ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú

Gerard (Trace) Poll, Ph.D.

Education and Background

• Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Sciences and Disorders, Penn State University, 2012
• Master of Science, Penn State University, 2007
• Master of Business Administration, University of Chicago- Booth School of Business, 1987
• Bachelor of Arts, University of Chicago, 1982

Dr. Poll is a speech-language pathologist whose research focuses on social communication and developmental language disorders (DLD) in school-aged children, adolescents, and young adults.

He is interested in developing better assessment practices and better defining the cognitive and linguistic characteristics of individuals with DLD. His work also focuses on enabling adolescents with disabilities to be better prepared for the transition from K-12 education to adult settings such as post-secondary training, employment, and community participation.

Current work in his lab focuses on developing a social communication assessment for at-risk adolescents and young adults and a screening tool to identify adults at risk for DLD.

Professional Recognition and Affiliation

• Academic Research Enhancement Award (R15DC020521), Improving Social Communication Assessment for Adolescents at Risk for Communication Disorders. National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 2022-2026. Role: PI
• Editorial Board Member, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2024 - present.
• Executive Board Member, Doris Bergen Center for Human Development, Learning and Technology, 2023 - present.
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (Special Interest Group 1 affiliate)
• ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University Committee on Faculty Research Grant to Promote Research, 2018-2020
• Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F31DC010960), pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 2010-2013
• Licensed Speech-Language Pathologist, State of Ohio
• Certificate of Clinical Competence, Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP), American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

Selected Publications

• Hill, K.S., Poll, G.H., Roberts, E.L., Brand, C. & DiMuzio, S. (in press). Clinical screening tools to identify adolescents at risk for developmental language disorder: A systematic review. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools.
• Poll, G.H., Brown, B., & Miller, C.A. (2025). Exploring the effect of sentence structure frequency on the accuracy of a screener for adults at risk of developmental language disorder. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research 68, 3348-3356.
• Hoffman, T.K. & Poll, G.H. (2025). Is collaborative service delivery a choice or professional obligation? Perspectives of preservice teachers and speech and language pathologists on interprofessional practice. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 1-23
• Poll, G.H., Boone, W.J. & Petru, J. (2025). Using a scoring template to identify intervention goals for adolescent social communication interventions. Journal of Communication Disorders 115, 106513.
• Poll, G.H. & Hoffman, T.K. (2025). Psychometric evaluation of scales assessing interprofessional practice attitudes and skills for collaborative classroom-based language intervention. Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice 38, 100739.
• Poll, G.H., Boone, W.J. & Petru, J. (2024). Evaluation of a new adolescent social communication assessment: The Transition Pragmatics Interview (TPI). Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research 67, 2353-2366
• Poll, G.H., Mayes, M., & Petru, J. (2024). Evidence to support test interpretation: Evaluating the content validity of a new item set for the Transition Pragmatics Interview. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
• Poll, G.H. & Hoffman, T.K. (2023). Pre-professional teachers’ and speech-language pathologists’ attitudes toward collaborative service delivery in classrooms. Child Language Teaching and Therapy.
• Poll, G.H., Drexler, S., Huntington, A. Galindo, M. & Galack, A. (2023). Comprehensive assessments of theory of mind abilities for school-age children: A systematic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
• Poll, G.H. & Petru, J. (2022). Exploring the contributions of expert review and cognitive interviewing to evaluating the content validity of items for a new measure of adolescent social communication, the Transition Pragmatics Interview. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics.
• Hoffman, T.K. & Poll, G.H. (2022). Challenges faced by childcare directors during COVID-19: Leading during a global pandemic. Early Childhood Education Journal.
• Poll, G.H. & Petru, J. (2022). Assessing adolescent metacognitive skills to support transition planning: Age-related change and domain specificity. Communication Disorders Quarterly.
• Poll, G.H., Maskalunas, C., Walls, L., Durbin, S., Hunken, H. & Petru, J. (2021).  Measurement properties of social communication assessments for transition-age adolescents: A systematic review. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools 52, 917-936,
• Poll, G.H. & Miller, C.A. (2021).  Speech production factors and verbal working memory in children and adults with a developmental language disorder.  Applied Psycholinguistics 42, 673-702.
• Ryer, J.E. & Poll, G.H. (2020).  The effectiveness of hybrid telepractice and in-person fluency treatment for a school-aged child: A case study.  Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups,
• Poll, G. H., & Miller, C.A. (2020).  Considering proceduralization through the lens of adolescents with developmental language disorders: Commentary on Kamhi (2019).  Journal of Communication Disorders 83.
• Poll, G. H., Burke, L., Miller, C. A., & Fiene, J. (2017). Prognostic Indicators: Predicting Degree of Change From Interventions for Adolescents at Risk for Language Weakness. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 38(4), 219-230.
• Burke, L., Poll, G., & Fiene, J. (2017). Response to an Expository Writing Strategy across Middle School RtI Tiers. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 15(1), 85-101.
• Poll, G. H., Miller, C. A., & Van Hell, J. G. (2016). Sentence repetition accuracy in adults with developmental language impairment: Interactions of participant capacities and sentence structures. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59(2), 302-316.
• Poll, G. H., Miller, C. A., & van Hell, J. G. (2015). Evidence of compensatory processing in adults with developmental language impairment: Testing the predictions of the procedural deficit hypothesis. Journal of Communication Disorders, 53, 84-102.
• Poll, G. H., Watkins, H. S., & Miller, C. A. (2014). Lexical decay during online sentence processing in adults with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57(6), 2253-2260.
• Poll, G. H., Miller, C. A., Mainela‐Arnold, E., Adams, K. D., Misra, M., & Park, J. S. (2013). Effects of children's working memory capacity and processing speed on their sentence imitation performance. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 48(3), 329-342.