Cecilia Nakeva Von Mentzer
Position: Senior Lecturer School/office: School of Health SciencesEmail: cecilia.nakeva-vonmentzer@oru.se
Phone: +46 19 301272
Room: P1229

About Cecilia Nakeva Von Mentzer
Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer has been a senior lecturer in hearing science at Örebro University since April 2019. She has a degree in Speech Language Pathology from Karolinska Institutet (1991) and a doctorate degree in disability research at Linköping University (2014). Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer was previously a university lecturer in the Speech Language Pathology programme at Uppsala University.
Research
Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer's research is mainly about assessment and treatment of speech difficulties, language impairment and reading difficulties in children with and without hearing impairments. This involves the development of assessment methods for language and speech perception, as well as the development and evaluation of methods for promoting children's speaking ability, language ability and reading ability. The research often takes place in collaboration with other professions such as psychologists, audiologists, engineers and special educators.
Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer is part of the research environments Disability Research and Special Education, Development and Learning.
She is responsible for the research project Communicative activity and participation for children with developmental phonological disorders. The purpose of the research project is to shed light on the child's, guardian's and educator's experiences of whether and how speech and language disorders affect social interaction and feelings of participation. The goal is to define attitudes that create the best possible conditions for the child in two important environments, the home and the (pre)school.
Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer has been part of the reference group for the subproject New teaching and learning environments, part of the strategic initiative Teacher Education for Tomorrow.
During the years 2016–2019, Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer conducted a postdoc study Listening difficulties in children in collaboration with Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati, USA. The aim was to develop a digital speech perception test and examine the hearing of preschool children with and without developmental phonological disorders. Results showed that, among children with typical development, 24.3 per cent had an extended high- frequency hearing loss. In children with developmental phonological disorders subclinical hearing loss was proposed as a potential factor.
During the same time, she conducted a questionnaire and medical record study on Swedish children with developmental phonological disorders with the aim of investigating how common it is for these children to have difficulty listening and how speech language pathologists examine listening ability. These results are currently compiled in collaboration with a researcher in speech language pathology Nelli Kalnak at Karolinska institutet.
At the same time, she developed a web-based test for sentence repetition that was used in a hearing aid study programmed with OpenSound Navigator for school-age children in Cincinnati. Preliminary results for this study show that sentence repetition performance is associated with length and age at first hearing aid fitting.
During the years 2015–2019, Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer was responsible for the project Computer-based phonics intervention for children with Down syndrome (pdf). The study was launched to investigate whether children with DS in school units for children with mild intellectual disability or moderate to severe intellectual disability could benefit from computer-based phonics intervention for their reading development.
During the years 2017–2020, Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer participated in the study An evaluation of systematized phonics on reading proficiency in Swedish second grade poor readers: Effects on pseudoword and sight word reading skills. The results showed that systematized phonics was more effective than classroom teaching regarding children's reading ability of pseudowords and words. This study was among the top 10 most downloaded papers in the Journal of Dyslexia.
Teaching
Cecilia Nakeva von Mentzer teaches mainly in communication, voice, speech, pediatric audiology and professional approach in the Audiologist programme. She supervises essays at the undergraduate and master's level, and currently supervises at the doctoral level, Petter Kallioinen and a postdoc researcher in speech language pathology, Parivash Ranjbar.
Research projects
Active projects
Research teams
Publications
Articles in journals
- Stewart, H. J. , Cash, E. K. , Pinkl, J. , Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Lin, L. , Hunter, L. L. , Moore, D. R. & CCHMC Division of Audiology, . (2022). Adaptive Hearing Aid Benefit in Children With Mild/Moderate Hearing Loss: A Registered, Double-Blind, Randomized Clinical Trial. Ear and Hearing, 43 (5), 1402-1415.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2021). Audiometric profiles in children with speech sound disorder: Subclinical hearing loss as a potential factor. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 35 (9), 847-873.
- Engström, E. , Kallioinen, P. , Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Lindgren, M. , Sahlén, B. , Lyxell, B. , Ors, M. & Uhlén, I. (2021). Auditory event-related potentials and mismatch negativity in children with hearing loss using hearing aids or cochlear implants: A three-year follow-up study. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 140.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2021). Corrigendum to “Phonemic discrimination and reproduction in 4-5-year-old children: Relations to hearing” [Int. J. Pediatr. Otorhinolaryngol., 133 (2020), 1–12]. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 140.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Kalnak, N. & Jennische, M. (2021). Intensive computer-based phonics training in the educational setting of children with Down syndrome: An explorative study. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 25 (4), 636-660.
- Levlin, M. & Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2020). An evaluation of systematized phonics on reading proficiency in Swedish second grade poor readers: Effects on pseudoword and sight word reading skills. Dyslexia, 26 (4), 427-441.
- Engström, E. , Kallioinen, P. , Lindgren, M. , Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Sahlén, B. , Lyxell, B. & Uhlén, I. (2020). Computer-assisted reading intervention for children with hearing impairment using cochlear implants: Effects on auditory event-related potentials and mismatch negativity. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 137.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2020). Phonemic discrimination and reproduction in 4-5-year-old children: Relations to hearing. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 133.
- Engström, E. , Kallioinen, P. , Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Lindgren, M. , Ors, M. , Sahlén, B. , Lyxell, B. & Uhlén, I. (2019). Computer-assisted reading intervention for children with sensorineural hearing loss using hearing aids: Effects on auditory event-related potentials and mismatch negativity. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 117, 17-25.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Sundström, M. , Enqvist, K. & Hällgren, M. (2018). Assessing speech perception in Swedish school-aged children: preliminary data on the Listen–Say test. Logopedics, Phoniatrics, Vocology, 43 (3), 106-119.
- Uhlen, I. , Engström, E. , Kallioinen, P. , Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Lyxell, B. , Sahlen, B. , Lindgren, M. & Ors, M. (2017). Using a multi-feature paradigm to measure mismatch responses to minimal sound contrasts in children with cochlear implants and hearing aids. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 58 (5), 409-421.
- Eliasson, A. , Holmström, L. , Aarne, P. , Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Weiland, A. , Sjöstrand, L. , Forssberg, H. , Tedroff, K. & et al. (2016). Efficacy of the small step program in a randomised controlled trial for infants below age 12 months with clinical signs of CP: a study protocol. BMC Pediatrics, 16.
- Kallioinen, P. , Olofsson, J. , Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Lindgren, M. , Ors, M. , Sahlén, B. , Lyxell, B. , Engström, E. & et al. (2016). Semantic Processing in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: Large N400 Mismatch Effects in Brain Responses, Despite Poor Semantic Ability. Frontiers in Psychology, 7.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Lyxell, B. , Sahlén, B. , Dahlström, Ö. , Lindgren, M. , Ors, M. , Kallioinen, P. , Engström, E. & et al. (2015). Segmental and suprasegmental properties in nonword repetition: An explorative study of the associations with nonword decoding in children with normal hearing and children with bilateral cochlear implants. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 29 (3), 216-235.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Sundström, M. , Enkvist, K. & Hällgren, M. (2015). Talperception hos svenska normalhörande skolbarn i tyst och störande tal: effekt av fonetiska kontraster, ljudbakgrund och kön. Audionomen : medlemstidning för Audionomföreningen (3).
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2015). Tänka om ljud: Fonologisk lästräning vid datorn för döva och hörselskadade barn som använder cochleaimplantat eller hörapparat. Dyslexi – aktuellt om läs- och skrivsvårigheter (2).
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Lyxell, B. , Sahlén, B. , Dahlström, Ö. , Lindgren, M. , Ors, M. , Kallioinen, P. & Uhlén, I. (2014). The Phonics Approach in Swedish Children using Cochlear Implants or Hearing Aids: Inspecting Phonological Gain. Journal of Communication Disorders, Deaf Studies & Hearing Aids, 2 (3), 117.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Lyxell, B. , Sahlén, B. , Wass, M. , Lindgren, M. , Ors, M. , Kallionen, P. & Uhlén, I. (2013). Computer-assisted training of phoneme-grapheme correspondence for children who are deaf and hard of hearing: Effects on phonological processing skills. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 77 (12), 2049-2057.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Lyxell, B. , Sahlén, B. , Dahlström, Ö. , Lindgren, M. , Ors, M. , Kallioinen, P. & Uhlén, I. (2013). Ljudinriktad läsintervention vid datorn för barn med cochleaimplantat (CI) och/eller hörapparat (HA): läsförändring och kognitiva faktorer. Logopednytt (4), 18-23.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2013). Ljudinriktad läsintervention vid datorn för barn med cochleaimplantat eller hörapparat: Läsförändring och kognitiva faktorer. Barnplantabladet (3), 28-30.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Lyxell, B. , Sahlén, B. , Wass, M. , Lindgren, M. , Ors, M. , Kallioinen, P. , Engström, E. & et al. (2012). Datorbaserad fonologisk intervention för barn med cochleaimplantat (CI) och/eller hörapparat (HA): effekter på fonologiska färdigheter. Logopednytt (3), 18-23.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2012). Interventionsstudie med fokus att förbättra fonologiska färdigheter. Barnplantabladet (3), 34-35.
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2008). Pratvis: dotorbaserad uttalsträning. Dyslexi – aktuellt om läs- och skrivsvårigheter (4).
Articles, reviews/surveys
- Kallioinen, P. , Olofsson, J. K. & Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2023). Semantic processing in children with Cochlear Implants: A review of current N400 studies and recommendations for future research. Biological Psychology, 182.
Chapters in books
- Lyxell, B. , Wass, M. , Sahlén, B. , Ibertsson, T. , Asker-Arnason, L. , Uhlén, I. , Henricson, C. , Nakeva von Mentzer, C. & et al. (2013). Hearing and cognitive development in deaf and hearing-impaired children: effects of intervention. In: Gastone G. Celesia, Disorders of Peripheral and Central Auditory Processing (pp. 71-80). . Elsevier.
Conference papers
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. , Hua, H. , Sundström, M. , Enqvist, K. & Hällgren, M. (2015). Assessing Children’s Speech Processing Ability using a New Analytical Method: The Listen-Say Test. In: Assessing Children’s Speech Processing Ability using a New Analytical Method: The Listen-Say Test.. Paper presented at Conference on Cognitive Hearing Science Linköping June 2015. Uppsala:
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2015). The Listen-Say Test -: Assessment of speech processing in children 2015. Paper presented at Cochlear Nordic Symposium in Copenhagen, 27-29 January 2015, Copenhagen, Denmark. Uppsala:
Doctoral theses, comprehensive summaries
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. (2014). Rethinking Sound: Computer-assisted reading intervention with a phonics approach for deaf and hard of hearing children using cochlear implants or hearing aids. (Doctoral dissertation). (Comprehensive summary) Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press.
Other
- Nakeva von Mentzer, C. & Ranjbar, P. (2020). The web-based sentence repetition test to diagnose developmental language disorder (DLD): User manual.