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Aaron Shield
Associate Professor
Speech Pathology and Audiology

Aaron Shield

Contact Info

Education and Background

  • Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin (2010)
  • M.A. Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin (2004)
  • B.A. Italian Studies, Wesleyan University (1999)

Dr. Shield is a linguist whose interests include how language develops in typical and atypical children, particularly deaf and hearing children acquiring sign language, deaf and hearing children on the autism spectrum, and children with childhood apraxia of speech.

He is particularly interested in the social and cognitive skills required to access language and how deficits in these skills can impair language development. He also studies the effects of sign language exposure on children with autism and children with apraxia of speech. 

Professional Recognition and Affiliation

  • Associate Editor, Autism & Developmental Language Impairments
  • Faculty Research Grant from the Committee on Faculty Research (CFR) and the Office of Research and Innovation, 黑料社区. “A Pilot Study of the Attention-Directing Abilities of Caregivers of Children with Autism.” Amount: $27,357. 2022
  • Summer Research Appointment from the Committee on Faculty Research (CFR), 黑料社区. "Evaluation of School-Based Sign Language 黑料社区 for Hearing Children with Apraxia of Speech." Amount: $6,200. 2019
  • R01-Series Grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Title: “Brain mechanisms underlying skilled reading in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children with different communication modes.” (PI: Booth/Vanderbilt University). Role: Consultant, 2019
  • R15-Series AREA Grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Development. Title: “Transactional neurobiological influences on parent-child kindergarten adjustment.” (PIs: Kiel/Luebbe). Role: Consultant, 2019
  • Publication, Reprint, Exhibition, and Performance Costs (PREP) program grant from 黑料社区. Amount: $500, 2018
  • Grant from the 黑料社区 Humanities Center to support an outside speaker for the series “What the L: Language Research at Miami.” Amount: $1,700, 2017
  • Grant to support research in Social Justice, Human Rights, Diversity, and Inclusion from 黑料社区. “Inclusion of a Miami Undergraduate Student with Autism in Autism Research”. Amount: $4,300, 2017
  • Advancing Academic-Research Careers (AARC) Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Amount: $5,000.
  • Autism Science Foundation Research Enhancement Mini-Grant, 2013
  • Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Postdoctoral Fellows (F32DC011219) from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Boston University, 2011-2014
  • Prize for the Outstanding Dissertation in the Social Sciences, Business, and Education, The University of Texas at Austin, 2010
  • Autism Speaks Predoctoral Fellowship, 2008-2010
  • National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant (BCS-0746009), 2008-2009
  • Donald D. Harrington Graduate Fellowship, The University of Texas at Austin, 2005-2007
  • Mason-Perkins Fulbright Fellowship in Deafness (Rome, Italy), 2005
  • National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2002-2004
  • Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities, 2001-2002

Selected Publications

  • Shield, A., Igel, M., & Meier, R.P. (2022). Are palm reversals the pronoun reversals of sign language? Evidence from a fingerspelling task. Frontiers in Psychology. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.953019
  • Chenausky, K., Baker, A., & Shield, A. (2022). Predictors of supplementary sign use in school-aged children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.
  • Chenausky, K.V., Gagné, D., Stipancic, K.L., Shield, A., & Green, J. (2021). The relationship between single-word speech severity and intelligibility in childhood apraxia of speech. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10. 1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00213
  • Shield, A., Mood, D., Salamy, N., & Henner, J. (2021). Assessing signed language development in deaf/signing children with autism spectrum disorder. In W. Mann (Ed.), Handbook of Language Assessment across Modalities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Frisbie, A., Shield, A., Mood, D., Salamy, N., & Henner, J. (2021). Discussion of issues related to assessment of signed or spoken language development in children with autism spectrum disorder. In W. Mann (Ed.), Handbook of Language Assessment across Modalities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Shield, A., & Sampson, T. (2020). Research on deafness and ASD: Challenges, opportunities, and goals. In Deafness: Current Perspectives and Research Developments. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
  • Shield, A., Neild, R., & Graham, P. (2020). Educational strategies for deaf children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education.
  • Chenausky, K., Brignell, A., Morgan, A., Gagne, D., Norton, D., Tager-Flusberg, H., Schlaug, G., Shield, A., & Green, J. (2020). Factor analysis of signs of childhood apraxia of speech. Journal of Communication Disorders.
  • Shield, A., Wang, X., Bone, D., Narayanan, S., & Grossman, R.B. (2020). Linguistic and prosodic correlates of rapid social judgments of children and adolescents with and without ASD. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics. doi: 10.1080/02699206.2020.1771772
  • Shield, A., Igel, M., Randall, K., & Meier, R.P. (2020). The source of palm orientation errors in the signing of children with ASD: Imitative, motoric, or both? Brain Sciences. doi: 10.3390/brainsci10050268
  • Graham, P., Neild, R., & Shield, A. (2020). Increasing social awareness for deaf children on the autism spectrum: Innovative strategies. Odyssey: New Directions in Deaf Education.
  • Shield, A., Mood, D., Salamy, N., & Henner, J. (to appear, 2020). Issues in the assessment of signed language in deaf children with ASD. To appear in Mann, W. (Ed.), Handbook of Language Assessment across Modalities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Mazzaggio, G. & Shield, A. (2020). The production of pronouns and verb inflections by Italian children with ASD: A new dataset in a null subject language. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 
  • Herman, R., Shield, A., & Morgan, G. (2019). Sign language development in deaf children with language impairments and autism spectrum disorder. In Grove, N. & Launonen, K. (Eds.), Manual Sign Acquisition in Children with Developmental Disabilities. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.
  • Shield, A. & Meier, R.P. (2018). Learning an embodied visual language: Four imitation strategies available to sign learners. Frontiers in Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00811
  • Shield, A., Knapke, K., Henry, M., Srinivasan, S., & Bhat, A. (2017). Impaired praxis in gesture imitation by deaf children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism and Developmental Language Impairments.
  • Shield, A., Cooley, F., & Meier, R.P. (2017). Sign language echolalia in deaf children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 60, 1622-1634. doi:10.1044/2016_JSLHR-L-16-0292
  • Bhat, A., Srinivasan, S., Woxholt, C., & Shield, A. (2016). Differences in praxis performance and receptive language during fingerspelling between deaf children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Autism. doi: 10.1177/1362361316672179
  • Shield, A. (2016). Language and communication with children who are deaf + ASD. Raising and Educating Deaf Children: Foundations for Policy, Practice, and Outcomes. http:// raisingandeducatingdeafchildren.org/node/257
  • Shield, A., Pyers, J., Martin, A., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2016). Relations between language and cognition in native-signing children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research. doi: 10.1002/aur.1621.
  • Shield, A., Meier, R.P., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2015). The use of sign language pronouns by native-signing children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45, 2128-2145.
  • Shield, A. (2014). Preliminary findings of similarities and differences in the speech and sign language of children with autism. Seminars in Speech and Language, 35, 309-320.
  • Mood, D. & Shield, A. (2014). Clinical use of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second Edition with children who are deaf. Seminars in Speech and Language, 35, 288-300.
  • Szarkowski, A., Mood, D., Shield, A., Wiley, S., & Yoshinaga-Itano, C. (2014). A summary of current understanding regarding children with autism spectrum disorder who are deaf or hard of hearing. Seminars in Speech and Language, 35, 241-259.
  • Shield, A. & Meier, R.P. (2014). Personal pronoun avoidance in deaf children with autism. In W. Orman & M.J. Valleau (Eds.), Proceedings of the 38th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (403-415). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
  • Shield, A. & Meier, R.P. (2013). The acquisition of sign language by deaf children with autism spectrum disorder. In D. Quinto-Pozos (Ed.), Multilingual Aspects of Signed Language Communication and Disorder (90-122). Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.
  • Shield, A. & Meier, R.P (2012). Palm reversal errors in native-signing children with autism.Journal of Communication Disorders, 45, 439-454.
  • Goldin-Meadow, S., Shield, A., Lenzen, D., Herzig, M., & C. Padden (2012). The gestures ASL signers use tell us when they are ready to learn math. Cognition, 123, 448-453.