
Tabitha Kao, MS, CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist. She has been in the Rehabilitation Science doctoral program at MGH IHP since 2021. Her research mentors are Dr. Bridget Perry (director of the Swallowing and Communication Collaborative Lab) and Dr. Jordan Green (director of the Speech and Feeding Disorders Lab).
Tabitha’s primary research focus is improving clinical best practices for assessing and treating adults with swallowing and motor speech disorders. Her recent work has explored speech and swallowing in individuals with X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism (a rare neurodegenerative disease endemic to the Philippines) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Her research has been published in *Current Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Reports* and *Parkinsonism and Related Disorders*.
Before pursuing her doctorate at MGH IHP. Tabitha worked for five years at an acute care hospital and its affiliated outpatient clinic. There, she served as a lead clinician, educator, and supervisor for graduate student interns.
- BA, Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas.
- MS, Communication Disorders, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas.
- Best clinical practices for assessing and treating adults with swallowing and motor speech disorders
- Health & Environment
Ms. Kao has published numerous papers - some titles are highlighted below. You can view a complete listing of Ms. Kao's publications on ORCiD or in her CV.
In addition, Ms. Kao regularly presents at conferences and industry events. Please see her CV for a complete list of presentations.
Predicting malnutrition in individuals with X- linked dystonia-parkinsonism at the 2024 DRS Annual Conference.
Approaches to evaluating speech severity of remote speech recordings at the 33rd International Symposium on ALS/MND.
Differentiating between X- linked dystonia-parkinsonism phenotypes using acoustic analysis of non-speech task at the 2022 ASHA Annual Convention.
Motor speech profiles and genotypes of chromosome 18 deletion syndromes at the 2021 ASHA Annual Convention.
Multidisciplinary intervention for chromosome 18 deletion syndromes at the 2021 ASHA Annual Convention.