Sandra Gillam

Field: Communicative Disorders, Special Education
Areas of Focus: Special Education

Expertise

• Learning Disabilities
• Language Disorders
• Comprehension Disorders
• Speech Disorders
• Reading Disorders
• Randomized Controlled Trial
• Storytelling
• Special Education

Bio

Sandra Gillam is a Professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education and a former Vice President for Speech Language Pathology Practice for the American Speech Language and Hearing Association (ASHA). She earned her BS and MS degrees in Speech Language Pathology and Audiology at Auburn University and began her career as a speech language pathologist in public schools and hospital settings. She obtained her Doctorate at The University of Memphis and began her academic career at The University of Alabama. She currently teaches courses in language assessment and intervention for speech sound and language and literacy disorders. Her research interests include exploring aspects of language and literacy impairments in children with language and learning disorders, with an emphasis in discourse, specifically narrative assessment and intervention. Sandi has received funding for her research from the Institute of Education Sciences and just completed a randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of the SKILL program, which has been published in the Journal of Educational Psychology. She is an expert in educational planning for individuals with language and literacy difficulties, and has given workshops and educational talks in the U.S., Canada, Africa, Chile, Spain, Australia, Italy and Germany. The storytelling intervention (SKILL) has been translated into various languages including Spanish, Persian, and Chinese.