Cecilia Nakeva Von Mentzer

About Cecilia Nakeva Von Mentzer

About Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer

Cecilia has been a Senior Lecturer in Audiology at Örebro University since April 2019 and an Associate Professor (Docent) in Audiology since June 2025. She holds a degree in Speech and Language Pathology from Karolinska Institutet (1991) and a PhD in Disability Research from Linköping University (2014). Between 2016 and 2019, while employed at Uppsala University, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship abroad at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s “The Listening Lab.” The aim was to investigate listening difficulties (APD, Auditory Processing Disorder) in children with developmental language disorder. The core problem in this condition is difficulties understanding speech in noise – despite normal hearing thresholds for tones. The research included both Swedish and American studies

Research

Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer’s research primarily focuses on assessing and treating speech disorders, developmental language disorder, and reading difficulties in children with and without hearing impairments. This includes developing assessment tools for speech and language perception and designing and evaluating methods to support children’s speech, language, and reading abilities. In recent years, her research has also encompassed the social aspects of communicative disabilities. Her work is often conducted in collaboration with professionals such as psychologists, otologists, engineers, and special educators.

Cecilia is currently the principal investigator of the research project Language, Communication and Psychological Well-Being in Young Adults with Hearing Loss: A Long-Term Follow-Up (SKOP).

She is also responsible for the survey study Creating Space for Children – The Importance of Physical Environments for Meetings and Conversations in Social Services: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, conducted in collaboration with researchers in social work and occupational therapy.

SKOP

The overarching aim of the project is to examine how young adulthood is experienced by individuals with hearing loss from a language and communication perspective and how these experiences relate to mental well-being. The project follows up on a group of children who used cochlear implants (CI) or hearing aids (HA) more than ten years after participating in earlier reading research. The goal is to expand knowledge of young adults with hearing loss from a long-term life-course perspective. A sub-study on listening abilities in young adults was presented at the Nordic Conference in Speech and Language Pathology in November 2024.

The first preliminary results from the long-term follow-up were presented together with Josefine Karlsson, a cognitive scientist and lecturer at Örebro University, on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, December 3, 2025.

Creating Space for Children

Children who encounter social services are often in vulnerable life situations. This project examines how the physical environments where these meetings take place influence a child’s sense of safety, participation, and ability to express themselves. Through a survey of social workers, we map their experiences of meeting rooms—where conversations occur, how the rooms are designed, and how these factors are perceived to affect the relationship with the child. The results may contribute to concrete changes in how social service facilities are planned and used, ultimately strengthening children’s rights and well-being. The project is interdisciplinary and practice-based, with the potential to influence both policy and everyday professional practice in social work.

If you are a social worker involved in child welfare investigations or follow-ups for children and young people, you are welcome to contact Cecilia via email to access the survey.

Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer is a member of the Subject Council for Disability and Society, part of the research environment SpecUL – Special Education, Development and Learning, and research group leader for Kom till tals

Cecilia is a member of the research subject Disability Research, part of the research environment SpecUL – Special Education, Development and Learning, and leads the research group Speak up.

Teaching
Pedagogical Approach

Cecilia’s pedagogical approach is grounded in three key concepts: curiosity, knowledge‑based judgment, and relationship. Her approach is shaped by her experiences working as a pediatric speech‑language pathologist in clinical settings from 1991 to 2009, where she had close contact with children and their significant adults. Several of the pedagogical development projects she conducted in clinical practice, as well as her therapeutic training, have strongly influenced her work as a university educator.

Cecilia teaches students at all levels—those new to higher education as well as students at the master’s and doctoral levels. She teaches students in audiology, occupational therapy, nursing, and special education. This diversity requires her to actively develop an understanding of students’ academic contexts and future professional roles. Overall, her teaching requires an awareness of where students come from and where they are heading.

A particular aspect of Cecilia’s teaching role at Örebro University is her background as a speech‑language pathologist, which requires specific preparation to highlight speech‑language pathology interventions for different patient groups (e.g., developmental language disorder, voice disorders, aphasia). To support this, she maintains ongoing dialogue with specialized speech‑language pathologists in various fields.

Cecilia’s teaching portfolio includes a wide range of activities, from practical exercises in body awareness and voice, lectures, laboratory sessions in acoustic phonetics and speech perception, children’s language, cognition, hearing and reading, and statistics, to name a few examples.

Cecilia teaches at the undergraduate level in the Audiology Program and the Occupational Therapy Program, as well as in the Master’s Program in Occupational Therapy/Audiology. She supervises and examines theses at both undergraduate and advanced levels.

In February 2024, Petter Kallioinen defended his dissertation, for which she served as assistant supervisor.