Heather L. Ramsdell, Ph.D, CCC-SLP, ALT in Training
Associate Professor
Office: SPA Building 68, Room 330B Labs: Nursing Building 66, Rooms 332, 334 & SPA Building 68, Rooms 212, 213
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Speech-Language Pathology, 2009, The University of Memphis
- Master of Science (M.S.) in Speech-Language Pathology, 2003, Boston University
- Bachelors of Art (B.A.) in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, 2001, Iona College
Research Areas:
- Dyslexia
- Infant vocal development
Biography:
Dr. Heather L. Ramsdell is an Associate Professor at Idaho State University, owner of/clinician at Once Upon a Time LLC (www.readwithramsdell.com), and a founding member of the Structured Word Inquiry Research Vanguard (SWIRV).
Her teaching, research, and clinical interests include:
- Infant vocal development
- Phonetics
- Phonology
- The scholarship of teaching and learning
- Multisensory structured language intervention
- Literacy
- Spelling
- Dyslexia
Clinically, she is intensively trained in Scottish Rite's Take Flight reading intervention, which she implements to help children/adults who are struggling to read and those with dyslexia by addressing phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, reading fluency, reading comprehension (and spelling, handwriting, recognition of sight words, etc.) through multisensory, structured, explicit, evidence-based lessons.
Her current research includes work on comparing multisensory structured language intervention with traditional speech-language pathology services, considering parent self-efficacy and advocacy in raising children with dyslexia, exploring ways to better inform educators and pre-service educators about dyslexia (what it is, how to identify it, and how to treat/support/accommodate individuals with dyslexia), and norming the Speech Sound Development Screener (a parent report tool that was designed to effectively and efficiently flag at-risk infants/toddlers from 6 to 18 months of age).
Heather is also actively involved in advocacy surrounding dyslexia at the state level in Idaho, where her role is multifaceted, as a representative of higher education, health-related professions, and a parent of a child with dyslexia. She plans to begin training to become a Qualified Instructor (QI) of Certified Academic Language Therapists (CALT) in August of 2023.
In her free time, Heather enjoys family time, hiking, biking, skiing, crocheting, reading, traveling, and camping.
