Hi friends, research collaborators and families. It may come as no surprise that we haven’t had an opportunity in the last couple of months to update our blog with the tidal wave of changes that we’re all experiencing right now. But, we want you to know that we are still here, and we are working (a little slower than usual) behind the scenes to find new ways to share the work that we finished earlier this Spring, and to reimagine the studies we were starting and planning in new formats. Hopefully, our labs will be able to share with you very soon some creative online adaptations of our shared reading, language play, and social cognition studies that will allow for wider and more accessible participation.
Last month students from the Read and Bhagwat labs presented three recent projects at the annual APS meeting in San Francisco. Here’s what we were chatting about:
Gilly Dosovitsky (’18) presented recent findings from the Bhagwat lab that when children hear a story about learning a new language, it reduces the “essentialist” bias that some monolingual (but not bilingual) children have in thinking that the language they speak is just something they’re born with (like the color of their eyes) rather than something that comes from the world around them.
Paloma Contreras (’19), Maria Munoz Yepez (’19) and Raquel Hernandez (’18) presented brand new findings from the Read Lab’s local survey of 65 bilingual Spanish/English speaking families showing how diverse shared reading practices are within many different types of bilingual families, and interestingly how invested all parents are in nourishing both their young children’s languages in dual-language homes.
Raquel, Paloma & Maria presenting “It’s not Just Esto o Aquello”
and,
Christina McCollum (’18) and Haley Green (’18) presented findings from their study in the Read Lab that shows reading stories with a 5-year-old can actually boost the positive mood of the reader (as well as the child) in a new take on the benefits of shared reading to all parties involved!
Christy and Haley presenting “I Feel Less Blue When I Read with You”
APS was a lot of fun and a great learning experience for all of our students! If you want to hear more about any of these projects as we spend the summer writing them up, let us know!
Not so fast! Just because the students are finishing up Week 10 today, doesn’t mean that our research is grinding to a halt for the year. Here’s a reminder of the ongoing studies happening in our research group – let us know if you want to get involved!
Ongoing Studies
Bilingual Study Survey (Read Lab)
Are you a parent of a child under the age of six whois learning English or Spanish? Would you like to participate in a short 25-minute survey to help us learn more about the benefits of storybook reading? If yes, please click the link in the language you would like to answer the survey.
Spanish Survey: https://scu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0ebHsf9Wk0xppg9
English Survey: https://scu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4Vj1mYnh1DFAQD3
Nature Study (Whitfield Lab)
Is your child between the ages of 8 and 10? Would you be interested in having your children participate in a study of the impact of nature on attention, or want more information about the study? If yes, please contact us at childresearch@scu.edu.
Dramatic Pause Study (Read Lab)
“One fish, two fish, red fish…?” Ever notice how when you read with your child you can sometimes pause and let them fill in the last words? Well, the Read Lab is investigating this phenomenon and how it can actually help kids learn new words from storybooks. Two experiments will continue into the new year on this theme, let us know if you have a 2- to 5-year-old and would like to participate at childresearch@scu.edu.
Beliefs About Language Study (Bhagwat Lab)
Where does language come from? Do preschool children know that language is something we learn from our parents or do they believe that the language that we speak is something that we are born with? In the Bhagwat lab, we are currently exploring this question with both monolingual and bilingual children, here in the US and also in India. If your child is between 4 and 6 years, and you would like to participate in this study, email us at childresearch@scu.edu.
Students from our labs hosted a special storytime for local parents of toddlers in the Las Madres Playgroup at the Rose Garden community library on Tuesday morning, showcasing some of their research findings on child development in action, while simultaneously having the cutest two hours of their week. Just remember… “Don’t Push the Button!”
While many of our students here at SCU haven’t returned to campus yet, the developmental labs are already hard at work making plans for fall research! We’re starting with some new outreach initiatives led by our new Research and Outreach Assistant, Maria Munoz Yepez (yay!). We’re currently working with partners at local preschools and elementary schools and San Jose public libraries to set up studies and get in touch with families interested in being a part of child development research. We are also looking for ideas for ways that we can give back to our parents and partners. If you’d like to get more involved in our research let us know! You can join our volunteer pool here: https://goo.gl/forms/nBdRIqNU0NnX8Rur2 or if you are already in our volunteer pool but have some ideas for helping us stay better connected with you, you can fill out a quick survey here: https://goo.gl/forms/Zoyha2uSKn9537iX2
Research students from all our labs have spent much of the Spring presenting new findings around the Bay Area. Highlights include Jessica’s presentation of some of the Read Lab’s new work on bilingual storybooks at SPARC (at San Jose State) and at the annual WPA (Western Psychological Association) meeting in Sacramento.
Jessica at WPA
Jaqueline presented her recent findings on how to support verb learning with storybooks at SPARC, and Berkeley’s California Cognitive Science conference, and at our own Sigma Xi conference at Santa Clara.
Megan and Jacqueline at Berkeley
And, Shreya presented some recent findings from the Bhagwat lab on bilingual children’s beliefs about where language comes from at both SPARC and the Berkeley Cognitive Science conference.
Angela and Shreya with Dr. Bhagwat at SPARC
Congratulations to all our senior researchers! We’re so proud.
This is our new site bringing together information on child development research in the psychology department at Santa Clara University. This page features cognitive development research that is recent and ongoing, and information about how to get involved. Stay tuned!
