MABEL L. RICE

Mabel Rice
  • Director, Child Language Doctoral Program
  • Ph.D.
  • Social and Behavioral Sciences - Speech-Language-Hearing, Child Language Doctoral Program Director
  • Child Language Doctoral Program Fred and Virginia Merrill Distinguished Professor of Advanced Studies
  • Child Language Doctoral Program Director
  • ASHA HONORS
  • ASHA FELLOW

Contact Info

Office Phone:
785-864-4570
Office Phone Second:
785-864-0661
Dole Human Development Center, room #3031
Haworth Hall

Biography —

Mabel L. Rice, PhD, is the Fred & Virginia Merrill Distinguished Professor of Advanced Studies at the University of Kansas.



She directs the Merrill Advanced Studies Center, the Child Language Doctoral Program, and the NIDCD-funded Center for Biobehavioral Neurosciences of Communication Disorders (P30 DC005803). She directs the Language Acquisition Studies Laboratory, and is the PI on two longitudinal language acquisition studies funded by NIDCD (R01 DC005226, R01 DC001803). She was a member of the Scientific Leadership Group for the NIH Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS, U01 HD052104) and was a Co-PI on an NIH Small Business Tech Transfer grant (STTR, R42 DC013749) with Richard Ellenson. She also is a Co-PI on an NIH Small Business Innovation Research grant in collaboration with AMIRA , SBIR, DC018766. She also directs a NIDCD-funded training grant (T32 DC000052).



She has been a Scholar-in-Residence at MIT, Harvard, the University of Potsdam, Germany, and Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and a Japan Fellow in Tokyo.

Research —

Dr. Rice's research focuses on language acquisition and language impairments, morphosyntax (grammar markers of language impairment), genetics of language, reading, and speech impairments; language acquisition and impairments in twins, language impairments in children affected by HIV, and language impairments in children with autism.

Her research is multidisciplinary and internationally collaborative. Her lab is funded by NIDCD for an ongoing longitudinal, family-based genetic study of language acquisition of children with and without SLI (R01 DC001803), based in the Midwest, and for an ongoing epidemiologically ascertained longitudinal family-based genetic study of twins (R01 DC005226), with data collection in Western Australia.

She enjoys and appreciates the support and contributions of scientific collaborators from Nebraska (Shelley Smith), New York (Richard Ellenson), Australia (Steve Zubrick and Cate Taylor), Washington University (Brad Schlagger and Steve Petersen), Switzerland (Javier Gayán), Tulane University (Russ Van Dyke), University of Illinois (Ken Rich) and Norway (Synnve Schjolberg), as well as the members of the Language Acquisition Studies Lab at the University of Kansas. She is a Partner Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders at Macquarie University, directed by Stephen Crain.

For her research she has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Psychological Association (APA), Association for Psychological Science (APS), and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). She also received ASHA Honors and the Alfred A. Kawana Council of Editors Award from ASHA. She is an Affiliate of the American Health Council. In her role as Director of the Merrill Advanced Studies Center, she organizes scientific conferences and dissemination of papers on research in public universities, and produces papers and edited books on emerging cross-disciplinary topics related to language, cognition and neuroscience.

Research interests:

  • Language impairments in children
  • genetics of language

Teaching —

Dr. Rice teaches graduate courses on language acquisition, language impairments in children, morphosyntax, research methods, and issues in the conduct of research. She directs the cross-disciplinary Child Language Doctoral Program, jointly sponsored by the departments of Applied Behavioral Sciences, Linguistics, Psychology, and Speech, Language, Hearing.

She has an extensive record of mentoring doctoral and post-doctoral students. She has directed a T32 NIDCD training grant for more than 20 years and has directed training grants from NINDS and the Department of Education. She received the John C. Wright Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award.

Teaching interests:

  • Language impairments in children

Selected Publications —

Rice, M., Taylor, C., Zubrick, S., Hoffman, L., Earnest, K. (2020). Heritability of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and Non-specific Language Impairment (NLI) at ages 4 and 6 years across phenotypes of speech, language, and nonverbal cognition. Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research.
Rice, M. (2020). Clinical Lessons From Studies of Children With Specific Language Impairment. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups - Issue 1 | Volume 5. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_PERSP-19-00011.
Taylor, C., Rice, M., Christensen, D., Blair, E., Zubrick, S. (2018). Prenatal and perinatal risks for late language emergence in a population-level sample of twins at age 2. BMC Pediatrics - Issue 1 | Volume 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/S12887-018-1035-9.
Rice, M. (2018). Specific Language Impairment in Children: Part Two.
Hoffman, H., Rice, M., Russell, J., Frederick, T., Purswani, M., Williams, P., Siberry, G., Redmond, S., Hoffman, H., Yao, T. (2018). Risk for Speech and Language Impairments in Preschool Age HIV-exposed Uninfected Children With In Utero Combination Antiretroviral Exposure. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal - Issue 7 | Volume 37. https://doi.org/10.1097/INF.0000000000001875.
Rice, M. (2018). Language development: Learning from what children say. Open Access Government.
Rice, M. (2018). Growing up with Specific Language Impairment. Open Access Government. Open Access Government.
Rice, M. (2018). Language development: Learning from what children say. Open Access Government.
Rice, M. (2018). Specific Language Impairment (SLI) versus Speech Sound Disorders (SSD). Open Access Government.
Rice, M. (2018). What twins can tell us about Specific Language Impairment. Open Access Government.
Rice, M., Zubrick, S., Taylor, C., Hoffman, L., Gayán, J. (2018). Longitudinal Study of Language and Speech of Twins at 4 and 6 Years: Twinning Effects Decrease, Zygosity Effects Disappear, and Heritability Increases. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research - Issue 1 | Volume 61. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-16-0366.
Dale, P., Rice, M., Rimfeld, K., Hayiou-Thomas, M. (2018). Grammar Clinical Marker Yields Substantial Heritability for Language Impairments in 16-Year-Old Twins. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research - Issue 1 | Volume 61. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-16-0364.
Rice, M. (2017). Specific language impairment: what do we know?. Open Access Government.
Rice, M. (2017). Overlooked by public health: Specific Language Impairment. Open Access Government.
Rice, M. (2017). Lost for words: Investigating specific language impairments. Research Features - Issue 105.
Redmond, S., Yao, T., Russell, J., Rice, M., Hoffman, H., Siberry, G., Frederick, T., Purswani, M., Williams, P. (2016). Longitudinal Evaluation of Language Impairment in Youth With Perinatally Acquired Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Youth With Perinatal HIV Exposure. Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society - Issue suppl 1 | Volume 5. https://doi.org/10.1093/JPIDS/PIW045.
Rice, M. (2016). Children with Specific Language Impairment and Their Families: A Future View of Nature Plus Nurture and New Technologies for Comprehensive Language Intervention Strategies. Seminars in Speech and Language - Issue 04 | Volume 37. https://doi.org/10.1055/S-0036-1587701.
Rice, M. (2016). Specific Language Impairment, Nonverbal IQ, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cochlear Implants, Bilingualism, and Dialectal Variants: Defining the Boundaries, Clarifying Clinical Conditions, and Sorting Out Causes. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research - Issue 1 | Volume 59. https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-15-0255.
Mills, A., Rice, M., Bontempo, D. (2015). Effects of Verb Familiarity on Finiteness Marking in Children With Specific Language Impairment. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research - Issue 2 | Volume 58. https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-14-0003.
Rice, M., Hoffman, L. (2015). Predicting Vocabulary Growth in Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment: A Longitudinal Study From 2;6 to 21 Years of Age. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research - Issue 2 | Volume 58. https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-14-0150.
Himes, S., Huo, Y., Siberry, G., Williams, P., Rice, M., Sirois, P., Frederick, T., Hazra, R., Huestis, M. (2015). Meconium Atazanavir Concentrations and Early Language Outcomes in HIV-Exposed Uninfected Infants With Prenatal Atazanavir Exposure. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes - Issue 2 | Volume 69. https://doi.org/10.1097/QAI.0000000000000558.

Selected Presentations —

Users' Guide to Collaborative Research - Annual meeting of ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University. Location: Sydney, Australia. (11-16-2015).
Cochlear Implants, ASD, Bilingualism and Dialectical Variants: Defining the boundaries, clarifying clinical conditions and sorting out causes. - Advances in the Sciences of Language Disorders. Location: University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus. (6-20-2015).
Need for diagnosis of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in search for causes of language impairments in children. - Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Location: Oslo, Norway. (5-31-2015).
Longitudinal language outcomes in children with SLI: Phenotypes and genetic etiology. - Taiwan Society for Cognitive Neuroscience conference, National Taiwan Normal University. Location: Taipei City, Taiwan. (1-31-2015).
Language impairment alone or in company: The value of comparative research. - 24th annual Research Symposium at ASHA Annual Convention. Location: Orlando, FL. (11-30-2014).
10 things to know about children with language impairments. - Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS) meeting. Location: Bethesda, MD. (10-23-2014).
Growth of language in children with and without SLI: Moving toward epigenetic models of strengths and weaknesses. - Genetics and Neurobiology of Language, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Location: Cold Spring Harbor, NY. (7-31-2014).
Longitudinal outcomes in children with SLI: Lessons for language dimensions and genetic investigations. - Workshop on Language Acquisition and its Disorders, Beijing Language and Cultural University. Location: Beijing, China. (7-31-2014).

Awards & Honors —

Chair

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Journals Board

2015 - 2019

Representative of NIDCD to NIH Scientific Priorities Workshop, March, 2018. Invited small work group sponsored by All of Us Research Program. Purpose of the workshop is to identify future research priorities

2018

American Psychiatric Association DSM-V Neurodevelopmental Disorders Work Group, Communication Disorders

American Psychiatric Association

2009 - 2012

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Council

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

2008 - 2012

John C. Wright Outstanding Graduate Mentor

University of Kansas

2009

Recipient of the Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research 2008 EditorΓÇÖs Award of Highest Merit for Language Publication

2008

Alfred A. Kawana Council of Editors Award

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

2005

Women of Distinction

University of Kansas

2004

Recipient of the Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research 1996 EditorΓÇÖs Award of Highest Merit for Language Publication

1996

Kansas University Distinguished Professor

1994

American Health Council Affiliate

2017 - Present

Fellow

American Psychological Association, Division 1, 7

Fellow

American Association for the Advancement of Science

2004 - Present

Fellow- Association for Psychological Science (APS)

Fellow

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

1988 - Present

Honors

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

2004 - Present

Scientific Leadership Group, NIH Pediatric HIV AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS)

National Institutes of Health

2005 - Present

Service —

Dr. Rice served on the Advisory Council of the NIDCD, on the Communications Disorders Workgroup for American Psychiatric Association DSM-V, co-chaired the PhenX Speech and Hearing Working Group for the National Human Genome Research Institute, is a consultant for the Norwegian Institute for Public Health Longitudinal Study of Child Health Outcomes, and the Autism Speaks Treatment Advisory Board.

She served as co-Chair for KU's Strategic Planning from 2012 – 2014. She serves on numerous editorial boards of professional organizations and on the Publication Board of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, with a term as Chair beginning in 2015.

Memberships —

ASHA FELLOW

ASHA HONORS