Yael Arbel, PhD, CCC-SLP, is a Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at MGH Institute of Health Professions. She is also Co-Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Group and Director of the PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences Program.

Her research focuses on understanding typical and atypical executive functions and optimizing outcomes for children with development language disorder by identifying factors that affect their learning. She has published numerous papers and presented widely on her research and is working to translate this knowledge into effective intervention approaches for children with language learning challenges. She was the recipient of the IHP’s New Investigator Award in 2018 and the IHP’s Excellence in Research Award in 2021 and has obtained over $5 million in federal grants to fund her research. 

Prior to moving to the Boston area, Yael served as an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of South Florida, where she taught courses in the area of language development and disorders, and where she conducted research in the Cognitive Psychophysiology Laboratory housed in the Department of Psychology.

  • BA, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Tel-Aviv University, School of Medicine, Department of Communication Disorders, Tel-Aviv, Israel
  • MS, Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Dallas, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Richardson, TX
  • PhD, Human Development and Communication Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Richardson, TX

Dr. Arbel is studying typical and atypical executive functions using neurophysiological measures. More specifically, she is interested in the extent to which variance in feedback processing accounts for differences in learning efficiency and for individual differences in learning abilities

Contact Information

Awards and Honors

Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, 2021

To honor a distinguished MGH Institute of Health Professions faculty member who has a sustained distinctive program of research that is recognized nationally and internationally for; 1) creating new knowledge that significantly impacts the scientific basis of his or her field of practice, and 2) advances the research mission of the IHP.