Jill Thorson

Jill Thorson serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders within the College of Health and Human Services. Recognized with the 2024 Excellence in Teaching Award, she demonstrates exceptional commitment to student-centered pedagogy across undergraduate and graduate curricula, particularly in courses like Language Acquisition and Clinical Phonetics where she transforms complex concepts into accessible learning experiences through active strategies and technological integration.

Her research investigates prosodic mechanisms in child language development, with emphasis on naturalistic caregiver-child interactions, autism spectrum communication patterns, and clinical assessment methodologies. She examines how pitch contours, intonation, and rhythmic patterns facilitate language acquisition in diverse populations, employing acoustic analysis of museum visits, classroom settings, and spontaneous speech to uncover links between prosody and cognitive processing.

Recent publications (2020-2025) reveal consistent focus on prosodic assessment innovations, cross-linguistic autism studies, and the role of intonation in attentional guidance. Key trends include statistical learning networks, referent processing through pitch variation, and clinical applications for minimally verbal children, demonstrating her commitment to bridging theoretical linguistics with therapeutic practice.

Scientific Awards:

• Excellence in Teaching Award, College of Health and Human Services (2024)

Dr. Thorson maintains an active research laboratory mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in hands-on projects, with advisees consistently crediting her one-on-one consultations and collaborative environment for their professional development as clinicians. While specific grant details aren't provided, her extensive publication record indicates sustained research funding supporting naturalistic methodology development.

Her laboratory specializes in acoustic analysis of real-world communication, conducting studies in preschool classrooms and museum settings to document prosodic patterns in typically developing children and those with autism spectrum disorders, with current work advancing assessment tools for clinical speech pathology applications.