Oetting received a BA in Speech-Language Pathology from Augustana College in 1986.
She earned her Ph.D. in Child Language from the same university in 1992 under the supervision of Mabel Rice.
[2] Oetting’s dissertation, “Language-impaired and normally developing children's acquisition of English plural,” examined the plural systems of children with and without specific language impairment and showed evidence of dualistic representation of this grammar structure in both groups, even though the children with SLI showed limited productivity of regular plural marking.
[3] Oetting is the Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Louisiana State University.
[7][8] In 2015, she represented Louisiana State University during a hearing about the conduct and language of Teresa Buchanan.