Dr. Ciara O'Toole is a Senior Lecturer in Speech and Language Therapy in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences UCC. Her teaching and research interests are in the area of paediatric communication development and disorders. She has particular interest in bilingual language acquisition, espcially children who are acquiring Irish as a first/second language and in the language development of children with intellectual disabilities. Ciara gained her undergraduate Honours degree in Clinical Speech and Language Studies from Trinity College Dublin in 1999. She then began working as a speech and language therapist in the Southern Health Board and COPE Foundation, where her main interests were in the areas of early language development and intellectual disabilities. She gained a Master's degree in Human Communication Sciences at University College London in 2003, investigating the relationship between symbolic functioning and language development in children with Down syndrome. She joined the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at UCC in 2004, initially as the Director of Practice Education/Lecturer and in 2005 as a full time lecturer. Ciara led the School of Clinical Therapies to their first Athena Swan Bronze Award in 2023 and was the first Chair of the Schools Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee. 

Dr. O'Toole's research interests include early language development in bilingual and clinical populations. She completed her doctoral degree in 2009, investigating early lexical and grammatical development of Irish-speaking toddlers. Dr. O'Toole represented Ireland on the management committee of a COST Action project (IS0804): Language Impairment in a Multilingual Society: Linguistic Patterns and the Road to Assessment from 2009-2014. The aim of this action was to bring together researchers in the area of Developmental Language Disorder in bilingual children to share ideas and carry out joint crosslinguistic research. The Action led to from which multiple collaborations, publications and assessment tools were produced.

In 2015, Dr. O'Toole won a HRB Cochrane Fellowship to investigate Parent training to promote spoken language in preschool children with Down syndrome. She is a research partner with Let's Grow Together Area-Based Childhood programme in Cork city, looking at the impact of early intervention programmes on language and commuication outcomes in young children. Ciara is also vice-chair of the Inclusion Health Research Group in the College of Medicine and Health 

Dr. O’Toole teachers across 1st, 2nd and 4th year of the programme in the area of pediatric communication development and disorders. linguistics and research. She is currently the year 4 coordinator.

She was recognised as an teaching expert from the National Forum in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in 2015 for her expertise on Problem Based Learning. Ciara gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in 2025.