Former UConn Ph.D. student and Language Creation Lab team member, Deanna Gagne, accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Department at Gallaudet University this Fall, 2018. We congratulate her on this exciting advancement and wish her the best in her future endeavors! Thank you for being such a valuable member to our team!

Therese O’Neill ’18

Undergraduate research assistant Therese O’Neill has received a Psychological Sciences Undergraduate Research Grant to pursue her project “Characterizing heritage languages across modalities: How well do hearing children of deaf parents fit the heritage learner profile?” under the mentorship of Dr. Deanna Gagne and Dr. Marie Coppola. She is excited for this opportunity and eager to contribute to this body of knowledge.

On April 8th, Lab Director Dr. Marie Coppola gave a talk at the Language Acquisition and Learning in Deaf Children Conference. Take a look at her presentation, “Early access to language: Creating an optimal foundation for deaf children’s cognitive development,” here. The presentation covers the importance of accessible language for both Deaf and hearing children, the benefits of bimodality and bilingualism, the functional neuroanatomy of language, and the intersection of language with other domains and aspects of cognitive development like math.

Hosted by the Baystate Continuing Interprofessional Education and the Willie Ross School for the Deaf, the Language Acquisition and Learning in Deaf Children Conference focused on the language acquisition, education, and development of Deaf and hard-of-hearing children.