Two research studies from the Read Lab are launching this fall with the support from Clare Booth Luce awards to, not one, but two (!) Senior Read Lab students. Keep an eye out for these rising stars and the findings from their work:

First, Cassi Bull has helped to launch a shared book reading study (our specialty) looking at not just what kiddos learn from a new book (maybe the name of a tasty, undiscovered vegetable??), but also whether the feedback children get when they venture guesses about new words (is it a cucumber? or is it a zuchinni??) has an impact in how they respond to the book and what they learn. This work will hopefully give both parents and educators some insight into what is most helpful when reading with a child to further the dialogue and the fun!

In our second study launching this fall, KJ Atkinson is getting serious about play. Well, not too serious, of course, but she has revamped a favorite study from our lab from 2017 to give kids on the Autism spectrum a chance to show what’s special about their creative verbal play abilities, and how that might correlated with other (less fun?) traditional measures of verbal ability.

Congrats to both these award-winning researchers, we’re super excited to see where their research goes!