Pauline’s professional background is in Speech Pathology and Audiology having attained both qualifications in Melbourne. She has worked in early intervention for the past 25 years at Taralye, a centre that promotes the oral speech and language development of children with hearing loss.

Since 1996 Pauline has been seconded part-time to work as a research fellow with CRC HEAR and later the HEARing CRC, gaining her doctorate in the early language development of children with profound hearing loss using cochlear implants and hearing aids. The development of the Diary of Early Language (Di-EL), a tool to monitor and investigate early language acquisition, was part of these studies. The Di-EL is now marketed by Cochlear and it is near completion of translation into Mandarin for use in China.

Throughout this time Pauline has also worked as a lecturer in several contexts including the Deafness Studies Unit and the Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. Throughout the 1990’s Pauline visited Vietnam over a period of eight years as a visiting lecturer and consultant and was instrumental in the establishment of early intervention services throughout this country.