News

CaNDL Presentations at the INSAR 2024 Annual Meeting

By Helen Gray-BauerMay 20th, 2024

Doctoral students Kelsey Davison and Talia Liu recently presented their ongoing work at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) in Melbourne, Australia.

Kelsey presented a poster titled, Speech timing in relation to white matter organization in autistic and non-autistic children. Talia shared an oral presentation titled, Language matters: Relationships between speech rate, autism diagnostic status, and language ability.

Talia Liu (above)
Kelsey Davison (above)

Highlights from 2023 ASHA Convention

By Helen Gray-BauerNovember 27th, 2023
Many lab members attended the recent 2023 ASHA Convention to celebrate recent honors and present ongoing research.

The ASHA Convention offers an annual opportunity for researchers, educators, students, and clinicians to come together to share research, learn new methods and technologies for clinical care, and foster educational and professional connections.

Lab members pictured from left to right: Hannah Stetson, Talia Liu, Kelsey Davison, Jennifer Zuk, Laura Doherty, Juliana Ronderos, Helen Gray-Bauer, Antonia Nikolaidou.

 

Research assistant, Laura Doherty, and post-doctoral fellow, Juliana Ronderos, both received honors during the convention.

 

Laura was honored as one of the convention's Meritorious Poster Recipients, a special designation for those that present "exceptional and innovative work on topics across the sciences from teams around the world".

 

Juliana, recent awardee of the ASHFoundation's New Investigator Award, was celebrated as well.
Congratulations to our lab members who presented their work!
Doctoral student, Talia Liu, presented ongoing research entitled "Speech rate in relation to language difficult in autistic and non-autistic children".

 

Doctoral student, Kelsey Davison, and research assistant, Mercy Valladares, presented their research, "Parents' oral reading expressiveness in shared reading". Pictured with Boston University Clinical Professor and co-author, Alyssa Boucher. This presentation included work completed by Mercy as an MS-SLP thesis at Boston University.

 

Research assistant, Hannah Stetson, presented her work titled, "Parent-child conversational interactions during shared book reading in toddlerhood in relation to child language status". This work was completed as part of Hannah's MS-SLP thesis at Boston University.

 

Research assistant, Laura Doherty, presented her project, "The expressiveness of parents' storybook reading in relation to children's emerging language abilities in toddlerhood". This work was completed as part of Laura's MS-SLP thesis at Boston University.

 

Post-doctoral fellow, Juliana Ronderos presented two seminars, "Contribution of Cognitive Processing Abilities to Performance on Verbal Repetition Assessments in Spanish-English Bilingual Children" and "Language Maintenance in Bilingual Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder". This work was completed during Juliana's doctoral work at the University of Houston.

 

Research coordinator, Helen Gray-Bauer, presented work looking at the "Associations between home literacy environment, home musical environment, and parental self-efficacy in families of preschoolers".

 

Boston University Clinical Professor and lab collaborator, Alyssa Boucher, and graduate research assistant and MS-SLP thesis student, Natalie Tewksbary, presented a seminar about "Fostering Clinical Judgment: Supervisor and Student Clinician Perspectives on Implementing Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders".

 

26th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium

By Helen Gray-BauerNovember 1st, 2023

Marion Bensing, '24, recently presented at the 26th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium on the relationship between musical beat processing and early language abilities in preschoolers. This work was completed through BU's Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) during this past summer.

Marion is continuing this work through another UROP project this semester. Congratulations, Marion!

    

Congratulations to Our Thesis Students!

By Helen Gray-BauerMay 17th, 2023

Congratulations to our graduating thesis students for successful presentation of their projects! MS-SLP students, Laura Doherty, Sylvia Gisler, and Mercy Valladares and undergraduate student, Therese Ancheta presented their thesis projects related to language, speech, reading, and movement in early childhood.

Laura Doherty: The Expressiveness of Mothers' Storybook Reading in Relation to Children's Emerging Language Abilities in Toddlerhood

Sylvia Gisler: Examining the Relation Between Motor Skills and Emerging Language Development in Infancy

Mercy Valladares: Parental Oral Reading Prosody During Shared Reading Experiences

Therese Ancheta: Identifying Neural Correlates of Speech Prosody in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

CaNDL Students Present at the 25th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium

By Helen Gray-BauerOctober 31st, 2022

Therese Ancheta, '23, (top left) and Sebastian Romani, '23, (top right) presented their research posters at the 25th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium sharing research they conducted over the summer with the lab through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).

Sebastian presented his research titled, Parent-Child Shared Reading Interactions in Toddlerhood in Relation to Socioeconomic and Language Status. This research explored the quality and quantity of parental language input during shared reading experiences. Therese's project, entitled, Identifying Neural Correlates of Speech Prosody in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, focused on behavioral and neural differences of speech in children with and without autism.

Congratulations to Sebastian and Therese on a summer full of research and wonderful presentations of their work!

Congratulations to the Classes of 2022!

By Helen Gray-BauerJune 1st, 2022

A couple weeks ago, the Boston University community paused to celebrate the graduates of 2022. Congratulations to our lab members graduating from the MS-SLP program and undergraduate programs in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and Linguistics!

We are excited to share in celebrating your accomplishments and are thankful to have been a small part of your journey at BU. We are immensely grateful for your contributions to our lab and wish you the best of luck on your next adventures!

Graduating senior, Ione, pictured wearing black graduation cap and red gown. She is holding a bouquet of orange, white, and green flowers and smiling.

 

 

Professor Jennifer Zuk Receives Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award

By Jennifer M. ZukMay 31st, 2022

It is truly a privilege and honor to receive the Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award. With this award, we are thrilled to expand our research program to study verbal communication abilities among children with autism, thanks to the support of the Hartwell Foundation. Stay tuned for more on this coming soon!

Professor Jennifer Zuk Receives Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award

Congratulations to our 1st Master’s thesis student!

By Jennifer M. ZukMay 31st, 2022

Congratulations to Hannah Stetson on a wonderfully successful Master's thesis defense of her project, "Parent-child conversational interactions during shared book reading in toddlerhood in relation to child language status." This is the first thesis defense in our lab (!), and led Hannah to earn her Master's degree and embark on her profession in clinical speech-language pathology!

Highlights of Fall 2021

By Jennifer M. ZukJanuary 20th, 2022
Happy new year! As we welcome 2022, our lab has been joyfully reflecting on the milestone accomplishments of multiple lab members in Fall 2021:
Ione Madsen Hardy, a senior in Linguistics and Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Boston University, presented her summer research project at the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Symposium, with a poster entitled: Building prosodic profiles for pediatric autism spectrum disorder and developmental language disorder.
Kelsey Davison, PhD student in the Communication and Neurodevelopment Lab, was awarded the Paula Menyuk Award from the Boston University Conference on Language Development for having one of the highest-rated student research submissions for a project, in collaboration with Dr. Nadine Gaab at Harvard University, entitled: Associations between shared book reading at home and white matter organization in kindergarten in relation to subsequent language and reading abilities.
Our Lab Director, Dr. Jennifer Zuk, had a remarkable experience reuniting with close colleagues and academic family at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) convention in DC, where she had the honor of receiving the association's Early Career Contributions in Research Award. With immense gratitude for these milestones, we look ahead in great anticipation and excitement for all that 2022 has in store for us!

Dr. Jennifer Zuk’s ASHA Early Career Contributions in Research Award!

By Ione Madsen HardyOctober 4th, 2021

We are thrilled to announce that our lab director, Dr. Jennifer Zuk, has been awarded the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Early Career Contributions in Research Award! This award is granted annually to individuals who have made significant scientific contributions to the field within five years of earning a doctoral degree. Dr. Zuk's award will be formally presented at the 2021 ASHA Convention in Washington, D.C. this November.

Sargent College's announcement with more information can be found here.