Research Overview

COALab is an interdisciplinary research laboratory dedicated to understanding and supporting children with speech, language, and reading difficulties. Our work sits at the intersection of speech-language pathology, developmental neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, with a shared goal: to improve how language disorders are identified, understood, and treated—earlier, more fairly, and more effectively.

Language disorders such as developmental language disorder and dyslexia affect millions of children worldwide and often remain under-identified, particularly in bilingual populations. At COALab, we combine behavioral assessment, brain-based measures, and computational modeling to better capture individual differences in language development and to translate scientific insight into clinically meaningful tools.

Our research program is organized around three tightly connected directions.

Core Research Areas

Oral & Written Language Disorders

Focus: Speech-Language Pathology (SLP)

We study speech, language, and reading difficulties across development, including developmental speech-language disorders and dyslexia. Our work is grounded in clinical speech-language pathology and focuses on understanding how language difficulties appear in real children across ages, languages, and learning contexts. Rather than treating disorders as uniform categories, we aim to capture their heterogeneity and to improve assessment and intervention in diverse and bilingual settings.

Key questions include:

Developmental Neuroscience

Focus: Neural Bases of Language Development

From a developmental neuroscience perspective, we investigate how brain development supports language learning—and how this process differs in children with language disorders. We use child-friendly neuroimaging methods, particularly functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to study neural activity during language, working memory, and cognitive-control tasks. Our goal is to complement behavioral assessment and identify neural markers that help explain developmental pathways and intervention response, especially in young and bilingual children.

Key questions include:

Artificial Intelligence & Computational Modeling

Focus: AI for Speech-Language Development and Disorders and Cognitive Health

A central feature of COALab’s work is the use of AI and computational modeling to better understand speech-language development and to support clinical decision-making. We develop voice-based AI tools, computational and Bayesian models of speech-language and reading, and decision-support systems that assist—not replace—clinicians. Our AI research emphasizes interpretability, fairness, and clinical relevance, ensuring that models integrate smoothly into real-world clinical workflows.

Key directions include:

Key questions include:

Research Facilities

Language & Cognition Research Facilities

Computational & Data Science Infrastructure

Funding & Collaborations

Our research program is supported by competitive funding from major Canadian research and innovation organizations, including:

COALab collaborates closely with clinicians, neuroscientists, and computer scientists in Canada and internationally. Through these partnerships, we aim to ensure that our research remains clinically grounded, methodologically rigorous, and responsive to the needs of diverse and bilingual populations.

Publications

For a complete list of our publications, please visit our Publications page.

Join Our Research

We are always looking for talented students and researchers to join our team. If you’re interested in pursuing research in any of these areas, please see our Contact & Join page.