Karen Chenausky is an associate professor and director of the Speech in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (SPAN) Lab at Mass General Brigham University. She teaches graduate courses on pediatric speech sound disorders and autism. Her research seeks to understand why so many children with genetic and neurodevelopment disorders do not acquire spoken language on their own, how we can identify these children earlier, and how we can maximize their communicative potential.
Dr. Chenausky has worked as a speech scientist performing acoustic analyses of typical, accented, dysarthric, and developing speech. She has also worked clinically in private practice and for local school districts as a speech pathologist, running social skills groups with verbal children and teens with autism and related disorders. Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation, Autism Science Foundation, Autism Speaks, Simons Searchlight, and the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
- SB, Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT
- MA, Linguistics, University of Connecticut
- MS, Speech Pathology, Boston University
- PhD, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University
Dr. Chenausky employs perceptual, acoustic, and kinematic methods to study spoken language development in children with communication disorders.
Dr. Chenausky has published numerous papers - some titles are highlighted below. You can view a complete listing of Dr. Chenausky's publications on Google Scholar or in her CV.
Factor analysis of signs of childhood apraxia of speech. Journal of Communication Disorders.
In addition, Dr. Chenausky regularly presents at conferences and industry events. Please see her CV for a complete list of presentations.
Considerations for Assessment and Treatment for Children with Complex Communication Profiles.” Oral Presentation, Apraxia-Kids Annual Conference 2025.
“Remote, In-Home Assessment of Spoken Language in Low- and Minimally Verbal Autistic Children.” Oral Presentation, International Society for Autism Research 2025
“Touch-Screen Game to Assess Categorial Perception in Minimally Verbal Children with Autism.” Oral presentation, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 2023
“Speech Ability Affects Expressive Language in Minimally Verbal Autistic Children: Remote Replication of In-Person Findings.” Poster presentation, Gatlinburg Conference 2023
“Speech Therapy for Minimally Verbal Autistic Children: Where are we? Where can we go?” Invited presentation, NIDCD Virtual Workshop on Research Directions for Interventions to Promote Language and Communication in Minimally Verbal/Non-Speaking Individuals with Autism 2023
