Krystal Werfel | Child Language and Literacy Lab

Krystal Werfel, PhD, CCC-SLP, completed her PhD in 2012 (Dissertation Title: Contribution of linguistic knowledge to spelling ability in elementary school children). She received a B.S. in Child Development (2006) from the University of Tennessee and a M.S. in speech-language pathology (2008), with an emphasis in interdisciplinary aural habilitation, from Vanderbilt. She was a recipient of the ASHA Students Preparing for Research and Academic Careers Award in 2007. As part of her SPARC award, Krystal completed a research project entitled: Kindergarten Children’s Phonological Awareness: Segmentation and Representation of Consonant Blends, which continued as her first PhD research project. Krystal received the American Speech-Language Hearing Foundation Student Research Grant in Early Childhood Language Development (2009) to support her second PhD research project: Phonemic Awareness Training for Preschool Children with Hearing Loss.

Krystal's dissertation, Contributions of Linguistic Knowledge to Spelling of Children with and without SLI, was funded by the Jeanne S. Chall Research Fellowship from the International Reading Association. She was a 2010 recipient of the American Speech-Language Hearing Foundation New Century Scholars Doctoral Scholarship. Her research interests include language and literacy development in children with hearing loss and literacy development in children with and without language impairment. During her doctoral program, Krystal was a trainee on a Leadership Training Grant from the US Department of Education, Preparing Teachers/Scholars in Language and Literacy, (PI: Schuele). Krystal is now an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina.

Conference Presentations

Korrapati, K., Werfel, K., Barnett, Z., & Schuele, C. M. (2013, November). Visual Attention to Print During Storybook Reading in Preschool Children with and without Hearing Loss. Poster at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, Chicago, IL.

Werfel, K., Lorch, S., & Schuele, C. M. (2013, November). Past-Tense marking in Oral Reading: A Critical Marker for SLI in School-Age Children? Poster at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, Chicago, IL.

Werfel, K., Lund, E., & Schuele, C. M. (2013, November). What is Explicit Phonemic Awareness? Poster at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, Chicago, IL.

Werfel, K., Crowe, C., & Schuele, C. M. (2012, November). Prevalence of poor comprehenders in a rural US school district. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, Atlanta, GA.

Werfel, K. & Schuele, C. M. (2012, November).Contribution of linguistic knowledge to spelling performance. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, Atlanta, GA.

White Berns, J., Werfel, K., Schuele, C. M., & Lewis, B. (2012, November). Spelling performance of children with speech-sound disorder and/or language impairment. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, Atlanta, GA.

Lund, E. A., Werfel, K. L., & Schuele, C. M. (2012, June). Phonological awareness skills of monolingual and bilingual children with hearing loss. Poster at the Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI.

Werfel, K. L., Lund, E. A., & Schuele, C. M. (2012, June). Print awareness skills of children with hearing loss. Poster presented at the 33rd Annual Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders in Madison, WI.

Lund, E. A., Werfel, K. L., & Schuele, C. M. (2012, April). Print awareness skills of children with hearing loss. Presentation at the Council for Exceptional Children Annual Convention, Denver, CO.

Werfel, K. L., Lund, E. A. & Schuele, C. M. (2012, April). Phonological awareness and letter knowledge in preschool children with hearing loss. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the Council for Exceptional Children, Denver, CO.

Lund, E. A., Werfel, K. L., & Schuele, C. M. (2011, November). Early sequential bilingual language learners' adherence to mutual exclusivity. Poster at The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, San Diego, CA.

Werfel, K. L., Schuele, C. M., & Kennedy, K. (2011, November). Use of the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn) for older children. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association, San Diego, CA.

Lund, E. A., Werfel, K. L., & Schuele, C. M. (2011, July). Emergent literacy skills of bilingual language learners with hearing loss. Poster presented at the 13th Symposium of Cochlear Implants in Children, Chicago IL.

Werfel, K. L., Lund, E. A., Soman, U., & Schuele, C.M. (2011, July). Phonemic awareness skills of deaf educators. Poster presented at the 13th Symposium of Cochlear Implants in Children, Chicago IL.

Werfel, K. L., & Schuele, C. M. (2011, June). Error analysis of initial sound segmentation in children with hearing loss. Poster presented at the Annual Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison, WI

Werfel, K. L., & Schuele, C. M. (2010, November). Phonological awareness training in preschool children with hearing loss. Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Philadelphia, PA.

Simon, C., Werfel, K., & Schuele, C.M. (2010, July). Vowel representation in kindergarten children's spelling. Poster session presented at the Summer Research Symposium, Nashville, TN.

Craig, J., Fisher, J., Acquaah-Harrison, T., Lineback, A., Makoba, L., Werfel, K., & Schuele, C.M. (2009, November). Increasing preschool teacher knowledge of speech-language and literacy. Poster session presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, New Orleans, LA.

Schuele, C.M., Brako-Arndt, K., Spencer, E., Guillot, K., Werfel, K., & Fisher, J. (2009, November). Preschoolers' production of relative clauses in elicited tasks. Poster session presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, New Orleans, LA.

Werfel, K., & Schuele, C.M. (2009, November). Kindergarten children's segmentation and representation of consonant blends: Educational implications. Poster session presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, New Orleans, LA.

Werfel, K., & Schuele, C.M. (2009, November). Shared storybook reading with children with hearing loss. Poster session presented at the Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, New Orleans, LA.

Publications

Korrapati, K., Werfel, K., Barnett, Z., and Schuele, C. M. (2013). Visual Attention to Print in Preschool Children with and without Hearing Loss, Young Scientist: A High School Research Journal.

Werfel, K. & Schuele, C. M. (2012). Segmentation and Representation of Consonant Blends in Kindergarten Children's Spellings. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 43, 292-307.

Simon, C. G., Werfel, K. L., & Schuele, C. M. (2011). Vowel representation in the spelling of kindergarten children. Young Scientist, 1, 29-31.

Awards

Early Childhood Language Research Grant, American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation

Students Preparing for Academic and Research Career (SPARC) Award, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

Travel Award to the Symposium for Research on Child Language Disorders

New Century Scholars Doctoral Scholarship, American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation ($10,000)

Jeanne S. Chall Dissertation Award, International Reasing Association

Lessons for Success Conference Fellow, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association