MaryAnn Romski

Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1981

developmental disabilities
augmentative communication
early language intervention

MaryAnn Romski is a Regents Professor in the Department of Communication and holds joint appointments in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

Dr. Romski is an ASHA-certified, Georgia-licensed, speech-language pathologist with more than 30 years of clinical and research experience in the area of developmental disabilities, augmentative communication and early language intervention. Her scholarly research examines how children with severe communication disorders develop language and communication skills. She is particularly interested in the role of receptive language skills in development and how interventions that employ augmented means (e.g., computers that speak, sign language) can influence the course of language and literacy development for children and adults with a range of developmental disabilities. As part of her collaborations, she values mentoring graduate and undergraduate students’ research and professional development.

Currently, with her colleagues Rose Sevcik and Juan Bornman (University of Pretoria South Africa), she has a Fogarty/NIDCD-funded project that has developed an APP for caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders in northern South Africa. The APP focuses on teaching caregivers communication strategies to use at home with their children. They are testing its effect on children’s language development.

She also has an early language database from 113 toddlers with significant developmental delays and less than 10 words from two completed IEs and NIDCD studies that examine the effects of early parent-implemented language interventions on the course of communication development in young children who are at extremely high risk for delayed language and communication development. She is also a collaborator on Rose Sevcik’s project on reading interventions and school-aged children with intellectual disabilities.

As director of the Center for Atypical Development and Learning, she is committed to advancing the interdisciplinary study of all aspects of atypical development at Georgia State. She is also working on the extension of her research and practice into different cultures and languages, specifically in South Africa and Hong Kong.

As a faculty member, she is active in contributing to the governance of the university. As a member of the University Senate, she has focused her efforts on research and academic program issues within the university.