Rate My Professor Cara Singer

Cara M. Singer, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is an Associate Professor and Director of the Speech-Language Pathology program in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Grand Valley State University. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, Master of Arts from the University of Iowa, and Doctor of Philosophy from Vanderbilt University. Certified as a speech-language pathologist, Dr. Singer directs the Stuttering in Pediatrics and Adults (SPA) Lab, focusing her research on stuttering across the lifespan in children and adults. Her investigations include clinical characteristics associated with stuttering persistence, predictors using cumulative risk approaches, temperament and vocabulary relations in stuttering trajectories, attention and speech-language dissociations, speech-language pathologists' practices in evaluating persistence prognosis, self-assessments of stuttering practices by school practitioners, validation of parent rating scales for children's speech, and case studies on treating concomitant issues like lateral lisp in young children who stutter.

Dr. Singer's key publications include 'Clinical Characteristics Associated With Stuttering Persistence: A Meta-Analysis' (2020), 'Predicting Persistent Developmental Stuttering Using a Cumulative Risk Approach' (2021), 'Speech-Language Pathologists' Practices Related to Evaluating Persistence Prognosis for Children Who Stutter: A Survey Study' (2021), 'Stuttering Practice Self-Assessment by School Speech-Language Practitioners' (2020), 'Attention, Speech-Language Dissociations, and Stuttering Chronicity' (2019), 'Differences in the Relation Between Temperament and Vocabulary Based on Children’s Stuttering Trajectories' (2019), 'Validation of the Vanderbilt Responses to Your Child's Speech Rating Scale for Parents of Young Children Who Stutter' (2022), and 'Treating a Young Child Who Stutters' Lateral Lisp: A Case Study' (2023). She mentors undergraduate and graduate students in research projects such as bibliotherapy to enhance resilience in preschool children with fluency disorders, surveys on acknowledging stuttering with children, school accommodations for students who stutter or have developmental language disorder, and attitudes toward people who stutter among university faculty, staff, and students. Dr. Singer serves on the Faculty Research and Development Committee, contributes to SLP program accreditation and admissions, and leads efforts in departmental research and student assistantships.