Abbie Olszewski, PhD, CCC-SLP

Associate Professor in Literacy Studies
Abbie Olszewski

Summary

Abbie Olszewski, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is an associate professor in Literacy Studies within the College of Education and Human Development. With over 25 years of experience as a licensed and certified clinical speech-language pathologist, Dr. Olszewski brings extensive expertise to her role, focusing on training future educators—including speech-language pathologists, general and special educators, and early childhood special educators—on how to improve children’s language and literacy skills in educational settings. Her primary focus is on the evaluation and intervention of children with dyslexia.

Dr. Olszewski's research spans three main areas. First, she is developing a cutting-edge screener that leverages artificial intelligence to identify behavioral indicators of dyslexia and dysgraphia in children's writing samples. This innovative work is partially supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), through the National Artificial Intelligence Institute for Exceptional Education. The project focuses on creating AI-driven solutions to (a) expand access to speech-language pathologists for early and (b) deliver ability-based interventions for young children with speech and language disabilities.

Additionally, Dr. Olszewski has secured federal funding from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to support interdisciplinary training for early childhood special educators and speech-language pathology students.

Second, Dr. Olszewski authored the pioneering manualized intervention book titled How to Teach Voice and Communication Skills to Transgender Women, which has become an essential resource in the field.

Lastly, she is passionate about enhancing teaching practices and is actively involved in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Research Interests

  • Language and literacy disorders
  • Dyslexia
  • Interdisciplinary education and practice
  • Trans and nonbinary voice and communication
  • Scholarship of teaching and learning

Courses Taught

  • Phonetics
  • Assessment of Communication Disorders
  • Research Design
  • Educational Research
  • Advanced Educational Measurement
  • Interdisciplinary Seminars
  • Dyslexia

Selected Publications

(students underlined)
Baggett, M., Diamond, L. L., & Olszewski, A. (2023). Dysgraphia and dyslexia indicators: Analyzing children’s writing. Intervention in School and Clinic, 1-12.

Stewart, J., Vigil, D., & Olszewski, A. (2022). Gesture use in children with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review. Clinical Archives of Communication Disorders, 7(3), 94-104. 

Matthews, J., Olszewski, A., & Petereit, J. (2020). Knowledge, training, and attitudes of students and speech-language pathologists about providing communication services to individuals who are transgender. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 29(2), 1-14. 

Olszewski, A. (2019). Assessing and supporting reading through guided oral reading fluency. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 24(3), 31-33.

Olszewski, A., Diamond, L., & Bingham, A. (2018). Collaboration between speech-language pathology and early childhood/special education graduate programs. Teaching and Learning in Communication Science Disorders

Gillam, S., Olszewski, A., Squires, K., Snyder-Wolf, K., Slocum, T., & Gillam, R. (2018). Improving narrative production in children with language disorders: An early-stage efficacy study of a narrative intervention program. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 49, 197-212. 

Pyle, N., Crowther, A., Lignugaris-Kraft, B., Gillam, S., Reutzel, R., Olszewski, A., et al. (2017).Effects of expository text structure interventions on comprehension: A meta-analysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 0(0), 1-33. 

Olszewski, A., Gillam, S., & Panoraska, A. (2016). Training verbal and nonverbal communication interview skills to adolescents. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 1-13. 

Olszewski, A., & Frank, E. (2016). Building speech-language pathology capacity and colleagues across continents. Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology, 18(3), 137-138.

Gillam, S.L., Gillam, R., Fargo, J., Olszewski, A., & Segura, H. (2016). Monitoring indicators of scholarly language (MISL): A progress monitoring instrument for measuring narrative discourse skills. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 1-11. 

Gillam, S., Olszewski, A., Fargo, J., & Gillam, R. (2014). Classroom-based narrative and vocabulary instruction: Results of an early-stage, nonrandomized comparison study. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 45, 204-219. 

Education

  • Ph.D., Disability Disciplines in Special Education and Rehabilitation, specializing in Speech-Language Pathology and subspecializing in Language and Literacy, Utah State University, 2011
  • M.A., Speech-Language Pathology, Northern Illinois University, 1998
  • B.S., Communicative Disorders, Northern Illinois University, 1996