deficits in communicative competence in populations affected by language impairments. This basic interest has naturally led to an interest in assessment, as well as in the development of effective, evidence-based means of intervention. A primary interest is in the realm of pragmatics, which is the foundation for communicative competence. Most of my work can be seen as applied, but it is grounded in an emergent, functionalist linguistic perspective, which holds that language has evolved for functional reasons, and therefore can best be studied in naturalistic contexts of use. Thus I see clinical research as a direct contributor to theoretical models of language, language development, and disorders, and pragmatics as key to understanding the nature of language.

Selected Publications:

1993: Hewitt, L., Duchan, J., & Segal, E. Structure and function of verbal conflicts among adults with mental retardation. Discourse Processes, 16, 525-543.

1995: Hewitt, L., & Duchan, J. Subjectivity in children’s fictional narrative. Topics in Language Disorders, 15, 1-15.

1998: Hewitt, L. The influence of question type on response adequacy in young adults with autism. Journal of Communication Disorders, 31, 135-152.

2000: Hewitt, L. Does it matter what your client thinks? The role of theory in intervention. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 31, 186-193.

2000: Hewitt, L. Assessing communicative intents: A situated pragmatics approach. Seminars in Speech and Language, 21, 257-266.

2000: Yont, K., Hewitt, L., & Miccio, A. A coding system for detecting the source of conversational breakdowns in preschool children. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 9:4, 300-309.

2002: Yont, K.M., Miccio, A.W., & Hewitt, L.E. The nature of phonological breakdowns in children with SLI. In N. Hewlitt, L. Kelly, & F. Windsor (Eds.), Investigations in clinical linguistics and phonetics (pp. 161-168). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

2002: Yont, K., Hewitt, L. , and Miccio, A. “Huh?, What did you say?”: Understanding conversational breakdowns in children with specific language impairment, Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 16, 265-285.

2005: Hewitt, L., Hammer, C., Yont, K., and Tomblin, B. Language sampling for Kindergarten children with and without SLI: Mean Length of Utterance, IPSYN, and NDW. Journal of Communication Disorders, 38, 197-213.

Hewitt, L., Socko, A., Miccio, A. (2005). Intervention to improve expressive grammar for adults with Down syndrome. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 26:3, 144-155.

Courses Taught:

CDIS 351: Language Assessment and Intervention
CDIS 476: Introduction to Research in Speech, Language, and Hearing
CDIS 480/680/780: Seminar in Autism
CDIS 671: Language Disorders in School-age Populations
CDIS 697: Clinical Practicum in Speech-language Pathology
CDIS 780: Language Science I
CDIS 780: Language Science II

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