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Nan Bernstein Ratner
Ed.D. (1982, Boston University, Applied Psycholinguistics), CCC-SLP
Licensed in Speech Language Pathology, State of Maryland
Professor, Department of Hearing & Speech Sciences
Chair, Department of Hearing & Speech Sciences
Faculty Member, Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science (NACS)
Email: nratner@hesp.umd.edu
Phone: 301-405-4217
Room: 0100, LeFrak Hall
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Special Certifications/Honors
Fellow, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
Board recognized fluency specialist, ASHA
Board recognized specialist in child language disorders, ASHA
Temple University's Gallery of Success Alumni Award
International Fluency Association, Distinguished Researcher Award
Research/Clinical Interests
Role of input in language learning
Stuttering
Parent-child interaction
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Courses Taught in the Past Five Years
HESP 300: Introduction to Psycholinguistics
HESP 612: Fluency Disorders
HESP 620: Articulation and Phonological Disorders
HESP 858: Seminar in Speech-Language Pathology
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Research/Clinical Activities
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Current Research Topics:
We are currently investigating the origins of stuttering by analyzing the abilities and behaviors of children within three months of stuttering onset. These young children and their parents participate in both structured and unstructured language and perceptual tasks. This project is a programmatic extension of our longstanding investigations of linguistic factors that affect fluency in both children and adults.
If your child has recently begun to stutter, you live within visiting distance of the University of Maryland, and you would like information about participating in our research, please contact nratner@hesp.umd.edu
Representative research flowing from these projects include the following publications:
Bloodstein, O. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (to appear). A handbook on stuttering (6th edition). Thomson-Delmar.
Hall, N., Wagovich, S. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2006). Language considerations in developmental stuttering. In E. Conture & R. Curlee (eds.) Stuttering and related disorders of fluency (3rd edition). NY: Thieme.
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Tetnowksi, J. (Eds.) (2006). Current issues in stuttering research and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Guitar, B. (2006). Treatment of very early stuttering and parent-administered therapy: the state of the art. In Bernstein Ratner & Tetnowski (Eds.) Current issues in stuttering research and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2005). Treating children with concomitant problems. In R. Lees (ed.) The treatment of stuttering in the young school aged child. London: Whurr. (pp. 161-175).
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2005). Evidence-based practice in stuttering: some questions to consider. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 30, 163-188.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2005). Is phonetic complexity a useful construct in stuttering? Journal of Fluency Disorders, 30, 337-341
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2005). Evidence and logic: response to Ingham. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 36, 157-159.
Hakim, Haya Berman & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2004). Nonword repetition abilities of children who stutter: An exploratory study. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 29, 179-199. Click here to read this article.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2004). Fluency. In B. Goldstein (ed.). Language Development: a focus on the Spanish-English speaker. Baltimore, MD: Brookes. (287-310)
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2004). Caregiver-child interactions and their impact on children's fluency: Implications for treatment. Language, Speech, and Hearing in Schools, 35, 45-56. Click here to read this article.
Silverman, S. & N. Bernstein Ratner (2002). Measuring lexical diversity in children who stutter: Application of vocd. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 27 (4), 1-16. Click here to read this article.
Onslow, M., Ratner, N. & Packman, A. (2001). Changes in linguistic variables during operant, laboratory control of stuttering in children. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 15 (8), 651-662. Click here to read this article.
Miles, S. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2001). Language input to children at stuttering onset. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 44, 1116-1130. Click here to read this article.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2000). Performance or capacity, the DCM model still requires definitions and boundaries it doesn't have. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 25, 337-346. Click here to read this article.
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Silverman, S. (2000). Parental perceptions of children's communicative development at stuttering onset. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 43, 1252-1263. Click here to read this article.
Bonelli, P., Dixon, M., Bernstein Ratner, N. & Onslow, M. (2000). Pre- and post-treatment characteristics of adult-child interactions of stuttering program participants. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 14 (6), 427-446. Click here to read this article.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1998). Linguistic and perceptual characteristics of children at stuttering onset. In E. Charles Healey & H. F. M. Peters (Eds.), Proceedings of the Second World Congress on Fluency Disorders. Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Nijmegen University Press, 3-6.
Silverman, S. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (1997). Stuttering and syntactic complexity in adolescence. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 40 (1), 95-106.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1997). Stuttering: a psycholinguistic perspective. In R. Curlee & G. Siegel (Eds.), Nature and treatment of stuttering: New directions (2nd edition). Needham, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1997). Linguistic behaviors at the onset of stuttering. In W. Hulstijn, H. F. M. Peters & P.van Lieshout (Eds.), Speech production: motor control, brain research and fluency disorders. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1995). Language complexity and stuttering in children. Topics in Language Disorders, 15 (3), 32-47.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1992). Measurable outcomes of instructions to change maternal speech style to children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 14-20.
Stephenson-Opsal, D. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (1988). Maternal speech rate modification and childhood stuttering. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 13 (1), 49-56.
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Sih, C. C. (1987). The effects of gradual increases in sentence length and complexity on children's dysfluency. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 52 (3), 278-287.
Bernstein, N. (1981). Are there constraints on childhood dysfluency? Journal of Fluency Disorders, 6, 341-350.
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II. Role of Adult Input to Children
Dr. Ratner also has a longstanding interest in the role of adult input to children. We are currently exploring the intelligibility of Dr. Ratner's well-known CHILDES Archive database of maternal speech to determine the relative advantage that the child-addressed speech register provides language learning children. The database has been well-explored for its acoustic properties, and its structural properties through computer learning algorithms, and is currently being subjected to intelligibility analyses.
Transcripts of Dr. Bernstein Ratner's mother-child database are available at the Child Language Data Exchange web site at http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/data/eng-usa/ under the Bernstein.zip folder. These transcripts are linked to audio files, which may be downloaded at the CHILDES site at http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/data/eng-usa/. Information about playing audio-linked transcripts can be found at the CHILDES main site, http://childes.psy.cmu.edu. Many researchers have used these files in their research, and you are invited to do the same. We do ask that you notify Dr. Bernstein Ratner if you publish or present research based on the data.
Summaries of this program of research can be found in the following publications:
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Rooney, B. (2001). How accessible is the lexicon in Motherese? In J. Weissenborn & B. Hohle (Eds.), Approaches to bootstrapping: Phonological, lexical, syntactic and neurophysiological aspects of early language acquisition. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1995). From Signal to Syntax - But what is the nature of the signal? In J. Morgan & K. Demuth (Eds.), From signal to syntax: bootstrapping from speech to grammar in early acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1988). Patterns of parental vocabulary selection in speech to young children. Journal of Child Language, 15 (3),481-492.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1987). The phonology of parent-child speech. In K. Nelson & A. van Kleeck (Eds.), Children's language: Volume 6 (pp. 159-174) . Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
III. Linkages Among Phonology, Fluency, Lexicon, and Syntax in Specifically-Language Impaired (SLI) Children
A third area of current research activity is the linkages among phonology, fluency, lexicon, and syntax in specifically-language impaired (SLI) children. The relevant data for these linked projects are supplied by colleague Leslie Rescorla of Bryn Mawr College, one of the world's foremost authorities on the origins and development of SLI.
Aspects of this program of research appear in the following publications:
Boscolo, B., Bernstein Ratner, N. & Rescorla, L. (2002). Fluency characteristics of children with a history of Specific Expressive Language Impairment (SLI-E). American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 11, 41-49. Click here to read this article.
Pharr, A. B., Bernstein Ratner, N. & Rescorla, L. (2000). Syllable structure development of toddlers with Specific Expressive Language Impairment (SLI-E). Applied Psycholinguistics, 21, 429-449. Click here to read this article.
Bernstein Ratner, N., Rooney, B. & MacWhinney, B. (1996). Analysis of stuttering using CHILDES and CLAN. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 10 (3), 169-187.
Rescorla, L. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (1996). Phonetic profiles of typically developing and language-delayed toddlers. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 39, 153-165.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1993). Phonological analysis of child speech. In J. Sokolov & C. Snow (Eds.), Handbook of research in language development using CHILDES (pp.324-372) . Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1988). Mother-child speech database. Child Language Data Exchange System (ChiLDES). Reference (database description and access): B. MacWhinney (1991, 1995). The CHiLDES project: tools for analyzing talk. Hillsdale: NJ: Erlbaum. pp. 230-231; 344.
All of Professor Ratner's research makes strong use of the CHILDES Archive, to which she has contributed both data and technical support for CLAN program development (i.e., the development of the PHONFREQ and MODREP utilities).
IV. Potential Prelinguistic Predictors of Later Language Impairment
Professor Ratner recently collaborated on a project with Dr. Rochelle Newman, funded by the Bamford-Lahey Children's Foundation to study whether infant perceptional performance relates to later language development. A synopsis of the funded project can be found at the Bamford-Lahey Children's Foundation Grant Page.
Aspects of this program of research appear in the following publications:
Bernstein Ratner, N., Newman, R., Jusczyk, P., Jusczyk, A-M. & Dow, K. (2006).
Infants' early ability to segment the conversational speech signal predicts later language development. Developmental Psychology, 42 (4), 643-55.
Rescorla, L., Bernstein Ratner, N. & Jusczyk, P. (2005) Relationships between the Language Development Survey (LDS) and the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (CDI: WS). American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 14, 156-163.
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Selected Publications
Books and volumes edited
Berko Gleason, J., & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2008, in press). The development of language (7th edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Bloodstein, O. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2007). A handbook on stuttering (6th edition). Thomson-Delmar.
Bernstein Ratner, N.& Tetnowksi, J. (Eds.) (2006). Current issues in stuttering research and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Menn, L. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (Eds.), (2000). Methods for studying language production. Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum.
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Healey, E. C. (Eds.), (1999). Stuttering: Bridging the gap between theory and practice. Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum.
Berko Gleason, J. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (1998). Psycholinguistics (2nd edition). Austin: HBJ.
Selected Book Chapters
Hall, N., Wagovich, S.& Bernstein Ratner, N. (2006). Language considerations in developmental stuttering. In E. Conture & R. Curlee (eds.) Stuttering and related disorders of fluency (3rd edition). NY: Thieme.
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Guitar, B. (2006). Treatment of very early stuttering and parent-administered therapy: the state of the art. In Bernstein Ratner & Tetnowski (Eds.) Current issues in stuttering research and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2005). Treating children with concomitant problems. In R. Lees (ed.) The treatment of stuttering in the young school aged child. London: Whurr. (pp. 161-175).
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2004). Fluency. In B. Goldstein (ed.). Language Development: a focus on the Spanish-English speaker. Baltimore, MD: Brookes. (287-310)
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Berko Gleason, J. (2001). Psycholinguistics. In G. Adelman & B. H. Smith (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 3rd edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science (CD-ROM)
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Rooney, B. (2001). How accessible is the lexicon in Motherese? In J. Weissenborn & B. Hohle (Eds.), Approaches to Bootstrapping: Phonological, lexical and neurophysiological aspects of early language acquisition. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1997). Linguistic behaviors at the onset of stuttering. In W. Hulstijn, H. F. M. Peters, and P. van Lieshout (Eds.), Speech production: Motor control, brain research and fluency disorders. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1997). Atypical language development. In J. Berko Gleason (Ed.), The development of language (Fourth edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1997). Stuttering: A psycholinguistic perspective. In R. Curlee & G. Siegel (Eds.), Nature and treatment of stuttering: New directions (2nd edition). Needham, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1995). From signal to syntax - But what is the nature of the signal? In J. Morgan & K. Demuth (Eds.), From signal to syntax: Bootstrapping from speech to grammar in early acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1993). Phonological analysis of child speech. In J. Sokolov & C. Snow (Eds.), Handbook of research in language development using CHILDES (pp. 324-372). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1987). The phonology of parent-child speech. In K. Nelson & A. van Kleeck (Eds.), Children's language: Volume 6 (pp. 159-174). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Selected Articles
Newman, R. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2007). Factors that affect naming in adults and children who stutter. Proceedings of the 5th World Congress on Fluency Disorders, Dublin, Ireland, July 2006.(pp. 136-140).
Bernstein Ratner, N., Newman, R., Jusczyk, P., Jusczyk, A-M. & Dow, K. (2006).
"Infants' early ability to segment the conversational speech signal predicts later language development.” Developmental Psychology, 42 (4), 643-55.
Nail-Chiwetalu, B. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2006). Information literacy for speech-language pathologists: a key to evidence-based practice. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 37 (3), 157-67.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2005). Evidence-based practice in stuttering: some questions to consider. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 30, 163-188.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2005). Is phonetic complexity a useful construct in stuttering? Journal of Fluency Disorders, 30, 337-341
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2005). Evidence and logic: response to Ingham. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 36, 157-159.
Rescorla, L., Bernstein Ratner, N. & Jusczyk, P. (2005) Relationships between the Language Development Survey (LDS) and the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (CDI: WS). American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 14, 156-163.
Hakim, Haya Berman & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2004). Nonword repetition abilities of children who stutter: An exploratory study. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 29, 179-199. Click here to read this article.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2004). Caregiver-child interactions and their impact on children's fluency: Implications for treatment. Language, Speech, and Hearing in Schools, 35, 45-56. Click here to read this article.
Silverman, S. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2002). Measuring lexical diversity in children who stutter: Application of vocd. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 27 (4), 1-16. Click here to read this article.
Boscolo, B., Bernstein Ratner, N. & L. Rescorla (2002). Fluency characteristics of children with a history of Specific Expressive Language Impairment (SLI-E). American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
Onslow, M., Ratner, N. & Packman, A. (2001). Changes in linguistic variables during operant, laboratory control of stuttering in children. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 15 (8), 651-662. Click here to read this article.
Miles, S. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2001). Language input to children at stuttering onset. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 44, 1116-1130. Click here to read this article.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (2000). Performance or capacity, the DCM model still requires definitions and boundaries it doesn't have. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 25, 337-346. Click here to read this article.
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Silverman, S. (2000). Parental perceptions of children's communicative development at stuttering onset. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 43, 1252-1263. Click here to read this article.
Bonelli, P., Dixon, M., Bernstein Ratner, N. & Onslow, M. (2000) Pre- and post-treatment characteristics of adult-child interactions of Lidcombe stuttering program participants.
Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 14 (6), 427-446. Click here to read this article.
Pharr, A. B., Bernstein Ratner, N. & Rescorla, L. (2000). Syllable structure development of toddlers with Specific Expressive Language Impairment (SLI-E). Applied Psycholinguistics,
21, 429-449. Click here to read this article.
Silverman, S. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (1997). Stuttering and syntactic complexity in adolescence. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 40 (1), 95-106.
Bernstein Ratner, N., Rooney, B. & MacWhinney, B. (1996). Analysis of stuttering using CHILDES and CLAN. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 10 (3), 169-187.
Rescorla, L. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (1996). Phonetic profiles of typically developing and language-delayed toddlers. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 39, 153-165.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1995). Language complexity and stuttering in children. Topics in Language Disorders, 15 (3), 32-47.
Hemmer, V. H. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (1994). Phonological and linguistic performance of twins discordant for otitis media. Journal of Communication Disorders, 27 (2), 91-106.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1992). Measurable outcomes of instructions to change maternal speech style to children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 14-20.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1988). Patterns of parental vocabulary selection in speech to young children. Journal of Child Language, 15 (3), 481-492.
Stephenson-Opsal, D. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (1988). Maternal speech rate modification and childhood stuttering. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 13 (1), 49-56.
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Sih, C. C. (1987). The effects of gradual increases in sentence length and complexity on children's dysfluency. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 52 (3), 278-287.
Bernstein Ratner, N. (1986). Durational cues which mark clause boundaries in mother-child speech. Journal of Phonetics, 14 (2), 303-309.
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Benitez, M. (1985). Linguistic analysis of a bilingual stutterer. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 10 (4), 211-219.
Bernstein Ratner, N. & Pye, C. (1984). Higher pitch in babytalk is not universal: Acoustic evidence from Quiche Mayan. Journal of Child Language, 11 (3), 515-522.
Bernstein, N. (1981). Are there constraints on childhood dysfluency? Journal of Fluency Disorders, 6, 341-350.
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