My name is Kailey Fender, and I am currently an undergraduate student at the University of Arkansas. I am majoring in communication science and disorders and minoring in human development and family sciences within the College of Education and Health Professions. I intend to complete my undergraduate degree as an honors student in a total of three years. I am currently working on my honors thesis project under the mentorship of Dr. Kimberly Frazier, CCC-SLP. This is my second semester of funding, and I will finish and defend my project at the conclusion of the spring 2021 semester. My future plans include attending graduate school beginning in the fall of 2021. I wish to continue my education at the graduate level in order to become a speech language pathologist.

Due to various obstacles, mainly regarding COVID-19, the direction of my research and my thesis project shifted from my original plan. However, I have enjoyed my honors research experience, and I appreciate the personal and educational growth I have faced over the past year. While I was unable to complete in-person evaluations, I am currently working on scoring and comparing various speech and language tests of children of various ages that have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and Asperger’s. The ages of these children range from eight to eighteen years old. By analyzing the data concluded from student and parent SSIS tests, I will gain a better understanding of the communicative and behavioral characteristics presented. Through my research project, I hope to gain relevant experience to become a better clinician in the future.

When I initially started deciding on my research topic, my mentor, Dr. Frazier, was a major help in finding what I was interested in. Throughout my research process, I learned how to find credible sources, formulate my proposal, work on a timeline, and set goals for myself. I feel that through this time I have improved my professionalism and gained knowledge that I will carry with me. I found it challenging to stay focused on my research when school went to online in March of 2020 due to COVID-19. This was a set-back for my project because I could not meet in person with my mentor or with the individuals I planned to conduct examinations on. This meant I had to work extra hard in staying focused and sticking to my schedule. I applied to defend my thesis project at ASHA, the accredited conference for speech language pathologists. This conference was cancelled due to COVID-19, so I intend to defend my project at the University of Arkansas. As I continue working on my project, my next steps include analyzing data from the SSIS testing and constructing my final defense.

I am extremely grateful to receive honors funding for my thesis project. This has been a beneficial experience that has made me want to continue conducting research at the graduate level. Although my project did not go exactly as I had originally planned, I have enjoyed learning and growing through this process. Honors funding has relieved stress about my project and given me the chance to further my honors career. This experience has been a major part of my college experience.