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4. Deirdre O'Leary

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Biography

Biography

Deirdre graduated with a BSc. Hons Degree in Speech and Language Therapy at the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at UCC in 2013.  She then went on to complete a Masters by Research in UCC also. The title of her study was “The impact of an unfamiliar accent on the sentence comprehension of children with Down syndrome.” 

She has recently commenced her structured PhD study investigating the perceptual and acoustic features of speech of individuals with Down Syndrome and their impact on speech intelligibility. Deirdre also recently began working as a research assistant in UCC for a HRB funded research project exploring prosody skills in children with spina bifida hydrocephalus. She helps with lecturing and tutoring within the department and wokrs privately, giving speech and language therapy in the local Down Syndrome Association

Prior to working in UCC, Deirdre worked as a speech and language therapist in a variety of settings with both adults and children. She also worked as problem-based learning tutor in UCC.

Deirdre is a member of the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists and certified by CORU.

 

Positions Held:

• Research Assistant- UCC

• Speech and language therapist- Down Syndrome Ireland (adults and paediatrics)

• Problem-based learning tutor in UCC

• Speech and language therapist- HSE South-North & South Lee (adults and paediatrics)

• Speech and language therapist-South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (adult acute)

• Speech and language therapist-HSE South-Kerry (paediatrics) 

 
Research

Current research

• Investigating prosodicskills in children with spina bifida
• Investigating speech intelligibility in Down syndrome using perceptual ansd acoustic evaluation methods

Previous Research

• Investigating effect of speaker accent on comprehension in typically developing children and children with Down syndrome

 

Areas of Interest

• Accents
• Down syndrome 
• Acoustic analysis of speech
• Speech intelligibility 
• Children’s speech & language
• Prosody
• Spina Bifida

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Research Interests

Spina Bifida
Prosody
Acoustic Analysis
Accents
Down Syndrome
Language development‍

Publications

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Conference Publications

	Year	Publication
	(2016)	30th World Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics O’ Leary, D., Frizelle, P., & Gibbon, F. (2016) The impact of speaker accent on sentence comprehension in Down Syndrome 30th World Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics [Details]
	(2015)	Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) Biennial Conference, Dublin, Ireland O’ Leary, D., Frizelle, P., & Gibbon, F. (2015) The impact of speaker accent on sentence comprehension in Down Syndrome Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) Biennial Conference, Dublin, Ireland [Details]

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Professional Activities

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Honours and Awards

	Year	Title	Awarding Body
	2012	Undergraduate College Scholarship of the College of Medicine and Health	University College Cork

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Professional Associations

	Association	Function	From / To
	CORU	Ireland’s multi-profession health regulator	/
	Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists	professional association of Speech & Language Therapists in Ireland	/

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Employment

	Employer	Position	From / To
	Health Service Executive	Speech and Language Therapist	04-AUG-15 / 13-MAY-16
	University College Cork	Problem-Based Learning Tutor	08-SEP-14 / 21-APR-16
	Baby Noah Trust	Speech and Language Therapist	05-JAN-15 / 25-AUG-16
	South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital	Speech and Language Therapist	20-OCT-15 / 03-APR-17
	Down Syndrome Ireland-Cork	Speech and Language Therapist	17-JUN-13 / 28-DEC-18

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Education

	Year	Institution	Qualification	Subject
	2013	University College Cork	BSC (HONS)	Speech and Language Therapy
	2016	University College Cork	MSc Health Sciences	Speech and Hearing Sciences

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Research Information

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Internal Collaborators

	Name	Institute	Country
	Damhanit Ni Murchú	Central Remedial Clinic Waterford	IRELAND

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External Collaborators

	Name	Organisation / Institute	Country
	Dr. Olivia O' Mahony	Cork University Hspital	IRELAND