Dr Kieran Flanagan

Senior Lecturer
School of Allied Health

Kieran Flanagan

Areas of expertise: language processing; language changes in dementia; speech sound disorders; dialectal variation in language

Phone: 07 3623 7461

Email: Kiern.flanagan@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Brisbane Campus

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4413-7968

Dr Kieran Flanagan is a certified practising speech pathologist with more than 10 years of clinical and research experience. Dr Flanagan's research has focused on language and its disorders, with a particular interest in language disorder associated with dementia. Example projects have included the study of prelinguistic skills in preterm infants through to language changes and intervention in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Dr Flanagan's current research focus is on improving quality of life for people with dementia through improving their communication environment, communication reablement and the service delivery of speech pathology into aged care.

Dr Flanagan is recognised in the speech pathology community for his clinical work and professional development in the area of complex paediatric speech disorders and has delivered professional development on this topic nationally and internationally.

With 10 years' experience in tertiary education, Dr Flanagan has held key leadership positions in the discipline of speech pathology at Australian Catholic University including the National Professional Practice Lead and Course Coordinator for the Brisbane campus. Dr Flanagan makes regular contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning.

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Select publications

  • Shoebridge, S. J., Flanagan, K. J., & Pearce, W. M. (2021). Narrative comprehension skills of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian children in their first year of school. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology., 23(6), 632-640. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2021.1914729
  • Pearce, W., & Flanagan, K. (2019a). Language abilities of Indigenous and non Indigenous Australian children from low socio-economic backgrounds in their first year of school. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 21 (2), 212-223.
  • Pearce, W. M. & Flanagan, K. (2019b). Story-telling abilities of young Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian children across three protocols. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, DOI: 10.1080/17549507.2019.1648550
  • Walton, C., Carding, P., Conway, E., Flanagan., K., & Blackshaw, H. (2019). Voice Outcome Measures for Adult Patients with Unilateral Vocal Fold Paralysis: A Systematic Review. The Laryngoscope, 129, 187-197.
  • Flanagan, K.J., Ttofari Eecen, K. (2018). Core vocabulary therapy for the treatment of inconsistent phonological disorder: Variations in service delivery. Child Language Therapy and Teaching, 34(3), 209-219.
  • Doube, W., Flanagan, K., Carding, P., Kaufman, J., & Armitage, H. (2018). Feedback in multimedia learning of speech by young children with common speech sound disorders: Research protocol for a pretest posttest independent measures control trial. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 444.
  • Walton, C., Carding, P., & Flanagan, K. (2018). Perspectives on treatment for unilateral vocal fold paralysis. Current Opinion in Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, 26(3), 157-161.
  • Flanagan, K., Copland, D., Chenery, H., Byrne, G., & Angwin, A. (2017). Semantic feature disturbance in Alzheimer's disease: Evidence from an object decision task. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 30(4), 159-171.
  • Flanagan, K., Copland, D., Chenery, H., Byrne, G., Ven Hees, S., & Angwin, A. (2016). Semantic feature training for the treatment of anomia in Alzheimer Disease: A preliminary investigation. Cognitive Behavioral Neurology, 29 (1), 32-43.
  • Flanagan, K., Copland, D., Chenery, H., Byrne, G., & Angwin, A. (2013). Alzheimer's disease is associated with distinctive semantic feature loss. Neuropsychologia, 51, 2016-2025.

Conferences

  • Allen, C., Flanagan, F., Conway, E. (2022). What do aged care workers know about quality communication? Paper presented at the Emerging Researchers in Aging Conference, Online, 10th November.
  • Flanagan, K., Berg, N., Cooper, K., Czapnick, D., & Dent, L. (2022). This is not a drill: Do simulation-based professional practice experiences prepare students for placement? Paper presented at Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Melbourne, 23rd May.
  • Kiernan, R, Flanagan, K.J., Harden, T., El Choueifati, N., & Pearce, (2022). Dialectal variation in the narratives of urban First Nations Australian children in their first year of school. Paper presented at Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Melbourne, 23rd May.
  • Soriano, J., Flanagan, K.J., Harden, T., & Pearce, (2022). Dialectal variation in the narratives of urban First Nations Australian children in their first year of school. Paper presented at Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Melbourne, 23rd May.
  • Flanagan, K., Bora, S., Liley, H., Pritchard, M. (2019). Little voices matter: A pilot study comparing the language environment of infants born very preterm and full-term. Poster presented at Perinatal Society of Australia & New Zealand Conference, Gold Coast, 18th March.
  • Pearce, W., Flanagan, K. (2019). Associations among oral narrative language measures for Indigenous and non-Indigenous children in their first year of school. Preconference Workshop, Australian Linguistics Society, 10th December.
  • Shoebridge, S., Pearce, W., Flanagan, K. (2019) Narrative comprehension skills of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian children in their first year of school, Paper presented at Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Brisbane, 5th June.
  • Barnes, C., Jacobs, D., Flanagan, K. (2018). Activity and participation in school aged children with language disorder. Paper presented at Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Adelaide, 28th May.
  • Flanagan, K., Ttofari Eecen, K. (2017). Modified core vocabulary therapy for the treatment of inconsistent phonological disorder: Theoretical and service delivery implications. Paper presented at Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Sydney, 29th May.
  • Flanagan, K., Copland, D., Byrne, G., Angwin, A. (2013). The treatment of anomia in Alzheimer's disease through semantic feature training. Paper presented at Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Gold Coast, 23-26 Jun, 2013.
  • Flanagan, K., Copland, D., Chenery, H., Byrne, G., & Angwin, A. (2012). Distinctive semantic feature loss in Alzheimer's disease. Paper presented at ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference.
  • Flanagan, K., Copland, D., Byrne, G., Angwin, A. The treatment of anomia in Alzheimer's disease through semantic feature training. Speech Pathology Australia National Conference, Gold Coast, 23-26 Jun, 2013.

Projects

  • "What do you say? Perspectives, priorities and recommendations to enhance communication reablement in dementia care" funded by The DCRC Pilot Grant Scheme which is funded via Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration at UNSW. Chief investigators: Dr Erin Conway, Dr Kieran Flanagan and Dr Michelle Bennett. Funds of $75000 from 2021-2023.
  • Dementia care: Knowing what to say. Dr Kieran Flanagan, Dr Erin Conway and Dr Michelle Smith-Tamaray. 2021-2023
  • Language skills, parental interaction and brain development in children born very preterm: A preliminary investigation. Funded by 2016 Mater Clinical Research Seeding Grant. Chief investigators: Prof Margo Pritchard, Dr Samudragupta Bora, A/Prof Helen Liley and Dr Kieran Flanagan. Funds of $18000 from 2016-2018.

Accolades and Awards

  • 2022 ACU Vice-Chancellor Staff Excellence Award in the category of Excellence in Stewardship.

Appointments and Affiliations

  • Senior Lecturer in Speech Pathology, School of Allied and Public Health, Australian Catholic University 2018-Present.
  • Lecturer in Speech Pathology, School of Allied and Public Health, Australian Catholic University 2014 - 2018
  • Honorary Research Fellow Mater Research Institute 2017-2021
  • Member of Speech Pathology Australia
  • Member Australian Association of Gerontology
  • Member of Emerging Researchers in Aging Australia

Public engagement activities

  • Speech Pathology Australia speak out podcast season 4, episode 23: Childhood apraxia of speech: research to know and games to play. Available from:
    https://soundcloud.com/speechpathologyaustralia/childhood-apraxia-of-speech-research-to-know-and-games-to-play-s04-e
  • Speech Pathology Australia professional development: Speech sound disorders: Seeing situations differently. 3rd-24th October 2022.
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