Mabel L Rice
- Fred and Virginia Merrill Distinguished Professor of Advanced Studies
- Social and Behavioral Sciences
- Speech-Language-Hearing
- Child Language Doctoral Program
Contact Info
Office Phone:
Office Phone Second:
Dole Human Development Center, room #3031
Haworth Hall
University of Kansas
1000 Sunnyside Avenue
Lawrence, KS 66045
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 is a member of the Scientific Leadership Group for the NIH Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS, U01 HD052104) and a Co-PI on an NIH Small Business Tech Transfer grant (STTR, R42 DC013749) with Richard Ellenson. 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.
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.
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. L. (2020). Response to the letter to the Editor from Bishop (2020) regarding Rice (2020), “Clinical Lessons from Studies of Children with Specific Language Impairment,” [Journal Articles]. Perspectives, 5(3), 570–571. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020
Rice, M. L., Taylor, C. L., Zubrick, S. R., Hoffman, L., & Earnest, K. 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 Articles]. Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research. Published.
Rice, M. L. (2018). Specific Language Impairment in Children: Part Two [Books]. In Open Access Journal (pp. 1–14). http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=Dole%20Human%20Development%20Center&edid=ac07afaf-95c6-43ab-a824-64c4673a76ac
Rice, M. L. (2018). Language development: Learning from what children say [Journal Articles]. Open Access Government, 390–391.
Rice, M. L., Russell, J. S., Frederick, T., Purswani, M., Williams, P. L., Siberry, G. K., Redmond, S. M., Hoffman, H. J., & Yao, T.-J. (2018). Risk for speech and language impairments in preschool aged HIV-exposed uninfected children with in utero combination antiretroviral exposure [Journal Articles]. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 37(7), 678–685.
Rice, M. L. (2018). Growing up with Specific Language Impairment. Open Access Government [Journal Articles]. Open Access Government. Published.
Rice, M. L. (2018). Language development: Learning from what children say [Journal Articles]. Open Access Government. Published.
Rice, M. L. (2018). Specific Language Impairment (SLI) versus Speech Sound Disorders (SSD) [Journal Articles]. Open Access Government, 310–311.
Taylor, C. C., Rice, M. L., Christensen, D., Blair, E., & Zubrick, S. R. (2018). Prenatal and perinatal risks for late language emergence in a population-level sample of twins at age 2 [Journal Articles]. BMC Pediatrics. Published.
Rice, M. L. (2018). What twins can tell us about Specific Language Impairment [Journal Articles]. Open Access Government, 234–237.
Dale, P. S., Rice, M. L., Rimfeld, K., & Hayiou-Thomas, E. (2018). Grammar clinical marker yields substantial heritabiity for language impairments in 16-year-old twins [Journal Articles]. Journal of Speech, Language, Hearing Research, 61, 66–78.
Rice, M. L., Zubrick, S. R., Taylor, C. L., Hoffman, L., & Gayan, 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 Articles]. Journal of Speech, Language, Hearing Research, 61, 79–93.
Rice, M. L. (2017). Specific language impairment: what do we know? [Journal Articles]. Open Access Government, 34–35.
Rice, M. L. (2017). Overlooked by public health: Specific Language Impairment [Journal Articles]. Open Access Government, 28–29.
Rice, M. L. (2017). Lost for words: Investigating specific language impairments. [Journal Articles]. Research Features, 105.
Rice, M. L. (2016). Specific Language Impairment, Nonverbal IQ, ADHD, ASD, Cochlear Implants, Bilingualism and Dialectal Variants: Defining the boundaries, clarifying clinical conditions and sorting out causes [Journal Articles]. Journal of Speech, Language, & Hearing Research, 59, 122–132. https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-15-0255
Rice, M. L. (2016). Children with Specific Language Impairment and Their Families: A Future View of Nature Plus Nurture and New Technologies for Comprehensive Language Intervention Strategies [Journal Articles]. Seminars in Speech and Language, 37, 310–318.
Redmond, S. M., Yao, T. J., Russell, J. S., Rice, M. L., Hoffman, H. J., Siberry, G. K., Frederick, T., Purswani, M., & Williams, P. L. (2016). Longitudinal evaluation of language impairment in youth with perinatally acquired human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and youth with perinatal HIV exposure [Journal Articles]. Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, 5((suppl1)), S33–S40. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpids/piw045
Abel, A., Rice, M., & Bontempo, D. (2015). Effects of verb familiarity on finiteness marking in children [Journal Articles]. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 58, 360–372. https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_jslhr-l-14-0003
Rice, M. L., & Hoffman, L. (2015). Predicting vocabulary growth in children with and without Specific Language Impairment [Journal Articles]. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 58, 345–359.
Himes, S. K., Huo, Y., Siberry, G. K., Williams, P. L., Rice, M. L., Sirois, P. A., Frederick, T., Hazra, R., & Huestis, M. A. (2015). Meconium Atazanavir concentrations and early language outcomes in HIV-exposed, uninfected infants with prenatal Atazanavir exposure. [Journal Articles]. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS), 69, 178–186. https://doi.org/10.1097/QAI.0000000000000558
Selected Presentations —
Rice, M. L. (11/16/2015). Users' Guide to Collaborative Research. Annual meeting of ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University. Sydney, Australia
Rice, M. L. (6/20/2015). Cochlear Implants, ASD, Bilingualism and Dialectical Variants: Defining the boundaries, clarifying clinical conditions and sorting out causes. Advances in the Sciences of Language Disorders. University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Rice, M. L. (5/31/2015). Need for diagnosis of Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in search for causes of language impairments in children. Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Oslo, Norway
Rice, M. L. (1/31/2015). Longitudinal language outcomes in children with SLI: Phenotypes and genetic etiology. Taiwan Society for Cognitive Neuroscience conference, National Taiwan Normal University. Taipei City, Taiwan
Rice, M. L. (11/30/2014). Language impairment alone or in company: The value of comparative research. 24th annual Research Symposium at ASHA Annual Convention. Orlando, FL
Rice, M. L. (10/23/2014). 10 things to know about children with language impairments. Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS) meeting. Bethesda, MD
Rice, M. L. (7/31/2014). 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. Cold Spring Harbor, NY
Rice, M. L. (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. Beijing, China
Awards & Honors —
Chair
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Journals Board
2015 - 2019
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
2018
American Psychiatric Association DSM-V Neurodevelopmental Disorders Work Group, Communication Disorders
American Psychiatric Association
2009 - 2012
American Psychiatric Association
2009 - 2012
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Council
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
2008 - 2012
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
2008 - 2012
John C. Wright Outstanding Graduate Mentor
University of Kansas
2009
University of Kansas
2009
Recipient of the Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research 2008 EditorΓÇÖs Award of Highest Merit for Language Publication
2008
2008
Alfred A. Kawana Council of Editors Award
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
2005
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
2005
Women of Distinction
University of Kansas
2004
University of Kansas
2004
Recipient of the Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research 1996 EditorΓÇÖs Award of Highest Merit for Language Publication
1996
1996
Kansas University Distinguished Professor
1994
1994
American Health Council Affiliate
2017 - Present
2017 - Present
Fellow
American Psychological Association, Division 1, 7
American Psychological Association, Division 1, 7
Fellow
American Association for the Advancement of Science
2004 - Present
American Association for the Advancement of Science
2004 - Present
Fellow
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
1988 - Present
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
1988 - Present
Honors
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
2004 - Present
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
2004 - Present
Scientific Leadership Group, NIH Pediatric HIV AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS)
National Institutes of Health
2005 - Present
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.
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.