News
Living Laboratory at the Museum of Science Summer 2024 / Living Laboratory del Museo de la Ciencia de Boston Verano 2024
🌞This summer, we had the amazing opportunity to team up with the Living Laboratory at the Museum of Science!🔬 We connected with kids through fun and interactive language games designed to spark their curiosity about word learning and on how we build connections between the words we know.✨🧐 It was a pleasure to share our passion for research, language, and bilingualism with the community. 🎉💯
Thank you to the @museumofscience and the Living Laboratory for providing us the space, resources and opportunity! 🤗
🌞¡Este verano tuvimos la increíble oportunidad de trabajar con el Living Laboratory del Museo de la Ciencia de Boston (Museum of Science)! 🔬Interactuamos con niños a través de juegos de lenguaje divertidos e interactivos diseñados para despertar su curiosidad sobre el aprendizaje de palabras y sobre cómo construimos conexiones entre las palabras que conocemos. ✨🧐Fue un placer compartir nuestra pasión por la investigación, el lenguaje y el bilingüismo con la comunidad. 🎉💯
¡Muchas gracias al @museumofscience y al Living Laboratory por facilitarnos el espacio, los recursos y la oportunidad! 🤗
NC A&T State University-Summer Internship 2024 – Derron McQuitty
During this past summer, we welcomed Derron McQuitty to the Bilingual Learning Lab. Derron is one of two students who spent 10 weeks during the summer at Boston University as part of the NC A&T State University-Summer Internship 2024. This internship aimed to provide opportunities for students to gain research experience and receive faculty mentorship.
It was a pleasure to welcome you to the lab, Derron! We wish you the best of lucks in your next endeavors. 🎉
2024 BU Women’s Guild Scholarship
We want to congratulate Zoe Devine for being one of only 55 graduate students to receive a 2024 BU Women’s Guild Scholarship.
These scholarships are awarded to women and those who identify as female in Boston University graduate programs, as well as to BU women writers. Since 1977, the BUWG has distributed over $800,000 in scholarships to more than 400 BU graduate students. Zoe was awarded the BU Women's Council Scholarship 🎉.
We are incredibly proud of your work in and out of the Bilingual Learning Lab!
Junior Faculty Fellows Program Award
Dr. Crespo has been selected as one of eight faculty members to be part of the 2024 Junior Faculty Fellows of the Boston University Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering!
The Junior Faculty Fellows Program recognizes outstanding early-career computing and data-driven researchers at Boston University. The program brings together a cohort of junior faculty members to participate in intellectual exchanges and integrative activities. The purpose of this program centers on building connections across disciplines and probing the possibilities of interdisciplinary collaborations.
The 2024 cohort of fellows represents a variety of colleges and schools across Boston University. They are applying computational methods and tools to address complex challenges in diverse fields including astronomy, biostatistics, economics, engineering, neuroscience, political science, sociology, statistical modeling, and speech, language & hearing sciences.
This recognition comes with a $10,000 award to support computational and data science research and the empowerment to help steer the direction of the Hariri Institute-sponsored Distinguished Speaker Series with other Junior Faculty Fellows.
Congratulations to all 2024 Fellows and 2025 Focused Research Program (FRP) award recipients!
Spring 2024 End of Semester Meeting!
✨ Wrapping up the Spring 2024 Semester ! ✨ Here's a recap of the highlights:
👥 Our dedicated team of students came together to reflect on our accomplishments over the past year. From innovative experiments to insightful analyses, we've made significant progress in launching our studies examining how children with different language abilities and language experiences learn words.
🌟 We celebrated the contributions of each member, recognizing their individual projects, presentations, and dedication to our lab's work. Malvi also took the time to create a lab trivia!
🔬 As we look ahead to the future, we're excited to build upon the momentum generated during this year. With fresh ideas and renewed energy, we're poised to embark on new research endeavors that will further enhance our understanding of child language development.
👏 A heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in our end-of-semester meeting! Your commitment to excellence and culture of inclusivity and collaboration make our research lab truly exceptional and a great place to work and learn!
Center for Career Development’s Code-Switching & the Workplace
We also wanted to give a big shoutout to Malvika who was recently invited to form part of the panel at the Center for Career Development’s Code-Switching & the Workplace event.
This event delved into the challenges faced by BIPOC professionals and offered strategies for achieving authenticity and belonging in the workplace.
You can learn more about it at the BU Career Development blog: https://bu-beyond.blog/2024/04/19/dismantling-bias-embracing-identity/
April’s Research in Progress Meeting
We want to thank Boston University's Wheelock College Institute for Early Childhood Well-Being for inviting Dr. Kimberly Crespo to their April Research in Progress Meeting. It was a privilege to form part of such an inspired conversation. Research in Progress aims to bring together BU faculty and graduate students and community partners to share research focused on young children. The interdisciplinary setting encourages all participants to think beyond their individual frameworks, producing lively conversations and innovative research ideas.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our research! We look forward to future events!
Successful Master’s Thesis Defense – Gabby Rushi
We wanted to congratulate Gabby for successfully defending her Master's Thesis! We are incredibly proud of your work. We also wanted to extend our gratitude to Gabby's committee, Boston University's Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences, and all the families who participated in the study for making this possible.
Congratulations, Gabby!!
UROP 2024 Spring Research Recipient!
We are thrilled to share that Paulina Villanueva Salcedo has received funding from Boston University's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), which supports undergraduates conducting research projects under faculty mentorship. Under the direction of Dr. Crespo, Paulina will conduct a study to examine how exposure to multiple speakers and bilingual language experience influences children's productions of novel words. Congrats, Paulina!
To learn more about BU's UROP program, visit https://www.bu.edu/urop/
Boston University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Presentation!
Congratulations to Renzo on his successful Summer UROP Presentation. Over the summer, Renzo researched the effects of bilingualism and input variability in children’s word-learning. Huge shoutout to everyone who made this possible, especially Dr. Crespo for her guidance, and UROP for providing the funding. We are incredibly proud of your work, Renzo!🎉
Puerto Rico Festival of MA 2023
Throwback to the summer, when we had the honor to attend "The Puerto Rican Festival of MA" with the Bilingual Language Development Lab and the Sound2Syntax Lab from UMass-Amherst. A great reminder of the importance of Hispanic communities!
Recordando el verano cuando tuvimos el honor de atender el Festival puertorriqueño de MA en colaboración con el Laboratorio del Desarrollo Bilingüe y el laboratorio Sound2Syntax de la universidad UMass-Amherst. ¡Un recordatorio importante sobre la importancia de las comunidades hispanas!
Successful Master’s Thesis Prospectus!
Congratulations Gabriela Rushi on successfully presenting your master's thesis prospectus! We are incredibly grateful to the committee, Dr. Perrachione and Tim DeLuca, M.S., CCC-SLP, for their insightful feedback and comments that will strengthen the proposal.
Summer Research Program 2023
We would like to extend our gratitude to Janelle Beth Flores, MS, CCC-SLP for the summer she spent at the Bilingual Learning Lab participating in the collaborative Boston University - University of Houston Summer Research Program. Janelle is a second year PhD student in the Dual Lab directed by Dr. Anny Castilla-Earls. Her research interests center on cognition, assessment, and language development of linguistically and culturally diverse populations. This summer Janelle learned about eye tracking methods and experimental design. She also worked on projects examining the role of lexical competition and semantic knowledge in children's cross-situational word learning. Outside of the lab, she enjoyed exploring Boston and spending time with visiting family and friends!
Thank you for the time and expertise you have shared with us!
Successful Master’s Thesis Prospectus!
Congratulations Melanie Thomas on successfully delivering your master's thesis prospectus! We are incredibly grateful to the committee, Dr. Jennifer Zuk and Dr. Alyssa Boucher, for their insightful feedback and comments that will help strengthen the proposal.
ISB14 Early Career Keynote
Dr. Crespo attended the International Symposium on Bilingualism 14 (ISB14) at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia! ISB is a biennial conference on a wide range of issues concerning bi/multilingualism. ISB has become the most significant conference in the field of bi/multilingualism with a strong focus on showcasing multidisciplinary research from a range of disciplines, including education, linguistics, neuroscience, psychology and sociology.
On Monday, Dr. Crespo presented a talk on the effects of input variability, bilingual experience and language ability on children's word learning. On Thursday, she presented as an Early Career Keynote where she shared her research on how exposure to code switching, dual language input, and other forms of input variability shape children's language and cognitive skills.
And no conference in Australia is complete without a little fun visiting the Featherdale Wildlife Park, Opera House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney Harbor and Bondi Beach!
UROP & Newbury Center 2023 Summer Research Recipient!
We are excited to share that one of our lab members, Renzo Quintero, has received funding from Boston University's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), which supports undergraduates conducting research projects under faculty mentorship. Renzo also received the Newbury Center Summer Research Award to support summer housing costs. Under the direction of Dr. Crespo, Renzo will conduct a study to examine bilingualism, language ability, and variability effects in children's word-learning skills. Congrats, Renzo!
To learn more about BU's UROP program, visit https://www.bu.edu/urop/
SDSU Empowering Future Scholars
This past Friday, Dr. Crespo visited San Diego State University in San Diego, California. She presented her research and had lunch with doctoral students in the Joint Doctoral Program at San Diego State University and UC San Diego. She also met with master’s students involved with SDSU's National Student Speech Language Hearing Association (NSSLHA) and discussed the clinical impact of her work as well as opportunities for clinicians to engage in research and advance science.
Welcome Dr. Gross
Colloquium Speaker: Dr. Megan Gross
Department of Communication Disorders, UMass Amherst
"Bilingual Development and Neurodiversity: Examining Children's Communication and Family/Clinical Perspectives"
Friday, April 7
4:00-5:00 pm
610 Commonwealth Ave, Boston MA
Room 106B
We are excited to welcome Dr. Megan Gross from UMass Amherst to campus next week as part of BU's Research Colloquium Series! Dr. Gross is the director of the Bilingual Language Development Lab at UMass Amherst, and her work focuses on the intersection of bilingual development and neurodiversity in children, and her talk will incorporate family, clinician, and community perspectives related to bilingual language development. Please join us for her presentation discussing her research on Friday, April 7.
Volunteers in Training
Our research assistants have been hard at work learning about different assessment protocols used in our lab studies!
