SMU Kids In Development (KID) Lab
CURRENT RESEARCH
We have a number of exciting projects we are currently working on!
TECH & TALKING
Digital media, tablets, phones, and other forms of technology are everywhere, including in children's hands. Yet, we know little about how their cognitive and language development is shaped by such technology. In this project, we aim to understand the mechanisms underlying word learning in digital media and identify how the process of learning may differ through technology compared to play with real items. This line of work is funded by an R15 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and early results have recently been published: https://www.smu.edu/news/research/digital-media-and-language-development. Read a bit more about this work in this blog for parents: https://childandfamilyblog.com/how-does-digital-media-shape-young-childrens-word-learning/
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN DEVELOPMENT
Every child and every family is unique, with their own history and experiences and approach to learning. This project explores how differences between each child, such as their temperament, their parent's personality, their socioeconomic status, and even the household structure, together influence the child's language development. Some of our new work on this can be found here: https://www.smu.edu/News/Research/Shyness-children-language-tests
DELAYS IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
Some children do not acquire a vocabulary as quickly as others. These "late talking" children are at risk for future language delays and disorders (e.g. Developmental Language Disorder or DLD). This project attempts to understand why and how these children are delayed and identify areas of strength and weakness in their language skills.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
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CONVERSATIONS AND LEARNING IN MUSEUMS
In collaboration with the Children's Discovery Labs in Tulsa, OK, we ask how do caregivers and children interact and learn in STEM-based museum exhibits. Parent-child interactions is a critical part of a child's development and the more a parent interacts, the more the child can learn. Here, we try to encourage interaction by making adjustments to the exhibits to increase talk while exploring.
CHILDREN LEARNING WORDS
As any parent or caregiver will attest, it is often remarkable the speed at which young children grow and learn, especially during the first two years. In this study, we are specifically interested in how children quickly acquire language and learn to communicate with those around them. We look at what factors alter a child's ability to learn a new word, such as what other toys are around, the way we present the new words, and how boring or exciting the toys are.
2024: A year at SMU!
Often, a study will takes years to fully complete and be written up for a publication. However, each year we like to summarizing our findings so far and share them with parents and other labs. Below you can find our Spring 2024 newsletter with lab news, preliminary findings from this year's studies, and some tips and general lab updates. Also below is a recent blog post, written for parents, on our technology research and short press release summaries on two of our recent studies.