Verena Frank

Dr. Verena Frank is a Scientific Associate at the Chair of Pedagogy and Intervention for Language and Communication Impairments within the Institute for Special Education at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. She contributes to research in the

• Focus research laboratory
• IkoGeWo project

and teaches in academic speech therapy and teacher training programs.

Her research focuses on

• Early childhood language acquisition
• Pre-linguistic communication
• Preventative language strategies
• Cross-cultural infant vocal development

with particular emphasis on multimodal approaches in inclusive settings.

Recent publications highlight trends in

• Iconic gesture applications for vocabulary expansion
• German Sign Language (DGS) integration
• Infant comfort sound analysis
• Preterm infant communication development
• Acoustic vocal research
• Early intervention frameworks

spanning academic speech therapy, developmental linguistics, and special education.

She supervises bachelor's theses in academic speech therapy and participates in state examination committees. Active in the Deutscher Bundesverband der akademischen Sprachtherapeuten (dbs), her work connects academia with practical implementation in Sprach-Kitas and schools.