Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Dr Cecilia Devers
Senior Lecturer
Dr Cecilia Devers is a senior lecturer (associate professor) of speech and language sciences at Leeds Beckett University, and is also a fully licensed clinical practitioner through the HCPC (UK), RCSLT (UK), and ASHA (USA)
About
Dr Cecilia Devers is a senior lecturer (associate professor) of speech and language sciences at Leeds Beckett University, and is also a fully licensed clinical practitioner through the HCPC (UK), RCSLT (UK), and ASHA (USA)
Dr Cecilia Devers is a senior lecturer (associate professor) of Speech and Language Sciences at Leeds Beckett University. She graduated from the School of Medicine at the University of Nevada, USA with a Master of Science (Honours) in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, with a published thesis in the Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal. After practicing clinically for some time, she went on to pursue a doctoral degree from Newcastle University, United Kingdom, further specialising in aphasiology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuro- and psycholinguistics. She also undertook a teaching assistantship for Social Psychology at Newcastle University. Her lecturing role includes medical sciences (anatomy and physiology), aphasiology, language and cognition, evidence-based research for clinical practice, clinical and professional skills, and research project/dissertation supervision. Further, she maintains an active profile in the research community. Her research interests include aphasiology, cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neuropsychology, neuro- and psycholinguistics in healthy and disordered systems, the representation of language and cognition in the brain, and its clinical implications.
Dr Devers' clinical experience includes working with both developmental and acquired pathology populations. She is an international fully licensed practitioner through the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA), Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), and is a current member of the international Academy of Aphasia, a committee member of the British Aphasiology Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Qualifications-
Higher Education Academy Fellowship, Leeds Beckett University, UK
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BA (Honors) in Linguistics, University of Nevada, Reno, University of Nevada, USA
- BSc (Graduate Special) Speech-Language Pathology, University of Nevada, USA
- MSc (Honors) in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, School of Medicine, University of Nevada, USA
- PhD in Aphasiology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro- and Psycholinguistics, Newcastle University, UK
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Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), United Kingdom
- Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)
- Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
- American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA)
- Academy of Aphasia
- British Aphasiology Society (Committee Member)
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Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
Academic positions
Senior Lecturer
Leeds Beckett University, Speech and Language Sciences, Leeds, United Kingdom | 05 January 2016 - present
Degrees
Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, United KingdomPhD Speech and Language Pathology, Aphasiology, Cognitive Neuropsychology, Neuro- and Psycholinguistics
Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United KingdomMSc (Hons) Speech and Language Pathology, Audiology
School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, United StatesBSc Graduate Special (Hons) in Speech and Language Pathology
University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, United StatesBA (Hons) Linguistics
University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, United States
Certifications
Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC)
American Speech-Language and Hearing AssociationRegistered
Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)Certified Practicing Member (CertMRCSLT)
Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) | 01 January 2015 - presentMember
Academy of AphasiaMember
British Aphasiology SocietyFHEA
Higher Education Academy
Postgraduate training
Postgraduate Certificate in Research Training
Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Languages
Spanish; Castilian
Can read, speak and understand
Research interests
Areas of research interest are aphasiology, cognitive neuroscience, neuro- and psycholinguistics in healthy and disordered language systems, and the representation of language and cognition in the brain.and its clinical implications.
Publications (8)
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Using Support Vector Machines to Identify Determinants of Pronoun Difficulty in Aphasia: A preliminary critical review.
17 September 2018
19th International Science of Aphasia Stem-, Spraak- en Taalpathologie Venice, Italy
Devers C, MartÃnez Ferreiro S, Arslan S 24 September 2016
17th Annual Science of Aphasia Conference Stem-, Spraak- en Taalpathologie Venice, Italy
Devers C, Howard D, Webster JAnalysis of Pronominal Word Comprehension
September 2015
Science of Aphasia 2015 16th International Science of Aphasia Conference, September 2015 Aveiro, Portugal
Devers C, Howard D, Webster JRelationship Between The Perception of Hypernasality and Social Judgments in School-aged Children.
July 2013
Cleft-Palate Craniofacial Journal50(4):498-502 SAGE Publications
Watterson, T. , Mancini, M.C. , Lewis, K. , Brancamp, T , Devers M This study investigated both the ability of children to rate nasality and the relationship of those ratings to expert ratings and social acceptance judgments. A total of 10 speech samples were judged for nasality by 44 children ranging in age from 8 to 11 and by an expert judge. Listeners rated nasality on a 3-point response scale. The peer listeners also made five social acceptance ratings about each speaker. Kappas for interrater reliability were moderate to substantial. There was no difference between peer ratings and expert ratings. As ratings of nasality increased, social acceptance ratings became more negative. Professionals who evaluate and treat children with cleft palate should consider the negative social consequences of even mild hypernasality. Purpose
Method
Results
Conclusion
Implications of Explicit and Implicit Discourse-Linked Pronoun Processing in People with Aphasia
16 October 2016
Academy of Aphasia 54th Annual Meeting Llandudno, Wales, UK
Devers C, Howard D, Webster JPronoun processing in post-stroke aphasia: A meta-analytic review of individual data
August 2021
Journal of Neurolinguistics59:101005 Elsevier BV
Arslan S, Devers C, Ferreiro SMPronouns constitute a heterogeneous class of linguistic elements, allowing for expression of referential relationships. Pronouns have an important place in daily communication which speakers and listeners rely heavily on for. Aphasia literature has evidenced that pronoun processing is impaired in people with aphasia (PWA), although explanations underpinning pronoun impairments are mixed. To address this, through a systematic literature review, we identified 42 studies which examined pronoun processing (both production and comprehension) in 474 PWA across 16 different languages. An initial meta-analysis was conducted on the overall data with all PWA and pronoun conditions with an outcome measure indicating whether or not pronoun processing is individually impaired in PWA. Further meta-analytic models were built to compare certain conditions of particular interest (e.g. reflexives vs object pronouns, object vs subject wh-pronouns) in an attempt to further disentangle the explanations behind their difficulty in use. Outputs from our meta-analysis suggest that: (i) a form of pronoun impairment is consistently present in aphasia regardless of aphasia type, fluency or language spoken; (ii) pronoun variables show selectivity in their impairment, for instance, reflexives are better preserved over object pronouns, and the subject-advantage in who-pronouns is language-selective; and (iii) other important linguistic variables that largely predict pronoun impairments include aspects like argument position of subject/object phrases, case marking, cliticization, and the presence of relative clause constructions. These outputs are discussed in relation to neurolinguistic hypotheses that predict pronoun impairments in aphasia.
Using Support Vector Machines to Identify Determinants of Pronoun Difficulty in Aphasia: A preliminary critical review.
17 September 2018
International Sciences of Aphasia Stem-, Spraak- en Taalpathologie Venice, Italy
Devers M, MartÃnez Ferreiro S, Arslan S 14 December 2016
2016 International Aphasia Rehabilitation Conference London, UK
Devers C, Howard D, Webster JNews & Blog Posts
Understanding Apraxia of speech
