Elizabeth Walker

Elizabeth Walker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Iowa, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies and is a Dean's Scholar. Her work bridges clinical audiology and developmental science, focusing on children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Her research investigates how inconsistent auditory access affects language, cognitive, and neural development in children with hearing loss. Using standardized assessments, dynamic learning tasks, dual-task paradigms, and clinical measures, her lab aims to improve evidence-based practices in audiology and speech-language pathology.

The recent publications highlight trends in pediatric audiological research, particularly the impact of hearing aid use on neural processing, language and reading outcomes in school-aged children with mild hearing loss, and the role of educational audiologists in early intervention. Key themes include auditory experience, executive function, and the long-term academic implications of hearing loss.

• Amount of hearing aid use impacts neural oscillatory dynamics (2021)
• Expanding educational audiologists' roles post-newborn screening (2021)
• Variation in auditory experience and executive function (2021)
• Timeliness of EHDI in NICU infants (2020)
• Language and reading outcomes in mild hearing loss (2020)

Dr. Walker is actively involved in federally funded research, including multiple NIH-NIDCD grants. She is the Principal Investigator on a project examining reading comprehension in adolescents with hearing loss and a Co-Investigator on studies developing clinical tools for mild hearing loss and assessing complex listening skills in school-age children.

She leads the Pediatric Audiology and Language Lab, which conducts interdisciplinary research on pediatric hearing loss and language development, collaborating with clinicians, researchers, and educators to translate findings into improved clinical care.