Dr. Farquharson is a speech-language pathologist, professor, and director of the Children’s Literacy and Speech Sound (CLaSS) lab at Florida State University. Using implementation science, she aims to determine factors that influence how children with speech and language disorders acquire literacy skills. She has two related lines of inquiry: 1) examining child-level skills - like, phonological processing, working memory, language, and orthographic knowledge - may influence children’s abilities to learn new words, read, and achieve age-appropriate speech production and 2) working with school-based SLPs on the implementation of evidence-based practices.
As a former school-based SLP, she is interested in determining how these lines of work can be used to create better assessments and treatments for SLPs to use in serving this population of children. Her research is published in the American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, Journal of Communication Disorders, and other peer-reviewed outlets. In 2022, she and her co-authors won the Trailblazer Award from Topics in Language Disorders.
Dr. Farquharson is an ASHA Fellow and has has been an active member of the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) since she was an undergraduate student and has served many leadership roles at the state and national level. In 2023, she served as the ASHA Convention Co-Chair for Speech-Language Pathology, which included recording a music video in Nashville!
She is a Board-Certified Specialist in Child Language and the former Editor-in-Chief for Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. She is a 2022-24 Fellow of the Research Institute for Implementation Science in Education (RIISE).
Dr. Farquharson offers doctoral, master’s, and undergraduate courses on speech sound production/ disorders, clinical phonetics, experimental phonetics, literacy disorders, & clinical methods. Her research activities are open to FSU students who want to become engaged in clinical research aimed towards improving the classroom success of children with speech and language impairments. She loves children’s books and her current favorite is Blob by Anne Appert (Amazon affiliate link).
Education
Post-doctoral Fellow | The Ohio State University
Ph.D. | University of Nebraska-Lincoln
M.S. | Penn State University
B.A. | University of Pittsburgh
Research Interests
speech sound disorders, implementation science, literacy acquisition, classroom success for children with communication impairments
Teaching Interests
speech sound disorders, school-based practices, language development and disorders
Publications & Research
Grants & Awards
Research Grants (Past 5 years)
2025 Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases (IPRD): Developing the Scoring for Expressive Evaluation and Diagnosis (SEED) paradigm (Principal Investigator $12,500)
2023 National Institutes of Health (NIH R01DC020940): Academic Progress in Phonological Learning in Elementary School students with speech sound disorders (APPLES; Co-Principal Investigator; $2.1 million)
2023 FSU Council for Research and Creativity Seed Grant: Developing an Adaptive Professional Development Model for School Professionals' Implementation of Shared Reading Activities (Co-Investigator; $100,000)
2022 FSU College of Communication and Information Seed Grant: The Effects of Practice Based Coaching on the Implementation of Print Referencing Strategies for Paraeducators working with Children with Speech and Language Delays (Principal Investigator; $25,000)
2022 Institute of Politics: National and Global Policies for Children with Disabilities: Examining the Role of Speech-Language Pathologists in the United States and Australia (Co-Principal Investigator; $13,500)
2022 School of Communication Science and Disorders, Academic and Clinical Partnership Grant: Developing a Dyslexia Diagnostic Team (Principal Investigator; $500)
2021 FSU Council for Research and Creativity Multidisciplinary Support Grant: The Effects of Practice Based Coaching on the Implementation of Shared Book Reading Strategies for Paraeducators working with Children with Language Delays (Co-Investigator; $25,000)
Awards (Past 10 Years)
2025 Outstanding Student Organization - Operation Smile (Faculty Advisor)
2024 Outstanding Faculty Research Award, College of Communication and Information
2023 ASHA Fellow
2021 Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Communication and Information, Florida State University
2017 Patricia C. Lindamood Clinical Leadership Award, Ohio School Speech Pathology and Educational Audiology Conference