Wavelength Student Research | Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine

Graduate makes her mark on speech and language research

As a freshman at WSU, Claire Schrock knew she wanted to be a speech therapist. She discovered that speech therapists were often allowed to sit on the floor with children to help them communicate.

A few years and a bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing sciences later, Schrock was doing just that as a graduate student — except she was sitting behind a desk in her home, giving virtual assessments to children in Western Europe at 3:00 a.m.

Schrock began offering innovative online assessments to clients in the United States and internationally through her work with Babble Boot Camp, a research project led by Nancy Potter, PhD, CCC-SLP, and Mark VanDam, PhD, faculty members of Speech and Hearing Sciences.

Founded in 2017, Babble Boot Camp is an innovative early intervention approach and research program for infants at risk for speech and language disorders, such as those with classic galactosemia (CG). CG is diagnosed during newborn screening and significantly increases a child’s risk for serious speech and language disorders. Babble Boot Camp provides interventions to infants and toddlers ages two to 24 months before they show signs of speech and language disorder, with the goal of preventing or minimizing the disorder through a series of screenings, activities, and parent training.

When Schrock reached out to faculty asking about becoming more involved in community activities during the pandemic, she didn’t expect to play a vital role in conducting a major, longitudinal research project, as researchers follow infants who complete Babble Boot Camp until they are four years old or older.

“Dr. Potter convinced me,” Schrock said. “She made the research accessible, which can be intimidating at first.”

During his undergraduate studies, Schrock began working as a research assistant, observing virtual assessment sessions and performing administrative work.

She continued her involvement as a graduate student and eventually began conducting virtual assessments under Potter’s supervision, as well as coordinating sessions and annual assessments. She also played a key role in communicating with participating families.

“I saw kids that I saw when they were two and a half, and then when they were three, three and a half,” Schrock said. “It was so rewarding to build those relationships.”

Schrock found her dedication to the research program and her SHS mentors tested when Potter fell in the summer of 2023, fracturing her vertebrae and unable to continue her work with Babble Boot Camp while she recovered. Faced with this chasm, Schrock stepped up and took on all of the work to keep the research project going, including taking over assessments and reports.

During that same period, the funding for her position also ran out. That didn’t stop Schrock from continuing her work.

“It’s not a 9-to-5 job,” Schrock said. “But the interaction between the clinician and the child is beautiful. I love children and that’s always been a huge motivator for me.”

Through her work testing hundreds of children with Babble Boot Camp, Schrock was able to develop unique transferable skills and knowledge in the field that she would not otherwise have had. She was also able to work with a wider variety of clients, co-authored publications with HGG Advances and the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, and participated in the international Galatosemia Foundation Conference.

She also assisted in the creation and recording of new intervention trainings designed to improve speech and language outcomes.

“My name is on a program, which is crazy,” Schrock said. “My graduate experience has opened so many doors.”

With her dedication to Babble Boot Camp and the Speech and Hearing Sciences department going above and beyond, it’s no surprise that Schrock graduated in May 2024 after receiving the 2024 Chancellor’s Excellence Leadership Award and two department awards: the Volunteer Service Award and the Outstanding Graduate Award. She now works for North Thurston Public School District as an elementary school SLP.

Schrock appreciates the role her faculty and research supervisors at the university played in her success.

“The relationships I built with them helped me find my qualities and strengths as a person. A clinician. A researcher,” Schrock said. “They saw something in me that I didn’t necessarily see until they showed it to me.”

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