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Christopher R.Watts is passionate about research. At any given time, the
professor and chair of TCU’s Department of Communication Sciences
and Disorders could have a hand in almost a half-dozen research
projects with TCU students and colleagues across the United States.
“The treatment and the evaluation that we do in speech-language-
pathology must be backed up by evidence — evidence that was
gathered through scientific methodology,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re
treating patients without knowledge that what we’re doing is
truly effective.
“That’s fine if I want to sell you snake oil. But I want to improve your life. I
want to help you communicate and swallow better. To do that ethically,
I have to apply the principles of evidence-based practice.”
Watts’ research efforts all come back to laryngeal function in voice,
motor speech and swallowing disorders. Here’s a look at some of his
recent work:
TEXAS TWANG
Watts is finishing a collaborative research effort investigating
patterns of nasal resonance during speech production in speakers
from six different dialectal regions across North America. Watts,
who focused on Texas, worked with professors from Pennsylvania,
Canada, Minnesota, Michigan and Utah.
Watts and his team, which included former graduate student Rebecca
Becknal, who completed a thesis on the project, used an acoustic
procedure called nasometry to measure how much sound is coming
out of the nose when a person is speaking.
Research found speakers from Texas to be more “nasal” than speakers
from most other dialect regions — except Canada and Minnesota. That
information is important to speech-language pathologists using nasal
resonance measurements in populations with cleft palate or stroke.
“If I have a patient who’s had a stroke and he is from Texas and I want
to know if he’s abnormally nasal or not, I need to make sure I compare
him to ‘normal’ folks from his dialect region, or I may miss diagnosing
someone who has a problem — or misdiagnose someone who does
not,”Watts says.
This is the first cross-continent study to look at the effect of dialect
regions on nasalance measures. The study involved 50 speakers from
each dialect region — a total of 150 males and 150 females. It is being
written up for submission to the
Journal of Speech Language and
Hearing Research
.
STRETCH-AND-FLOW
In collaboration between TCU and the University of Texas Southwestern
Clinical Center for Voice Care in Dallas, Watts is investigating the
GIVING RESEARCH
A VOICE
By Rachel Stowe Master ‘91
Reprinted with permission from
TCU Endeavors Magazine,
Spring 2014
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