Meet our researchers!
Read more about us below!
Director - Dr. Suzanne Curtin
My core theoretical interest is in the interface between lexical development and infant speech perception. The goal of my research program is to understand how early speech perception and word learning contributes to the acquisition of a phonetically driven phonological system. I am interested in the nature of the infant's initial state and how this influences the infant's developing speech perception system. My research explores the role of early biases in directing attention to the necessary information in the speech signal that will enable the infant to bootstrap into language. I also examine infants' sensitivity to distributional information in the speech input and explore how this information is used for parsing the continuous speech stream, and learning words. To this end, my research focuses on speech perception abilities in both typically and atypically developing infants with a special focus on infants who are at heightened risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Ph.D. Students
Kelly Burkinshaw
Doctoral Candidate, Linguistics, University of Calgary
M.A. Linguistics, Memorial University
B.A. Linguistics, Memorial University
I am a student of the Linguistics Department, studying first language acquisition. Specifically, my work looks at the speech registers we (adults) use to communicate with infants, and how those infants extract meaningful information about different vowel categories from child-directed and adult-directed speech.
Masters Students
Nisha Vashi
M.Sc. Experimental Psychology (In-Progress), University of Calgary
B.Sc. Psychology, University of Calgary
My research interests include investigating the abilities of children with developmental disabilities. I would like to explore whether there are multi-modal relationships between motor and language development in these children and how intervention programs can adopt this multi-modal approach to benefit children’s cognitive, motor, and language skills holistically.
Chelsie Hart
M.Sc. Cognitive Psychology
B.Sc. Psychology with distinction, University of Victoria
My research interests include the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of mental disabilities; specifically, looking at outcomes for children at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder, gender variations in disabilities, and the development and implementation of teaching strategies for disabled children.
Honours Students
Natalie Gordon
B.Sc. Hons. Psychology (In-Progress), University of Calgary
Natalia
B.A. Psychology, 2017, University of Calgary
Ch.I.L.D. Research Group Coordinator
Speech Development Lab Research Assistant
Patrick Mihalicz
B.A. Hons. Psychology, 2013, University of Calgary
Lab Coordinator for the Speech Development Lab.
Email: sdlab@ucalgary.ca
Jacqueline Beatch
Ph.D. Clinical Psychology, University of Calgary
M.Sc. Clinical Psychology, University of Calgary
Caitlin McKean
B.A. Psychology, University of Calgary
Summer Abdalla
B.A. Linguistics, University of Calgary
Jennifer Ference
Ph.D. Clinical Psychology, University of Calgary
M.Sc. Clinical Psychology, University of Calgary
B.A. (Hons) Psychology, University of Calgary
Valerie San Juan
Eyes High Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology
Ph.D. Developmental Psychology and Education, University of Toronto
M.Sc. Psychology, University of Calgary
B.Sc. Psychology, University of Calgary
Susan Geffen
Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary
Ph.D. Psychology, University of Southern California
M.A. Psychology, University of Southern California
B.S. Neuroscience, University of Miami
Stephanie Archer
Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary
Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology, Warwick University
Post Doctoral Fellow, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University
Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Calgary
M.A. Linguistics, University of Calgary
B.A. Linguistics, University of Calgary
Lisa Henkel
Lab Coordinator; Previous BabySibs Project Coordinator
B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology Student, University of Calgary
Cameron Pepperdine
Volunteer Coordinator
B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology, University of Calgary
Riley Morrell
B.A. (Hons) Psychology, University of Calgary
Andrea Rodgers
Volunteer, BabySibs
B.A. (Hons) Psychology, University of Calgary
Carol Lin
Former Research Assistant
B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology, University of Calgary
Danielle Droucker
Ph.D. Applied Psychology, University of Calgary
B.A. Psychology (Hons), University of Victoria
Heather Mackenzie
Ph.D. Clinical Psychology, University of Calgary
M.Sc. Clinical Psychology, University of Calgary
B.A. (Hons) Psychology, University of Winnipeg
Christine Shea
Ph.D. University of Calgary
Kelsey McLaughlin
B.A. (Hons) Linguistics Student, University of Calgary
Christina Gray
B.A. (Hons) Psychology Student, University of Calgary
Kathleen Engel
B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology Student and BabySibs Project Support, University of Calgary
Lisa Kennedy
Former Honours Student
Kim Ostergaard
Former Honours Student
Audny Dypvik
Former PhD Student
Janessa Gerk
Former Honours Student
Dan Hufnagle
Former PhD Student
Sally Reaper
Former Honours Student
Carolyn Thom
Former Honours Student
Kristen Moore
Volunteer Research Assistant
B.Ed. Education, University of Calgary
Julia Kim
Volunteer Research Assistant
B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology, University of Calgary (In-Progress)
Liza Hartling
Volunteer Research Assistant, BabySibs
B.Sc. Psychology, University of Calgary
B.A. Dance, University of Calgary
Tara McPhedran
Volunteer Research Assistant, BabySibs
B.A. Linguistics, University of Calgary
Lilian Guan
Volunteer Research Assistant, BabySibs
B.Sc. Biological Sciences, University of Calgary
Felicia Guan
Volunteer Research Assistant, BabySibs
B.A. Sociology, University of Calgary
Michelle Zepeda
ChILD Research Group Coordinator; Research Assistant, BabySibs
B.A. (Hons) Psychology, University of Calgary
Grant Cheung
Research Assistant
B.A. Psychology, University of Calgary
Sydney Kang
Volunteer Research Assistant, BabySibs
B.A. Psychology, University of Calgary
B.A. Linguistics, University of Calgary
Kim McNeil
BabySibs Coordinator
Olivia Walliser
Volunteer Research Assistant
BSc. Psychology, University of Calgary
Alexandra Zrymiak
Former BabySibs Research Assistant
B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology, University of Calgary
Katt Bornais
Former Lab Coordinator
B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology, Saint Francis Xavier University
Erin Dodd
Former Lab and Volunteer Coordinator
B.Sc. EnSc., University of Calgary
Jennifer Campbell
Former Lab Coordinator, BabySibs Project Coordinator
B.Sc. (Hons) Psychology, University of Calgary
Monique Charest
Former Research Assistant
Komal Zaidi
Former Research Assistant
Jenny More
Former Research Assistant
Monica Hernandez
Former Lab Coordinator
Marci Gordeyko
Former Lab Coordinator
Melanie Khu
Former Babysibs Coordinator and Lab Coordinator
Natarie Liu
Former Babysibs Project Coordinator
Jenna Meers
Former Volunteer Coordinator
Katerina Mrkva
Former Research Assistant
Natasha Nickel
Former Lab Coordinator
Sarah Wills
Former BabySibs Project Coordinator
Titia Benders
Susan McLarty
Kim Tan-MacNeil