Leah Fabiano-Smith

Leah Fabiano-Smith, PhD, CCC-SLP, earned her PhD in communication sciences from Temple University in 2006, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in theoretical phonology at the Center for Research in Language at UCSD/SDSU in 2008. Her research focuses on phonological acquisition and disorders in bilingual Spanish-English speaking children and clinical issues related to culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Dr. Fabiano-Smith has worked in early intervention and with preschoolers both in the United States and in Mexico. She also has clinical experience working with bilingual adults with aphasia in skilled nursing facilities. Dr. Fabiano-Smith has extensive experience working within the Puerto Rican community, the Mexican migrant worker community and in border regions in Arizona and California. Her clinical area of interest is in diagnosis of speech sound disorders in bilingual preschoolers from low socioeconomic communities. Dr. Fabiano-Smith earned her bachelor and master’s degrees from the State University of New York College at Fredonia and completed clinical practica in Dunkirk and Syracuse, New York (2000-2001). She performed her CFY at Interactive Therapy Group, a private practice in Syracuse, New York, working within the Puerto Rican and Mexican communities there. She began her doctoral studies at Temple University in 2002 and performed clinical supervision of bilingual evaluations until she completed her PhD in 2006. Dr. Fabiano-Smith began a postdoctoral fellowship at UCSD and San Diego State University where she supervised graduate students evaluating and treating Spanish-speaking children with speech and language disorders within the Tijuana, Mexico preschool district. Dr. Fabiano-Smith currently trains graduate students within the context of her research data collection.