About our lab
Children say their first words at approximately 12 months of age; by 6 years of age, they know more than 6,000 words! In the Language Development Lab, we investigate the factors influencing children's vocabulary acquistion. Some of these factors include the number of languages they hear/speak, their gender and birth order, and their experience in learning about different categories/classes of items in the world. Our current work focuses on the differences in word learning between English monolingual children, Spanish monolingual children, and English-Spanish bilingual children.
Please review these representative publications for more detail about what we do:
"How Symbolic Experience Shapes Children’s Symbolic Flexibility"
"Spatial Language and Children’s Spatial Landmark Use"
"More is more: The relationship between vocabulary size and word extension"
How does this little girl build her vocabulary?
Lab tenets
We believe that:
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We are all scientists in training! We strive to hone our skills as researchers, find new and innovative ways to answer questions relevant to our current times.
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Collaboration is key. Our lab director and members work together in every stage of ther research process.
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Theory should inform practice. We share our findings in the classroom and with the community to inform best practices for parenting and instruction.
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Research should address questions that apply to a wide, and diverse, swath of the population.
Lab members present at CSUN's Creative Works Symposium and UCLA's Symposium on Cognition and Language
Working together!
"Buttons" the turtle
We create novel toys for our studies to ensure children have never seen them before--or heard their names. We label them for children during our research paradigms. One such toy, a small turtle figurine covered in buttons and painted pink, became a lab favorite. He became our mascot and the emblem for our lab. Not only is "Buttons" reminiscent of the turtles that swim in the pond in CSUN's orange grove, but he also represents our commitment to undergraduate student involvement in research and our joy in working with children and their families. He also reminds us of the fable the Tortoise and the Hare, which teaches us that "slow and steady wins the race". With careful, hard work and patience, great achievements can be made!
Friends of the LDL
