Simone Schäffner

Dr. Simone Schäffner serves as a Scientific Associate and Lecturer at the Chair of Pedagogy and Intervention for Language and Communication Impairments within the Institute for Special Education at the Faculty of Human Sciences, Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg. Since January 2021, she has held dual roles as both a lecturer in the Academic Speech Therapy/Speech Therapy program at Würzburg's Vocational School for Speech Therapy and as Coordinator of the Academic Speech Therapy/Logopedics program at the university.

Her educational background includes:

• Doctor of Philosophy (Dr. phil., summa cum laude) from RWTH Aachen University (2018)
• Master of Science in Teaching and Research Logopedics from RWTH Aachen University (2012)
• Bachelor of Science in Logopedics from RWTH Aachen University (2010)
• State-certified Logopedist qualification (2008)

Dr. Schäffner's research centers on multimodal language processing, particularly examining how different sensory inputs affect language comprehension in children with language development disorders. Her work explores bilingual language processing in bimodal bilingual individuals and investigates the relationship between language disorders and sensory integration. A significant portion of her recent research focuses on metacognitive training approaches for improving executive functions in children, with direct applications for speech therapy interventions. She examines gesture production differences, modality switching mechanisms, and the role of modality compatibility in elementary school children's language processing.

Analysis of her publication trajectory reveals a clear progression from foundational research on modality effects in language switching to applied research examining these phenomena in clinical populations. Her work increasingly bridges cognitive psychology and speech therapy, developing evidence-based interventions that translate theoretical findings into practical therapeutic approaches, particularly through metacognitive and working memory training protocols.

Dr. Schäffner supervises bachelor's theses in the Academic Speech Therapy program and coordinates clinical internships at the ENT Clinic of the University Hospital Würzburg. Her teaching encompasses courses on research methodology in speech therapy, language comprehension disorders, and multilingualism.

She leads several active research projects:

• Investigating modality-specific effects in language processing in children with language development disorder
• Conducting multitasking studies to examine modality effects in bimodal bilingual individuals
• Studying the relationship between diagnosed language disorders and sensory integration

Her research takes place within the Chair of Pedagogy and Intervention for Language and Communication Impairments, which functions as part of the university's broader infrastructure for special education research and clinical practice.