For Clinicians
Motor speech research with clinical relevance at the center
The Colorado Motor Speech Lab conducts research designed to support speech-language pathologists in understanding, assessing, and conceptualizing motor speech disorders. Our work emphasizes mechanism-based thinking, moving beyond diagnostic labels to focus on how disruptions in planning, coordination, and execution shape speech behavior.
We aim to produce research and frameworks that clinicians can use to:
- Strengthen diagnostic reasoning
- Interpret complex speech profiles
- Connect theory to real-world clinical decision making
The Colorado Motor Speech Framework (CMSF)
The Colorado Motor Speech Framework (CMSF) is a core contribution of the lab and reflects our commitment to clinically meaningful theory.
The CMSF is a conceptual framework that organizes motor speech disorders along dimensions of:
- Speech motor planning
- Coordination across subsystems
- Motor execution
Rather than categorizing disorders solely by diagnosis, the framework supports a behaviorally grounded approach to understanding why speech sounds the way it does.
Clinicians may find the CMSF useful for:
- Teaching and supervising students
- Organizing differential diagnosis
- Interpreting mixed or atypical speech profiles
- Linking perceptual features to underlying motor mechanisms
Explore the CMSF:
- View the framework
- Download associated resources
- Learn how it is used in research and teaching
How our research informs clinical practice
Our research is designed to address questions clinicians routinely face, including:
- Why do individuals with similar diagnoses sound different?
- How do disruptions in respiratory and laryngeal coordination affect speech naturalness?
- How can perceptual judgments be linked to measurable motor behaviors?
- Where do current diagnostic categories fall short?
Key areas of emphasis include:
- Speech naturalness and intelligibility
- Respiratory-laryngeal coordination
- Motor speech variability
- Measurement approaches in dysarthria and apraxia of speech
We aim to make our findings interpretable and relevant for clinical reasoning, not just statistical significance.
Assessment and measurement
The lab studies a range of speech tasks and analytic approaches used in motor speech assessment, including:
- Perceptual evaluation of speech features
- Acoustic and kinematic measures
- Repetitive and connected speech tasks
- Subsystem coordination
Our work is not intended to replace clinical judgment, but to support and refine it by clarifying what different measures capture and how they relate to underlying motor control.
Collaboration and dialogue
We welcome dialogue with clinicians and clinical educators who are interested in:
- Applying conceptual frameworks to practice
- Bridging research and clinical experience
- Collaborating on clinically motivated research questions
If you are interested in learning more about our work, providing feedback, or exploring collaboration opportunities, please reach out.