Pumpki Lei Su, PhD, CCC-SLP

Pumpki Lei Su is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech, Language, Hearing at the University of Texas at Dallas. She completed her postdoc training in bilingual language development and assessment at University of Delaware. She received her PhD in Hearing and Speech Sciences from Vanderbilt University in 2020 and her Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Science in Neurodevelopmental Disorders from Vanderbilt University in 2018. She received her Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University in 2015, with double majors in Linguistics and Communication Sciences & Disorders and minor in French Language and Literature. She is also a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist. 

Her current research focuses on language development and parent-child interaction in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and bilingual children. She hopes to serve the field of speech-language pathology and improve long-term language outcomes in diverse language learners through two lines of research: 

• Identify malleable aspects of caregiver-child interaction that optimize language outcomes in diverse groups of children 

• Developing culturally and linguistically sensitive approaches to assess language development and identify language impairment in children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

Her work has been published in multiple journals, including Autism, Journal of Early Intervention, Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Journal of Speech Language Hearing Sciences, Frontiers in Psychology, etc. She has also presented her work at national and international conferences.