Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
My research focuses on the ways in which children from unique populations acquire and learn their language. In particular, I am interested in pragmatic, or social, language. One of my areas of concentration is on how children adopted from international orphanages learn their new language, and what factors contribute to the individual variations so markedly noted throughout their development. My masters project explored pragmatic language through the use of narratives, or story telling. This naturalistic language sample allowed for careful examination of difference amongst early and late adopted children and non-adopted children. Findings suggest duration of institutionalization is related to degree of language impairment and that narratives are a sensitive measure for detecting subtle language impairments, above and beyond standardized measures.
An additional focus of my research examines pragmatic langauge in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, as impairments in this area often impede upon children's abilities to successfully communicate with others. I am interested in how prosody, or the sing-song quality of a person's voice, is both comprehended and produced in children with autism. Our lab is exploring this through behavioral and fMRI paradigms. Additionally, I am interested in how other factors, such as executive functioning, influence social communications. Relatively little research and few empirically-validated interventions exist for adolescents on the autism spectrum. To address this gap, my doctoral dissertation examines the role of working memory on pragmatic language in autism using eye-tracking and neuropsychological measures. Preliminary findings suggest perspective taking in autism is paricularly susceptible to working memory load. Do typically developing adults and children show the same vulnerabilities? ... Stay tuned to find out!
An additional focus of my research examines pragmatic langauge in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, as impairments in this area often impede upon children's abilities to successfully communicate with others. I am interested in how prosody, or the sing-song quality of a person's voice, is both comprehended and produced in children with autism. Our lab is exploring this through behavioral and fMRI paradigms. Additionally, I am interested in how other factors, such as executive functioning, influence social communications. Relatively little research and few empirically-validated interventions exist for adolescents on the autism spectrum. To address this gap, my doctoral dissertation examines the role of working memory on pragmatic language in autism using eye-tracking and neuropsychological measures. Preliminary findings suggest perspective taking in autism is paricularly susceptible to working memory load. Do typically developing adults and children show the same vulnerabilities? ... Stay tuned to find out!
