Research team leaders
Sari Kunnari, PhD, is a professor of Logopedics and the leader of the Child Language Research Center at the University of Oulu. Her main research interests include phonological and morphological acquisition of language in typically developing mono- and bilingual children, children with developmental language disorder and children with cochlear implants. She is involved in many national and international research projects.
Soile Loukusa, PhD, is a senior lecturer of Logopedics at the Child Language Research Center. Her main research interests are pragmatic language development and its disorders in children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism, specific language impairment and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
Leila Paavola, PhD, is a senior lecturer of Logopedics at the University of Oulu. Her main research interests include early mother-child interaction, in particular maternal sensitivity, responsiveness, the characteristics of child-directed speech and also child early capacities to participate in communicative interactions, and their predictive validity to later advances in child communicative and linguistic development.
Taina Välimaa, PhD, is a senior lecturer of Logopedics at the Child Language Research Center. Her main research interests include speech perception by adults with cochlear implant and speech perception and language development of children with cochlear implant(-s), quality of life of the children and their families after implantation, and bilingual speech and language acquisition and language impairment.
Anneli Yliherva, PhD, is a senior lecturer of Logopedics at the Child Language Research Center. Her main research interest is outcome after preterm birth. Further, she is involved in intervention studies of autism.
