For this project, I researched diverse narratives in young adult fiction (YA), focusing specifically on LGBTQ+ and multicultural voices. My research consisted of three distinct parts: 1) analysis of how diverse protagonists and stories fit into the overall history and development of YA fiction, 2) application of Critical Race Theory and Queer Theory to several notable books in this genre, and 3) development of a model to categorize and define effective books in this genre. I looked at the origins of young adult fiction and depictions of LGBTQ+ and multicultural characters throughout the history of the genre to notice trends in diverse representation. After looking at the timeline of YA, I analyzed Ruby (1976), Annie on My Mind (1982), Weetzie Bat (1989), Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2012), Carry On (2015), If I Was Your Girl (2016), and The Hate U Give (2017) to determine whether they were “effective” examples of YA literature. Through this project, I hope to shed light on how to effectively include representation in a YA novel, in order to promote diverse, inclusive, and groundbreaking stories.

The International Panel on Climate Change report of Global Warming of 1.5°C (October 2018) strongly recommends unprecedented scale of systems transitions to ensure little to no overshoot of global warming of 1.5°C. In the interest of examining educational efforts towards this reality, this qualitative study is designed to understand how the field of early childhood education is adapting to living with climate change and preparing early learners for their future under the guiding principle of the required systematic change that must be met to mitigate the effects of the human ecological footprint on the environment. This qualitative study features a cross-cultural comparison of early childhood professionals’ ideas about the role that early childhood teachers play in helping children learn foundational ideas about climate change. Three participants from Washington state and 4 participants from Trondheim, Norway were interviewed and the content of the interviews was analyzed and coded for themes. Participants all had early learning teaching experience, but their roles varied from State policymaking, teacher educators, and early learning educators. Participants described barriers in supporting early learners’ understanding of, relationship with, and caring for the environment and how the field of early education can be intentional in supporting these goals. Participants identified lack of educator knowledge, lack of access to nature, family emphasis on spending time in nature, the risk of scaring children, emphasis on academic readiness, and cultural emphasis on environment as the main barriers to effectively preparing early learners for their complex future. All the participants felt children were capable of understanding topics related to sustainable practices, cause-effect, and co-existing with the other life on this planet. The next steps of this work is to determine how to best prepare early educators in supporting the goals identified by participants through professional development or teacher preparatory programs.

Interactions between children and their caregivers are vital for early language development, as they provide a supportive context for learning. Within interactions, periods of sustained attentional focus between a child, an adult, and an object or action (i.e., joint engagement) are essential for providing high-quality language learning opportunities. Understanding joint engagement during interactions can help parents, educators, and Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) gather critical information regarding a child’s unique language needs. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the predictive capacity of joint engagement on the receptive and expressive language of children with developmental language impairment (DLI) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Though joint engagement has been studied in typically developing populations, there is limited research regarding joint engagement in a specific population such as DLI with or without ASD. This project investigated language profiles of 14 participants from a Developmental Preschool in Seattle, Washington (ages 3-5). All participants were diagnosed with DLI, while nine had concurrent ASD diagnoses. Joint engagement (rated on a global scale by trained experimenters) and mean length utterance (MLU) were coded using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) during 15-minute play-based interactions with an examiner. Language development was further assessed with the standardized Preschool Language Scales, 5th Edition. We tested whether children’s joint engagement skills predicted language abilities. Results suggested that specific quantitative measures of joint engagement predicted scores across language development domains (e.g., vocabulary). The implications of this finding extend beyond the confines of the SLP field, identifying children with DLI and establishing therapeutic targets. It has the potential to impact family dynamics and communication priorities, as well. Future directions could explore joint engagement based interventions and their effect on language development.

Although it can be challenging to identify infants with speech and language delays and disorders, past research has shown that earlier intervention is associated with better outcomes. Improving infant speech and language assessments can thus be critical in maximizing communication outcomes in children. Current clinical assessments use a combination of direct testing, clinical observation, and parent report, since obtaining sufficient information from direct testing of infants alone can be difficult. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether receptive and expressive language measures obtained via direct testing combined with clinical observation differed from parent report alone. We assessed receptive and expressive language skills longitudinally in infants at 3, 6, and 11 months of age using both parent report and direct testing. To obtain direct measures of language skills, the receptive and expressive language subscales of the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) were administered. To obtain parent report measures of language skills, the Listening and Understanding and the Talking subscales of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales – Third Edition (Vineland-3) were administered. Both the MSEL and Vineland-3 are standardized clinical assessments appropriate for use with infants from birth. Standard scores from the MSEL and Vineland-3 subscales were compared at each time point as well as the growth trajectory of receptive and expressive language skills from 3 to 11 months as estimated by each standardized assessment measure. Comparing direct testing with parent report of receptive and expressive language skills in early infancy offers important insight into how infant language assessments can be optimized to improve early identification of infants with speech and language delays and disorders.

This study investigates the ways in which parents consider and rate their child’s temperament in relation to the ways in which their child interacts with them during play. Participants were typically developing children (TD, n = 26) ages 2-5, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n = 25) ages 2-12, and children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD, n = 18) ages 4-9. Attentional focusing was assessed with a parent-report child temperament questionnaire; child’s age determined which Rothbart Childhood Temperament Questionnaire was given (for example, the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire for ages 3-7). Play sessions were unscripted, free play time between the parent and child with a consistent set of toys (M = 14.4 minutes, SD = 2.8). The number of child attention switches (to a different toy, person, or object) was coded from video. Preliminary results indicate that parents rated TD children as more attentive in comparison to children with ASD and FASD based on the attentional focusing score from the Child Temperament Questionnaire (p< .001). There were fewer attention switches during the play sessions by TD children in comparison to children with ASD and FASD (p<.05). There is no significant difference in either of these measures between children with ASD and FASD. There is also no correlation between parent-reported attentional focusing scores and the observed number of attention switches. These results suggest that TD children demonstrate more attentiveness in both parent-reported and examiner-rated measures. Children with ASD and FASD were not distinguishable from each other based on parent report or direct observation of attention. Overall, attention should be considered as a contributor in a child’s interactions with their environment, relationships to others, and further growth and development.

Aphasia is a language impairment that is often acquired due to left hemisphere stroke. Although current treatment for aphasia is successful, it is often limited to what is explicitly trained during treatment. That is, when conducting a single-word treatment protocol, persons with aphasia tend to only improve on naming the words given during treatment and show little to no improvement on untrained words. This study is focused on identifying what conditions improve naming untrained words after receiving aphasia treatment. For 8 individuals with aphasia, we assessed change in naming 120 pictures after undergoing a repetition priming task for 30 of those words. For a given “trained” word, its corresponding picture, printed name, and spoken name were presented to the participant four times, followed by an opportunity for the participant to verbally produce the name. For pre- and post- test naming, we implemented a standard coding method to ensure specific and consistent scoring, where responses were only scored correct if the participant verbally produced the entire picture name. We found that all participants improved in naming the 30 trained words. However, our results were mixed regarding improvement on naming the untrained words. Critically, we noticed two participants whose responses were not always verbal productions of the word, but rather spelled words (in one case verbally and in the other case through writing). This led us to question whether these coding parameters allow us to accurately identify if an individual is benefiting from treatment. We argue that incremental gains in productions (e.g., through spelling) also provide evidence of improved access to words. We focus this presentation on how alternative coding schemes for these two participants might change our interpretation of their outcomes, and discuss how future research should consider more inclusive scoring methods.

Parents’ use of early math talk with young children is important for later math outcomes. Existing research focuses on monolingual English-speaking populations and provides limited data on Dual Language Learners (DLLs). As the DLL population continues to grow, outcomes are important to investigate due to a possibly higher risk for academic disadvantage in comparison to their monolingual peers. The purpose of this project was to evaluate early maternal math language during mother-child play-based interactions in a primarily Spanish-speaking sample of low-income Mexican-American families. Specifically, this study investigated: (1) the type of math talk mothers used with their 3.5-year-old children in the context of semi-naturalistic play (2) how early math talk in Spanish predicted kindergarten math skills measured with standardized assessments. Mothers and children (3.5 years) played with toys (a bug-building kit and a pizza-making kit) for 15 minutes. Conversations between the mother and child were recorded and transcribed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software. Transcripts were coded for instances of math talk, including numeracy, cardinality, quantity, spatial terms, and sequencing terms. We expected that preschool-aged children who were exposed to a greater quantity and diversity of numerical language during play would demonstrate more robust math skills in kindergarten measured with standardized academic assessments. We conducted descriptive analyses of mothers’ math talk and children’s language development (e.g., vocabulary and grammar) and used correlational analyses to see if mothers’ math talk was related to children’s language development. Predictive analyses assessed whether math talk predicted children's math outcomes in kindergarten. Findings from this work may have implications for parents, educators, and Speech-Language Pathologists in understanding how to support learning and academic success before entry to Kindergarten for the growing population of DLLs. Further research will help establish a better understanding of socioeconomic impacts on math talk.