Rate My Professor Rachael Unicomb

Associate Professor Rachael Unicomb is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher for the Speech Pathology (honours) program in the School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in 2015 and Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours) from the University of Newcastle. Her professional career encompasses clinical and academic roles, including Clinical Educator at the University of Newcastle from 2011 to 2015, and Speech Pathologist at Firstchance Early Intervention Centre from 2009 to 2012. Unicomb possesses extensive clinical experience with paediatric caseloads in early intervention, community health, and private practice, with a focus on families and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. She contributed to establishing a program at Uniting Care Burnside’s Newpin emphasizing parent-child interactions and communication development. Currently, she maintains an active clinical caseload specializing in the assessment and treatment of stuttering across all ages and has previously worked in the university's specialist stuttering clinic and Speech Pathology in Schools Program.

Unicomb's research interests include stuttering across the lifespan, treatment of co-occurring stuttering and speech sound disorders, speech sound disorders, child speech and language development, virtual reality and simulation for speech pathology education, gamification in undergraduate teaching, blended learning, clinical education, evidence-based practice, fluency, paediatric language, and professional issues in speech pathology. She has developed preliminary guidelines for simultaneously treating co-occurring stuttering and speech sound disorders. Notable publications comprise 'Assessment of reliable change using 95% credible intervals for the differences in proportions: A statistical analysis for case-study methodology' (2015, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research), 'Prevalence and features of comorbid stuttering and speech sound disorder at age 4 years' (2020, Journal of Communication Disorders), 'Parental perceptions of stuttering in children: A systematic review of the literature' (2022, Speech, Language and Hearing), and 'Evidence for the treatment of co-occurring stuttering and speech sound disorder: A clinical case series' (2017, International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology). She has presented extensively at conferences and contributed to chapters like 'Virtual reality (VR) oral musculature assessment (VOMA): Using VR to solve a real-world problem in health practice' (2025). Awards include Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, University of Newcastle Women in Research Fellow, Advanced HE Fellow, Research Higher Degree Publication Prize (2014), and Australian Postgraduate Award (2011). Her research features international collaborations, grant funding, and publications advancing clinical practices for communication disorders in contexts such as Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and China.