Phone: 
+1 206 543-7888

Speech & Hearing Sciences
1417 NE 42nd St, Seattle, WA 98105
Office: 
Eagleson 253
Box: 
354875

Sara
 
Kover
,
Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Director, SPHSC Master of Science Program
Education: 
Ph.D., Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2012)
M.S., Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2007)
Academic Expertise: 
Language development in neurodevelopmental disorders
Fragile X syndrome
Autism

Sara Kover joined the Speech and Hearing Sciences faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2014. She completed her postdoctoral training in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received her doctorate in Educational Psychology there as well.

Dr. Kover’s research focus is on the development of language abilities in children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders. Her research has included individuals with fragile X syndrome, which is the leading inherited cause of intellectual disability, as well as Down syndrome and autism. The overarching goal of this research is to understand how specific cognitive processes and learning mechanisms interact with the learning opportunities afforded by the environment over the course of development. Ultimately, this work will inform what is known about the linguistic phenotypes associated with these disorders and will help guide intervention.

Dr. Kover serves as co-director of the CASE (Collaborating Across Special Education) Scholars Program funded by the Office of Special Education Programs, along with Dr. Carly Roberts and Dr. Selma Powell of the College of Education. This interdisciplinary training program serves master's students who are interested in working in the public schools to meet the needs of students with high intensity needs. 

Recent Publications
Toward Equity in Research on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. (2023 Sep 1) Am J Intellect Dev Disabil 128(5): 350-370 Kover ST, Abbeduto L

The Work Ahead for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research. (2023 Sep 1) Am J Intellect Dev Disabil 128(5): 388-392 Kover ST, Abbeduto L

A Bayesian statistics tutorial for clinical research: Prior distributions and meaningful results for small clinical samples. (2023 Nov) J Clin Psychol 79(11): 2602-2624 Larson C, Kaplan D, Girolamo T, Kover ST, Eigsti IM

Parental scaffolding in play: A comparison of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and autism spectrum disorder. (2023 Aug) Res Dev Disabil 139(): 104553 Mattson JT, Thorne JC, Kover ST

Consistency and reliability of automated language measures across expressive language samples in autism. (2023 Apr) Autism Res 16(4): 802-816 MacFarlane H, Salem AC, Bedrick S, Dolata JK, Wiedrick J, Lawley GO, Finestack LH, Kover ST, Thurman AJ, Abbeduto L, Fombonne E