Professor Joanne Cleland
Speech and Language Therapy
Prize And Awards
- Recipient
- 21/8/2023
- Recipient
- 1/8/2023
Publications
- Stuart-Smith Jane, Murali Mridhula, Tanner James, Christodoulidou Polychronia, , Smith Amy, Taylor Lauren,
- 2026 Colloquium of the British Association of Academic Phoneticians (2026)
- Stemberger Joseph, Masso Sarah,
- The Phonetics and Phonology of Approximants (2026) (2026)
- , ,
- The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal (2026)
- Harding Samantha, Burr Samantha, , Helen Stringer, Wren Yvonne
- Child Language Teaching and Therapy, pp. 1-23 (2026)
- Al Ani Saja, , Zoha Ahmed
- Proceedings of the 19th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies 19th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, pp. 279-286 (2026)
- Stuart-Smith Jane, Tanner James, Christodoulidou Polychronia, Murali Mridhula, Smith Amy, Taylor Lauren, ,
- LabPhon20 (2026)
Research Interests
My research focuses on developmental Speech Sound Disorders in children.聽I am interested in how we can optimise the diagnosis and treatment of Speech Sound Disorders to improve patient outcomes. 聽I have a particular interest in visual biofeedback, that is, technologies which can be used to image the articulators (principally the tongue) moving when we speak. My most recent research uses ultrasound tongue imaging to measure tongue movement and allow children with speech sound disorders a method of using real-time visual biofeedback of their own tongue movements to modify incorrect articulations and therefore improve their speech. I work with families of children with Speech Sound Disorders and clinicians to determine how we can make ultrasound technology accessible to clinicians and parents.
Current and recent research projects include:
Professional Activities
- Participant
- 26/2/2026
- Participant
- 26/11/2025
- Participant
- 2/9/2025
- Contributor
- 8/2025
- Contributor
- 24/6/2025
- Contributor
- 22/10/2024
Projects
- Cairney, Maria (Principal Investigator) Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator) Lawson, Eleanor (Co-investigator) Ratanakul, Ketnipa (Researcher)
- 01-Jan-2025 - 02-Jan-2026
- Timmins, Claire (Principal Investigator) Lawson, Eleanor (Co-investigator) Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2025 - 01-Jan-2025
- Lawson, Eleanor (Principal Investigator) Murali, Mridhula (Researcher) Kirkland, Paul (Academic) Cleland, Joanne (Academic)
- A project investigating the use of neural networks in the automatic classification of /r/ tongue shapes, imaged with Ultrasound Tongue Imaging
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2024
- Cleland, Joanne (Principal Investigator) Lawson, Eleanor (Principal Investigator) Smith, Amy (Researcher)
- Impact Acceleration Account project, Funded value 拢2,389
Speech and Language Therapy at the 糖心视频 have been at the forefront of developing ultrasound technology for the diagnosis and treatment of speech disorders in children. Speech disorders are common in childhood, affecting social, emotional and educational prospects. Most intervention approaches involve the speech and language therapist (SLT) listening to children鈥檚 speech errors and providing verbal feedback. While this can be effective, our research at Strathclyde demonstrates that children benefit from visual feedback of their tongue movements. By placing a medical ultrasound probe under the child鈥檚 chin, we can show them their tongue movements in real-time, allowing the SLT to give them more accurate feedback to help correct speech errors.
Through two EPSRC funded projects (Ultrax and Ultrax2020) joint with the University of Edinburgh, we have improved the ultrasound technology, making it more suitable for use in the speech therapy clinic and have developed automatic ways (using artificial intelligence) to classify speech disorder types. We have also run two Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funded intervention studies (one ongoing) which show that this can be an effective treatment. In parallel to this, Eleanor Lawson (Chancellor fellow since 2022, formerly at Queen Margaret University) has developed a suite of web resources (funded by AHRC, ESRC, RSE and the Carnegie Trust) which host ultrasound, MRI and animations of speech movements for training clinicians and linguists in speech production. An ongoing ESRC project (lead by Lawson with Cleland as Co-I) is currently developing a website 鈥淪peech Therapy Animation and imaging Resource- STAR鈥, which will house example ultrasound videos of speech disorders for training SLT students, with a secondary aim of improving understanding of and promoting ultrasound tongue imaging in SLT. All of these research projects include ongoing collection of impact evidence gathered using questionnaires and focus groups.
It is clear that what is missing from both our research and impact are training materials for clinicians specifically in how to use ultrasound in intervention with children. This funding would allow us to develop multi-media resources specifically for this purpose, accelerating the clinical implementation of our work. We have already developed an open access manual for delivering ultrasound-based intervention https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/63372/ , and we have developed teaching materials for in-person training with ultrasound. This funding would specifically be used to develop videos of clinicians delivering ultrasound intervention- featuring real children with speech disorders (with consent- covered by our current NHS ethical approval and additional consent to use the videos for marketing purposes) at the Glasgow Children鈥檚 Hospital. We would also use the funding to record and edit ultrasound analysis videos (i.e. videos showing tongue movements, rather than videos showing the SLT and child) of real teaching moments in intervention to illustrate the key steps in helping children to improve their speech errors. Both materials will be made in collaboration with the Glasgow Children鈥檚 hospital who are currently undertaking ultrasound-based therapy as part of a CSO funded clinical trial (PI Cleland). - 01-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2023
- Kuschmann, Anja (Principal Investigator) Barry, Sarah (Co-investigator) Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator) Young, David (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 25-Jan-2026
- Cleland, Joanne (Co-investigator) Lawson, Eleanor (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2025
Contact
Professor
Joanne
Cleland
Speech and Language Therapy
Email: joanne.cleland@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3037