I am a speech pathologist and researcher specialising in childhood communication disorders, with a particular focus on early communication development, and stuttering, speech sound disorders, and their co-occurrence. My research is clinically grounded and translational in nature, with an overarching aim of improving assessment, intervention, and service delivery for children who experience complex communication needs, and for the families and professionals who support them.

My research program focuses on understanding and responding to the clinical complexity of stuttering across development. This includes work on co-occurring stuttering and speech sound disorder, parent and clinician perspectives, psychosocial impacts (such as anxiety, avoidance, and bullying), and the development of evidence-informed approaches to intervention where current guidance is limited. I am particularly interested in how clinical decision-making is shaped in real-world practice contexts, and how empirical research can meaningfully inform everyday speech pathology practice.

Methodologically, my work spans quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods designs, including scoping and systematic reviews, surveys, file audits, intervention studies, and in-depth qualitative research. A further strand of my research focuses on innovation in speech pathology education, particularly the use of immersive and simulation-based technologies to support the teaching of clinical skills. I have collaborated with industry partners to design, implement, and evaluate a virtual reality–based oral musculature assessment tool (VOMA), examining its impact on student learning, confidence, and clinical competence, and exploring how digital technologies can enhance workforce readiness in health professional education.

I have a strong interest in the use of clinical outcome data to inform research, policy, and practice, and in building research capacity in regions where the speech pathology profession is still emerging. Much of my work is conducted through national and international collaborations across the Asia-Pacific region.

I am currently an Associate Professor at Macquarie University (commenced 2026) and have extensive experience across other Australian universities, with involvement in curriculum development, education, research, and research supervision at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I lead several ongoing research programs, including an international multi-country study examining early childhood educators’ knowledge and experiences of working with children who stutter. I am particularly committed to mentoring early career researchers and higher degree candidates, both locally and internationally, and to supporting research that has clear clinical, educational, and translational impact.

• Stuttering across the lifespan

• Co-occurring stuttering and speech sound disorders

• Speech sound disorders

• Resilience, and psychosocial aspects of stuttering (e.g., anxiety, bullying, avoidance)

• Parent, educator, and clinician knowledge and attitudes related to speech pathology

• Virtual reality and simulation-based learning in speech pathology

• Teaching and assessment of clinical skills in health professional education

• Mixed-methods and practice-based research

• Speech pathology education and competency development

My teaching in speech pathology spans well over a decade into both undergraduate and postgraduate programs nationally and (invited) internationally. I have been heavily involved in curriculum design and accreditation of programs. My teaching areas focus on fluency across the lifespan, child speech and language, research review and evidence-based practice, professional and complex clinical practice.

I have experience teaching in small and large groups, in face-to-face, online and blended contexts with consideration to best practice in teaching pedagogy. I have also been involved in several IPE initiatives.

My teaching philosophy emphasises evidence-based practice, reflective clinical reasoning, and student preparedness for real-world professional roles. I have been recognised nationally and internationally for teaching excellence and educational innovation and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). I have also mentored junior academics to successfully secure Fellowship of the HEA. A key focus of my teaching leadership involves the integration of digital and simulation-based learning approaches, including virtual reality technologies, to support the development of clinical skills in speech pathology students.

I welcome enquiries from prospective research students. I am particularly interested in supervising projects focused on stuttering and fluency disorders, complex and co-occurring communication difficulties in children, virtual reality and simulation-based approaches to clinical education, clinically embedded research, and speech pathology education and workforce development. I also encourage projects that involve international collaboration or that aim to build research capacity in developing speech pathology contexts.

See below for a list of A/Prof Unicomb's current and past HDR supervisions:

* Additionally, A/Prof Unicomb has supervised 18 undergraduate Graded Honours research projects (95% Awarded Class I).

External Funding:

Internal Funding (University of Newcastle):