Renowned child language researcher named first Merrill professor at KU

LAWRENCE -- To a 5-year-old child, struggling with early language skills can be as frustrating as being trapped in a foreign country, unable to communicate with the locals. The words don't come. You can't describe what you want. You feel alienated from peers chattering away.

"It's like being out of phase," said Mabel Rice, the new Fred and Virginia Merrill distinguished professor of advanced studies at the University of Kansas. "Children with what is known as specific language impairment will say things like, 'Mommy happy,' or 'Her go now.' For most kids, they outgrow that by the time they are 3 years old, but for these kids, it stays with them."

Discovering ways to identify language problems early and how best to correct them long has fascinated Rice, director of the child language doctoral program and the Merrill Advanced Studies Center at KU. Her internationally recognized research will receive new support through a gift from Fred and Virginia Urban Merrill. The Leawood couple recently pledged $1 million to the Kansas University Endowment Association to establish the Merrill professorship.

"The Merrill center has become one of the premier centers of its kind because of the exemplary leadership of Professor Mabel Rice and the outstanding generosity of Fred and Virginia Merrill," said KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway. "The Merrill professorship adds to the success and prestige of the center and is an investment in the quality of its future."

Among the many research programs she has pursued during the past three decades, Rice has tracked the development of about 400 children -- many of whom are Kansans -- for 10 years, since their language problems were diagnosed around the age of 3 or 4. It is the largest longitudinal record of children with specific language impairment in the United States. The study, which involves top researchers from Iowa, England and Australia, has helped determine how language problems affect children as they age.

"Eventually, the children with language acquisition problems do move beyond that particular problem, but then there are others," said Rice, who earned her doctorate in speech pathology at KU in 1978. "The language problem creates the impression that the children are socially immature, although their social awareness is much like their peers."

Unable to clearly express themselves, children frustrated by language problems are more likely to be teased or picked on, Rice said, making it difficult for them to form friendships.

Among her accomplishments, Rice developed a diagnostic test that helps educators and speech therapists determine which children have language impairments. She has examined the effects of television on children's language skills, and she serves as a children's language consultant for the hit Nickelodeon television program "Dora the Explorer." She also is studying the possible causes of language disability, which may lead to a discovery about genetic influences.

Rice's research is conducted under the rubric of the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies at KU. The Merrill Center for Advanced Studies is one of the institute's 13 research centers and clinics. Established through a 1990 gift to KU Endowment from the Merrills, the center conducts small conferences that bring together scholars from different disciplines and universities. Some of the conferences focus on scientific research, while others are dedicated to the nature, mission and future of conducting research at public universities.

The center's most recent conference, in Tempe, Ariz., brought together scholars in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, education, and speech and language sciences to discuss effective ways to identify and help children at risk for reading disabilities. The conference gave scholars the chance to informally examine new research and determine the most promising directions for future studies, Rice said.

Rice thanked the Merrills for establishing the professorship fund, which is eligible for additional funding from the State of Kansas.

"Fred and Virginia Merrill are remarkable for their sense of investment in the future and their desire to see the highest quality scholarship develop," she said. "This professorship anchors the directorship of the Merrill center. It ensures resources for the future and that future directors will be strong scholars and leaders."

As a KU student, Virginia, speech correction '47, studied with Richard Schiefelbusch, the KU professor emeritus for whom the Schiefelbusch Institute is named. Fred graduated from Kansas State University in 1949. He is chairman of Cereal Food Processors Inc. of Mission Woods, the largest independent flour milling company in the United States.

The Merrills' gift counts toward the $500 million goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history. KU Endowment is conducting KU First on behalf of KU through 2004 to raise funds for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support. KU Endowment is an independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU.