{"id":36715,"date":"2026-05-12T12:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/?p=36715"},"modified":"2026-05-12T13:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:33:17","slug":"unraveling-language-regression-one-students-work-to-bring-clarity-to-families-and-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2026\/05\/unraveling-language-regression-one-students-work-to-bring-clarity-to-families-and-researchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Unraveling Language Regression: One Student\u2019s Work to Bring Clarity to Families and Researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MagsMags McAllister is a third-year graduate student in the Speech and Hearing division in the Department of Health Sciences at UNC\u2019s School of Medicine, where she works with\u00a0<\/span>Dr. Clare Harrop<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on several autism-focused studies. One of the main projects\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0involved in follows children ages 4 to 8 over about two years, tracking their development over time. She also works on studies with older adults, which she especially enjoys because of her background in\u00a0memory disorders\u00a0research.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

McAllister began her undergraduate career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a psychology and neuroscience\u00a0major.\u00a0When she first came to UNC, she believed she would pursue\u00a0an\u00a0environmental science\u00a0degree\u00a0until she took a first-year seminar that changed her perspective. Growing up in a small town in North Carolina with limited course offerings, she had never considered that studying human behavior could be a career. The course introduced her to\u00a0psychological research and the idea that she could ask questions and answer them with data. This was the\u00a0experience that\u00a0ultimately set\u00a0her on a new path.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before coming to UNC for graduate school, McAllister completed her undergraduate degree and worked in ABA therapy for\u00a0a period of time.\u00a0In this role, she provided in-home therapy with mostly non-speaking\u00a0autistic children, helping them build adaptive and communication skills. This experience sparked her interest in autism and led her to the Duke Center for Autism\u00a0and Brain Development\u00a0Research\u00a0(DCABD), where she worked for two years on a study focused on early detection and early intervention.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From there, she moved to Duke\u2019s\u00a0Neurology department, where she worked with a mentor conducting aging research using\u00a0methods\u00a0she was excited to learn, including MRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). In this role, she gained hands-on experience working with older adults and developed skills in processing and analyzing neuroimaging data.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At UNC, McAllister has continued to engage with this type of work through the IBIS project at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD). There, she has collaborated with\u00a0many\u00a0researchers including\u00a0<\/span>Mark Shen,\u00a0PhD,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Jessica\u00a0Girault,\u00a0PhD,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and Meghan Swanson, PhD,\u00a0as part of the multi-site study. Through these opportunities, she has been able to contribute to a wide range of projects.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The work she\u00a0presented\u00a0is based on the IBIS cohort, a prospective longitudinal study that follows children from around three to six months of age until they reach the typical diagnostic window for autism between ages two and five. To increase the likelihood of\u00a0observing\u00a0autism, many of the participants are younger siblings of autistic children, though children without that likelihood are also included.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

McAllister became interested in language regression, a phenomenon in which parents report that their child has stopped saying\u00a0words\u00a0they previously produced.\u00a0This can be a very alarming experience for families, often making it feel as though developmental progress is not permanent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To better understand this, she examined two groups: children whose parents reported language loss and children who showed measurable declines in standardized language assessments over time. These assessments occurred about every six months, so even small decreases represented meaningful changes. Interestingly, the two groups barely overlapped at all, suggesting they reflect different experiences.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She then looked at outcomes later in childhood and found that children in the parent-reported group were\u00a0generally catching\u00a0up to their peers. In contrast, children who showed measurable declines in their scores continued to struggle with language development over time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These findings suggest that language regression may not be a single\u00a0phenomenon, but\u00a0instead reflect two different patterns. Parent-reported regression may\u00a0represent\u00a0broader\u00a0differences\u00a0in\u00a0early social\u00a0communication, while measurable declines in language scores may\u00a0indicate\u00a0more persistent language challenges. This distinction may help guide\u00a0different types\u00a0of support, such as broader interventions like ABA and occupational therapy versus more targeted speech-language services.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0really\u00a0rewarding to watch\u00a0these kids\u00a0grow and change\u00a0and get to measure that change and share that back with families.\u00a0It\u2019s just\u00a0really special,\u201d said McAllister.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mags McAllister is a third-year graduate student in the Speech and Hearing division in the Department of Health Sciences at UNC\u2019s School of Medicine, where she works with\u00a0Dr. Clare Harrop\u00a0on several autism-focused studies. One of the main projects\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0involved in follows children ages 4 to 8 over about two years, tracking their development over time. She … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123228,"featured_media":36716,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,83,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-research","category-sphs","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnraveling Language Regression: One Student\u2019s Work to Bring Clarity to Families and Researchers | Department of Health Sciences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/2026\/05\/unraveling-language-regression-one-students-work-to-bring-clarity-to-families-and-researchers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unraveling Language Regression: One Student\u2019s Work to Bring Clarity to Families and Researchers | Department of Health Sciences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mags McAllister is a third-year graduate student in the Speech and Hearing division in the Department of Health Sciences at UNC\u2019s School of Medicine, where she works with\u00a0Dr. Clare Harrop\u00a0on several autism-focused studies. 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