ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT
 
2015-present                      
Assistant Professor, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
 
2014-2015
Post-doctoral research fellow. Facial Affective and Communicative Expressions (FACE) Lab, Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, Emerson College. Supervisor: Ruth Grossman.
 
2011-2014          
Post-doctoral research fellow, Center for Autism Research Excellence (CARE), Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University. Supervisor: Helen Tager-Flusberg.
 
2010-2011          
Post-doctoral researcher, Psychology, The University of Chicago. Supervisor: Susan Goldin-Meadow.
 
EDUCATION                        
 
2010                       
Doctor of Philosophy, Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin.
Dissertation title: The Signing of Deaf Children with Autism: Lexical Phonology and Perspective-Taking in the Visual-Spatial Modality. Advisor: Richard P. Meier. Prize for the Outstanding Dissertation in the Social Sciences, Business, and Education, The University of Texas at Austin.
 
2004                       
Master of Arts, Linguistics, The University of Texas at Austin.
Thesis: How Infants Learn Signs for Objects: Testing the Nature of Unimodal Mappings. Readers: Richard P. Meier and Leslie B. Cohen.
 
1999                       
Bachelor of Arts, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.
Major in Italian Studies. Recipient of Scott Prize for Excellence in Romance Languages.
 
AWARDS, GRANTS, AND FELLOWSHIPS
Total extramural funding to-date = $239,619
 
2017
Grant to support research in Social Justice, Human Rights, Diversity, and Inclusion from Miami University. Amount: $4,300.

2016                       
Advancing Academic-Research Careers (AARC) Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Amount: $5,000.
 
2013                       
Autism Science Foundation Research Enhancement Mini-Grant. Amount: $5,000.
 
2011-2014          
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) for Postdoctoral Fellows from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). Title: “The Effects of Autism on the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children.”
Total Amount: $161,759. Grant number: F32DC011219.
 
2008-2010          
Autism Speaks Predoctoral Fellowship. Title: “Visual Perspective-Taking and the Acquisition of American Sign Language by Deaf Children with Autism.” Total Amount: $56,000.
 
2008-2009          
National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant. Title: “Sign Language in Deaf and Hearing Autistic Children.” PI: Richard P. Meier; Co-PI: Aaron Shield. Total Amount: $11,860. Grant number: BCS-0746009.
 
2005-2007          
Donald D. Harrington Graduate Fellowship, The University of Texas at Austin.
 
2005                       
Mason-Perkins Fulbright Fellowship in Deafness. Researcher at the Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy. Supervisor: Virginia Volterra
 
2002-2004          
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

2001-2002            
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities.
 
PUBLICATIONS: PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES

  1. Shield, A., Knapke, K., Henry, M., Srinivasan, S., & Bhat, A. (2017). Impaired praxis in gesture imitation by deaf children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism and Developmental Language Impairments.
  2. Shield, A., Cooley, F., & Meier, R.P. (2017). Sign language echolalia in deaf children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
  3. Bhat, A.N., Srinivasan, S.M., Woxholdt, C., & Shield, A. (2016). Differences in praxis performance and receptive language during fingerspelling between deaf children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Autism. doi: 10.1177/1362361316672179
  4. Shield, A., Pyers, J., Martin, A., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2016). Relations between language and cognition in native-signing children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research. doi: 10.1002/aur.1621.
  5. Shield, A., Meier, R.P., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2015). The use of sign language pronouns by native-signing children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45, 2128-2145.
  6. Shield, A. (2014). Preliminary findings of similarities and differences in the speech and sign language of children with autism. Seminars in Speech and Language, 35, 309-320.
  7. Mood, D., & Shield, A. (2014). Clinical use of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second Edition with children who are deaf. Seminars in Speech and Language, 35, 288-300.
  8. Szarkowski, A., Mood, D., Shield, A., Wiley, S., & Yoshinaga-Itano, C. (2014). A summary of current understanding regarding children with autism spectrum disorder who are deaf or hard of hearing. Seminars in Speech and Language, 35, 241-259.
  9. Shield, A.,& Meier, R.P (2012). Palm reversal errors in native-signing children with autism. Journal of Communication Disorders, 45, 439-454.
  10. Goldin-Meadow, S., Shield, A., Lenzen, D., Herzig, M., & C. Padden (2012). The gestures ASL signers use tell us when they are ready to learn math. Cognition, 123, 448-453.
 
PUBLICATIONS: PEER-REVIEWED CHAPTERS
  1. Shield, A. (2016). Language and communication with children who are deaf + ASD. In: Raising and Educating Deaf Children: Foundations for Policy, Practice, and Outcomes. Oxford University Press.
  2. Shield, A., & Meier, R.P. (2014). Personal pronoun avoidance in deaf children with autism. In W. Orman & M.J. Valleau (Eds.), Proceedings of the 38th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (403-415). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
  3. Shield, A. & Meier, R.P. (2013). The acquisition of sign language by deaf children with autism spectrum disorder. In D. Quinto-Pozos (Ed.), Multilingual Aspects of Signed Language Communication and Disorder (90-122). Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.
  4. Shield, A. & J. Baldridge (2007). A morphological analyzer for American Sign Language. Proceedings of the Texas Linguistics Society X: Computational Linguistics for Less-Studied Languages. CSLI Publications.
  5. Shield, A. (2005). Ideological conflict at group boundaries: The hearing children of Deaf adults. In C. Sunakawa, T. Ikeda, S. Finch & M. Shetty (Eds.), Texas Linguistic Forum 48, Papers from SALSA XII.
  6. Shield, A. (2003). The 64 million dollar vowel: Anglo pronunciation of a Spanish last name in Texas. In Penn Working Papers in Linguistics Volume 9.2, Papers from NWAV 31.
 
EDITED VOLUME

  1. Shield, A., Hallett, T., Oshima, S., & S. Floyd, Eds. (2006). Papers from Symposium About Language and Society at Austin XIV, Texas Linguistic Forum 50.
 
WORKS IN PREPARATION
  1. Shield, A., & Meier, R.P. (resubmitted). Learning an embodied visual language. To be submitted Fall 2017 to a Frontiers in Psychology special issue on Visual Language.
  2. Shield, A., Salamy, N., & Mood, D. (in prep). Assessing sign language development in deaf children with ASD. To appear in Mann, W. (Ed.), Handbook of Language Assessment across Modalities. Oxford University Press.
  3. Shield, A., & Randall, K. (in prep). A longitudinal study of a bimodal bilingual child with autism spectrum disorder. To be submitted Summer 2018 to Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.
  4. Shield, A., Bone, D., Narayaran, S., & Grossman, R. (in prep). Linguistic correlates of perceived social skills in children and adolescents with high-functioning autism.
 
INVITED TALKS
  1. “What sign language research can teach us about language and language disorder.” Invited talk at Grinnell College Department of Linguistics, April 17, 2017.
  2. “What sign language research can teach us about language and language disorder.” Talk presented as part of the What the L? speaker series. Miami University, December 5, 2016.
  3. Autism Science Foundation live-chat on the use of sign language with children with autism spectrum disorder. August 24, 2016.
  4. “Defining the precision hypothesis: The USE model.” Talk presented at the Consortium on Autism and Science Language Meeting at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA, December 11-13, 2015.
  5. “Research with deaf children on the autism spectrum: Implications for theory and practice.” Talk presented at the Panel on Sign Language Research, University of Connecticut, January 15, 2015.
  6. “What (deaf) children with autism can teach us.” Talk presented at Conversations on Autism & Sign Language (CASL): Unlocking the Emergence of Social Communication. Stony Brook University, December 15, 2014.
  7. “ASL in deaf children with autism.” Talk presented to the American Society for Deaf Children conference, Family Strong: Together We Stand, The Learning Center for the Deaf, Framingham, MA, June 28, 2014.
  8. “Palms, points, and pronouns: Language and cognition in deaf children with autism.” Talk presented to the University of Connecticut Developmental Psychology Colloquium, October 25, 2013.
  9. “Autismo e sordità: Nuove scoperte e sfide.” Talk presented in Italian at the Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy, July 19, 2013.
  10. "Autism, deafness, and sign language: Research issues and clinical implications.” Talk presented to the Boston Medical Center Developmental Pediatrics literary seminar, March 28, 2013.
  11. “Palms, points, and pronouns: Language and cognition in deaf children with autism.” Talk presented to the Harvard University Language and Cognition Group, Department of Psychology, February 26, 2013.
  12. “Theoretical implications of research on deaf children with autism.” Talk presented at the Boston University Developmental Science Colloquium and Brown Bag Series, March 28, 2012.
  13. “Preliminary goals of research into deafness and autism: Documenting and making connections.” Talk at York University, England, November 11, 2011.
  14. “Phonological errors in the signing of deaf children with autism: Clues to cognition.” Talk at the Deafness, Cognition, and Language Centre (DCAL), University College London, November 10, 2011.
  15. “Sign language and autism: An intersection of modality, language, and cognition.” Talk given at the University of Chicago Workshop on Language, Cognition, and Computation, January 28, 2011.
  16. “Come i bambini udenti imparano segni per oggetti: Un test sulla natura dei mapping unimodali”. Seminar given in Italian at the Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Rome, Italy, January 2005.
 
REFEREED CONFERENCE PAPERS

  1. “Comparing the effectiveness of backward design approaches with different amounts of metacognitive and deliberate practice.” Talk to be presented at the Original Lilly Conference on College Teaching, Oxford, OH, November 17, 2017.
  2. “Language development in a bimodal bilingual child with autism.” Talk to be presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Annual Convention, Los Angeles, CA, November 9, 2017. [Shield, A., Randall, K., Hughes, W., Stelzer, D., & Belzer, D.]
  3. “Research on deaf children with ASD informs our understanding of autism and language.” Talk presented as part of the symposium “Rethinking Child Language Disorders: Insights from Sign Language Research.” American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington, DC, February 11-15, 2016.
  4. “Autism spectrum disorder among children who are deaf/hard of hearing: Diagnostic & intervention considerations.” Talk presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Annual Convention, Denver, CO, November 12, 2015.
  5. “Sign language experience changes how learners imitate gestures.” Talk presented at the Sixth Conference of the Society for Gesture Studies: Gesture in Interaction, San Diego, CA, July 2014.
  6. "When pronouns are points: Investigating reference to self and other in signing ASD children." Talk presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), Atlanta, GA, May 15, 2014.
  7. “The transparency of sign pronouns does not aid deaf children with autism.” Talk presented at Linguistic Society of America (LSA), Minneapolis, MN, January 5, 2014.
  8. “Personal pronoun avoidance in deaf children with autism.” Talk presented at Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD) 38, November 1, 2013. [Shield, A. & Meier, R.P.]
  9. “Spatial grammar constructions in deaf signing children with autism.” Talk presented at the workshop “Language and Mind in Autism”, International Congress of Linguists (ICL) 19, Geneva, Switzerland, July 25, 2013.
  10. “Different echolalia types in native-signing children with autism.” Talk presented at the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD) pre-conference on development in deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Seattle, WA, April 17, 2013. [Shield, A. & Meier, R.P.]
  11. “Sign language and autism: Phonological errors in the sign language of deaf children with autism.” Talk at the Encontro Nacional Sobre Aquisição da Linguagem (ENAL) VIII, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil, October 18, 2011. [Shield, A. & Meier, R.P., presented by RPM.]
  12. “Sign language and autism: Phonological errors in the sign language of deaf children with autism.” Talk at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil, October 13, 2011. [Shield, A. & Meier, R.P., presented by RPM.]
  13. “Different strategies for solving mathematical equivalence in a sign language.” Paper presented at the 41st Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, Berkeley, CA, June 2011.
  14. “Phonological errors in the signing of deaf autistic children: More evidence for a self-other mapping deficit.” Paper presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), Philadelphia, PA, May 2010. [Shield, A. & Meier, R.P.]
  15. “Visual perspective taking in sign language: Evidence from deaf children with autism.” Paper presented at the Linguistic Society of America, Baltimore, MD, January 2010. [Shield, A. & Meier, R.P.]
  16. “A morphological transducer for American Sign Language.” Paper at Texas Linguistic Society (TLS) X, October 2006.
  17. “How children learn signs for objects: Testing the nature of unimodal mappings”. Paper presented at Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR) 8, Barcelona, Spain, October 2004.
  18. “Comment les enfants apprennent-ils les signes pour les objets?” Paper presented in French at Surdité et Societé, 72nd Congrès de l’Association francophone pour le savoir, Montreal, Quebec, May 2004.
  19. “Ideological conflict at group boundaries: The hearing children of Deaf adults”. Paper presented at Symposium on Language and Society at Austin (SALSA) XII, Austin, TX, April 2004.
  20. “The 20 million dollar vowel: Anglo pronunciation of a Spanish last name in Texas”. Paper presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 31, Stanford University, Stanford, California, October 2002.
 
REFEREED CONFERENCE POSTERS

  1. “Linguistic and prosodic correlates of perceived social skills in conversation.” Poster to be presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), San Francisco, May 2017. [Shield, A., Bone, D., Naryanan, S., & Grossman, R.]
  2. “Native-signing children with autism produce signed echoes.” Poster presented at Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders (SRCLD), Madison, Wisconsin, June 2016. [Cooley, F., Shield, A., & Meier, R.P.]
  3. “Minimally-verbal autism in children with native exposure to ASL.” Poster presented at Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR) 12, Melbourne, Australia, January 2016. [Shield, A., Parnes, G. & Davidson, K.]
  4. “Three modality differences between signed and spoken language echolalia.” Poster presented at Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR) 12, Melbourne, Australia, January 2016. [Cooley, F., Shield, A., & Meier, R.P.]
  5. “The link between language and theory of mind: Evidence from deaf children with autism.” Poster presented at the 9th Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Columbus, OH, October 2015. [Shield, A., Martin, A., & Pyers, J.]
  6. “Native exposure to sign language does not attenuate the social-cognitive deficits of ASD.” Poster presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), Salt Lake City, May 2015. [Shield, A., Martin, A., & Pyers, J.]
  7. “Differences in fingerspelling praxis performance between deaf children with autism and deaf typically developing children between 5 and 14 years of age.” Poster presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), Salt Lake City, May 2015. [Woxholdt, C., Srinivasan, S., Bhat, A., & Shield, A.]
  8. “Palm reversals are the pronoun reversals of sign language.” Poster presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), Toronto, May 2012.
  9. “The role of mismatch in the signing and gesturing of deaf children: Mathematical equivalence problems.” Poster presented at the Visual Language & Visual Learning (VL2) site visit, Northwestern University, May 16, 2011.
  10. “Palm orientation errors are characteristic of deaf children with autism.” Poster presented at Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR) 10, West Lafayette, IN, October 2010. [Shield, A. & Meier, R.P.]
  11. “Are some signs hard for deaf autistic children to learn?” Poster presented at Signing on the Spectrum: Meeting the Needs of Deaf Children with Autism, Framingham, MA, October 2008.
  12. “Sign language in deaf and hearing autistic children: An exploratory study.” Poster presented at Society for Research on Child Language Disorders (SRCLD), Madison, WI, June 2008. [Shield, A. & Meier, R.P.]
  13. “How infants learn signs for objects: Testing the role of social reference in unimodal mappings”. Poster presented at Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD), Atlanta, GA, April 2005.
 
TEACHING 
Courses taught
SPA 223: Theories of Language Development, Miami University (Fall ‘15, Spring ‘16, Fall ‘16, Spring ‘17)
SPA/DST 312: Deaf Culture: Global, National, and Local Issues, Miami University (Fall ’17, Spring ‘18)
SPA 334: Clinical Phonetics and Articulation Disorders, Miami University (Spring ‘16; Fall ‘17)
SPA 413: Senior Seminar in Communication Disorders, Miami University (Fall ’16, Spring ‘18)
LIN 312: Language in the Body: Gesture, Sign, and Speech, University of Texas at Austin (2008-2009)
LIN 306: Introduction to the Study of Language, University of Texas at Austin (2007-2009)
 
Faculty development
2016-2017           Alumni Teaching Scholars for Early-Career Faculty, Miami University.
2015-2016           New Faculty Teaching Enhancement Program (NFTEP), Miami University.
 
ADVISING/MENTORING
 
Dean’s Scholar Mentor
  • Kristina Randall (Miami University class of 2018).
 
Honors with Distinction Project Mentor
  • Sarah Kingsbury (Miami University class of 2019).

Thesis Advisor
  • Bruce Leewiwatanakul (Boston University School of Medicine, MA 2014). Clinical Practices in Utilizing the ADOS to Assess Deaf or Hard of Hearing children for Autism.
 
Thesis Committee Member
  • Lauren Hernandez (MA received May 2016). Phonological Processes in English Sentences Produced by Adult Native Speakers of Spanish
  • Megan Alano (MA received May 2016). Evidence Based Review of Norm-Referenced Language Tests for Identification of Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder.
  • Kaitlyn Gilfert (MA to be received May 2017). The Directionality of English Vowel Substitution Errors in /hVt/ Context.
  • Ciara Cooley (MA to be received May 2018). How do context awareness and listener experience taking the SPEAK test influence perceptions of non-native speaking proficiency?
 
BESt Content Reader
  • Olivia Chan, Abby Sell, Emily Henderson, Hannah Brophy, Carissa Schwiebert (MA expected May 2017): Effectiveness of Naturalistic Teaching Strategies on Social Communication for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
 
Senior Project Advisor
  • Greta Parnes (Yale University, 2015). Honors thesis in Cognitive Science.
 
Outside Thesis Committee Reader
  • Brittany Cabot (University of Pittsburgh, 2014). Honors thesis in Psychology.

Mentored Student Posters
Ohio Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, March 24, 2018:
  • Kristina Randall: Echolalia in a Bimodal Bilingual Child with Autism.
  • Bryn McElroy, Megan Igel, & Theresa Adams: Linguistic Differences in the Production of Narratives by Adolescents with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder.
 
Miami University Undergraduate Research Forum, April 26, 2017:
  • Kristina Randall: Language Development in a Bimodal Bilingual Child with Autism.
  • Danielle Belzer & Leah Kovach: The Development of Joint Attention in a Bimodal Bilingual Child with Autism.
  • Wil Hughes & Danielle Stelzer: Do Deaf Children with Autism Differ from Typically-Developing Deaf Children in Their Use of the Face?
  • Bryn McElroy, Sarah Kingsbury, & Megan Igel: A Linguistic Analysis of Narratives Produced by Adolescents with High-Functioning Autism. 


SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY 
  • Member of the Linguistics and Disability Studies interdepartmental programs, Miami University, 2015-2017.
  • Member of the Graduate School Financial Aid Committee, Miami University, 2017-2018.
  • Member of the Search Committee for Tenure-Track Positions in Child Language, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Miami University, 2016-2017; 2017-2018.
  • Member of the Undergraduate/Assessment Committee, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Miami University, 2016-2017.
  • Member of the Governance Committee, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Miami University, 2017-2018.
  • Member of the Linguistics Program Committee, Miami University, 2016-2017.
  • Faculty Co-Adviser, Autism Speaks U, Miami University Chapter, 2016-2017.
  • Co-Founder and Organizer, What the L? Language Research at Miami Speaker Series, Miami University, 2016-2017. Co-founded and organized a monthly interdepartmental speaker series of Miami University faculty engaged in language-related research. This series has featured speakers from the Departments of Spanish and Portuguese, Speech Pathology and Audiology, German, Russian, Asian, and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Anthropology, American Cultures and English, and the Myaamia Center. Each seminar has attracted 40-50 students and faculty and has provided a venue for interdepartmental dialogue among colleagues engaged in language research. In the future we will seek to expand this series to include invited speakers from external universities.

SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION
 
Communication of research to the profession/public:

Ad hoc reviewer for the following journals:
o   Autism Research
o   Child Development
o   Cognition
o   Developmental Psychology
o   Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
o   Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
o   Journal of Pragmatics
o   PLOS ONE
o   Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
 
Member of the following organizations:
o   American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
o   Association for Psychological Science
o   Fulbright Association
o   International Society for Autism Research
o   Jean Piaget Society
o   Linguistic Society of America
o   Sign Language Linguistics Society
 
LANGUAGES
  • Native: English
  • Fluent: Italian, French, American Sign Language     
  • Conversational: Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, German, Swedish
 PRESS
 
Benson, E. “Aaron Shield, linguist”. April 4, 2016. University of California Santa Cruz Science Communication Program. https://scicom.ucsc.edu/publications/QandA/2016/shield.html

Sparks, S.D. “Studies on Deafness Yield Broader Benefits”. Education Week, February 23, 2016. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/02/24/studies-on-deafness-yield-broader-benefits.html

“Research on deaf children with autism yields broader insights”. February 12, 2016. https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/research-deaf-children-autism-yields-broader-insights
 
“Sign-Language Use Sheds New Light on ASD-Related Language Delay”. The ASHA Leader, 20(17), June 2015. http://leader.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2300819
 
Kovelamudi, V. “Study: Hearing and deaf children with autism both avoid using pronouns”. The Daily Texan, April 6, 2015. http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2015/04/06/study-hearing-and-deaf-children-with-autism-both-avoid-using-pronouns
 
“A New Look at Language Delay in Children with Autism”. UT News, April 2, 2015. https://news.utexas.edu/2015/04/02/a-new-look-at-language-delay-in-children-with-autism
 
Zeliadt, N. “Sign language study solves autism’s pronoun mystery”. Spectrum Autism Research News, February 27, 2015. https://spectrumnews.org/opinion/sign-language-study-solves-autisms-pronoun-mystery/