Research

Current Research Studies

Inclusive Research Study: Partnering with Young Adults with Down Syndrome

Photo of Dr. Marie Channell and Joey Kane holding a sign that says Adult Summit.

This newly funded NIH research study has partnered with young adults with Down syndrome every step of the way. We started by co-creating the study topic and research design. Now we are working together to implement the research.

Co-researchers with and without Down syndrome will interview young adults with Down syndrome to learn about their health experiences and identify ways to support their social, mental, and physical well-being.

Project collaborators include a Steering Committee of young adults with Down syndrome, Dr. Meghan Burke at Vanderbilt University, and Dr. Susan Loveall at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Read more about our study featured in the news.

Recent Findings

Speech Accessibility Project Improves Voice Recognition Technology for Users with Disabilities

Dr. Marie Channell and Dr. Laura Mattie partnered with Dr. Mark Hasegawa-Johnson at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and his research team at the University of Illinois to include adults with Down syndrome in the Speech Accessibility Project. This project collected speech samples from individuals with speech differences in order to train voice recognition technology to better understand their speech. Funded by Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. Learn about project updates and findings here.

Autism Screening Tools in Down Syndrome

This project aimed to determine how to best use autism screening tools in children with Down syndrome. Project collaborators include Dr. Laura Mattie and Dr. Amy Cohen at UIUC, Dr. Tracie Rosser at Emory University, and Dr. Luke Kalb and Dr. Natasha Ludwig at Johns Hopkins University/Kennedy Krieger Institute. Funded by an NIH INCLUDE R21 grant. Come back soon to learn about our findings!

Post-High School Transition Outcomes for Young Adults with Down Syndrome

Our collaborative project with Dr. Susan Loveall at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and Dr. Meghan Burke at UIUC recently reported post-high school employment and other independent living outcomes for young adults with Down syndrome as they transition into adulthood. Read more about this study that was featured in a UNL Pocket Science article.

Ways for SLPs to Support Caregivers of Children with Down Syndrome

PhD student and licensed SLP, Beka Bosley, and Dr. Channell recently published an article in Seminars in Speech and Language highlighting ways that SLPs can work with caregivers of children with Down syndrome. When providing intervention services, clinicians can involve caregivers by teaching them strategies for supporting social communication during activities such as shared storybook “reading”, even for school-age children with DS. 

Four key points for SLPs when teaching caregivers these strategies:

  1. Make the goal shared enjoyment rather than reading or teaching specific skills. 
  2. Label character emotions and connect them to character actions.
  3. Match the specific strategies (e.g., type and frequency of language input) to the developmental level of the child.
  4. Encourage strategies within the caregiver’s preferred style of shared storytelling. 

Cognitive and Behavioral Profiles across Individuals with Down Syndrome

Research from our lab was recently published in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders showing different profiles of skills among children, teens, and young adults with Down syndrome. This is one of the largest studies to date to highlight individual differences in cognition and behavior across the population with Down syndrome.

We conducted this study in collaboration with Dr. Mattie’s lab at UIUC and with colleagues at Emory University, Kennedy Krieger Institute, and other Down Syndrome Cognition Project sites. A special thank you goes to LuMind IDSC Foundation for funding this project. Read the full article here!

Mental State Language Development in School-Age Children with Down Syndrome

Published in the American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, this study looked at how school-age children with Down syndrome learn to talk about people’s emotions, thoughts, intentions, and other mental states. Mental state language is a stepping stone for “putting oneself in another’s shoes” and learning how to interpret other people’s social cues. It is also key to expressing oneself in socially appropriate ways. We recorded children as they told stories from a picture book. We counted the words children used to describe characters’ mental states. For example, if a child said, “The boy was scared”, we counted scared as a mental state word.

  • Some of the children did not use any mental state vocabulary in their stories. Others used a few, and some used a lot. 
  • The children who used more mental state language were also better at recognizing other people’s emotion expressions. However, mental state language was not associated with age or IQ.
  • This tells us that for children who have Down syndrome, mental state language is not simply part of their general development or cognitive abilities. Instead, emotion understanding is an important factor.
  • We may be able to use emotion knowledge to boost mental state language. For example, parents and teachers could practice pointing out other people’s emotional expressions, labeling their emotions, and talking about how that person may feel. Future research can test these possibilities.

Acknowledgements: DS-Connect Down Syndrome Participant Registry; NICHD Grants R03HD083596 & P50HD103526; UIUC OVCR Campus Research Board Grant RB19099  

Post-High School Employment among Young Adults with Down Syndrome

Poster presented at the 2021 Conference of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

In collaboration with Dr. Meghan Burke at UIUC and Dr. Susan Loveall at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we surveyed caregivers of young adults with Down syndrome to learn about their post-high school transition experience.

53% were currently employed in a community or sheltered workshop setting. Cleaning and food prep were the most common job tasks, and restaurants and stores were the most common employers. Caregiver and perceived child satisfaction with employment ranged from unsatisfied to satisfied. This study highlights that it is not only finding a job that matters but rather finding the “right” job to fit the youth with Down syndrome. Future research plans include asking the individual with Down syndrome to self-report.

Publications

Denne, E., Channell, M. M., White, N., Fidler, D., Baumer, N., Wu, J., Tapia, I. E., Froehlich, T., Hartley, S., & Esbensen, A. J. (2025). A review of clinical trials in Down syndrome, International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities, 69, 1-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.irrdd.2025.09.002

Hasegawa-Johnson, M., Zheng, X., Kim., H., Mendes, C., Dickinson, M., Hege, E., Zwilling, C., Channell, M. M., Mattie, L., Hodges, H., Ramig, L., Bellard, M., Shebanek, M., Korn, P., Frerichs, D., Bigham, J., Herrlinger, S., & MacDonald, B. (2024). Community-supported shared infrastructure in support of speech accessibility. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 67, 4162-4175. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_JSLHR-24-00122

Channell, M. M., & Mattie, L. J. (2023). The interaction between social and communication skills in individuals with intellectual disability. International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities, 64, 1-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/bs.irrdd.2023.08.001

Channell, M. M., Mattie, L. J., Schworer, E. K., Fidler, D. J., & Esbensen, A. J. (2023). Using the Social Skills Improvement System (SSiS) Rating Scales to assess social skills in youth with Down syndrome. Frontiers in Psychology, 14:1105520. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1105520

Channell, M. M., Loveall, S. J., & Burke, M. M. (2023). Exploring caregiver perceptions of post-high school employment experiences among young adults with Down syndrome. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 61(2), 158-171. https://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556-61.2.158

Mattie, L. J., Loveall, S. J., Channell, M. M., & Rodgers, D. B. (2023). Perspectives on adaptive functioning and intellectual functioning measures for intellectual disabilities behavioral research. Frontiers in Psychology, 14:1084576. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1084576

Soltani, A., Schworer, E. K., Jacobson, L. A., Channell, M. M., Lee, N. R., Faught, G. G., Grzadzinski, R., Fidler, D., & Esbensen, A. J. (2023). Confirmatory factor analysis of the BRIEF2 in a sample of youth with Down syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 67(2), 148-158. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.13000

Channell, M. M., Sandstrom, L. E., & Harvey, D. (2022). Mental state language development in children with Down syndrome versus typical development. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 127(6), 495-510. https://doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-127.6.495

Loveall, S. J., Channell, M. M., Burke, M. M., & Rodgers, D. B. (2022). Post-high school transition outcomes for young adults with Down syndrome. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 127(2), 135-138. https://doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-127.2.135   

Loveall, S. J., Channell, M. M., Mattie, L. J., & Barkhimer, A. E. (2022). Inclusion of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders in norm-referenced language assessments. Frontiers in Psychology, 13:929433. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.929433

Channell, M. M., & Bosley, R. (2021). Mental state language use in children with Down syndrome and the role of caregivers. Seminars in Speech and Language, 42, 318-329. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0041-1730990

Channell, M. M., Mattie, L. J., Hamilton, D. R., Capone, G. T., Mahone, E. M., Sherman, S. L., Rosser, T. C., Reeves, R. H., Kalb, L. G., & the Down Syndrome Cognition Project. (2021). Capturing cognitive and behavioral variability among individuals with Down syndrome: A latent profile analysis. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 13, 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11689-021-09365-2

Channell, M. M. (2020). The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2) in school-age children with Down syndrome at low risk for autism spectrum disorder. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 5, 1-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2396941520962406

Channell, M. M. (2020). Cross-sectional trajectories of mental state language development in children with Down syndrome. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 29, 760-775. http://dx.doi.org/10.1044/2020_AJSLP-19-00035

Channell, M. M., Hahn, L. J., Rosser, T. C., Hamilton, D., Frank-Crawford, M. A., Capone, G. T., Sherman, S. L., & the Down Syndrome Cognition Project (2019). Characteristics associated with autism spectrum disorder risk in individuals with Down syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49, 3543-3556. doi: 10.1007/s10803-019-04074-1

See full list of publications