School of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Faculty of Health

Child Language Lab

Lead Researchers:

Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird & Patricia Cleave

Research coordinator:

Bonita Squires

Location:

The Child Language Lab is located on the 2nd floor of the Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building in Rooms 2C24, 2C33, and 2C35. These rooms house graduate students and research assistants supervised by the lead researchers. Testing is done in Rooms 2C13 and 2C17.

Research interests:

Child language development and disorders, bilingualism, cultural and linguistic diversity, narrative and expository skills, assessment, intervention, Down syndrome, Specific Language Impairment

Current Funded Research:

  1. Title: “The Discourse Skills of Monolingual and Bilingual School-aged Children.”

    Funding: Social Science and Humanities Research Council.

    Co-Principal Investigators
    Patricia Cleave & Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird

    Co-Investigators
    Pierre Cormier, Université de Moncton; Natacha Trudeau, Université du Montréal; Andrea MacLeod, Université du Montréal; Stefano Rezzonico, Université du Montréal; Ann Sutton, University of Ottawa; Nikolay Slavkov, University of Ottawa; Xi Chen-Bumgardner, University of Toronto; Ann Nockerts, SALT Software

  2. Title: “Opportunities for Bilingualism in Preschool and School-age Children with Developmental Disabilities: An International Investigation.”

    Funding
    Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Partnership Development Grant.

    Principal Applicant: Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird

    Co-Investigators and partners
    Canada.
    Patricia Cleave & Susan Bryson, Dalhousie University; Ann Sutton, Ottawa University; Stefka Marinova-Todd, Pat Mirenda, & Paola Colozzo, University of British Columbia; Susan Fawcett, Down Syndrome Research Foundation; Andrea MacLeod & Natacha Trudeau, Université de Montréal; Diane Pesco, Concordia University; Fred Genesee, McGill University; Miriam Beauchamp, Gold Treatment Centre.
    Netherlands.
    Ludo Verhoeven & Eliane Segers, Radboud University.
    United Kingdom.
    Kate Cain & Melissa Allen, Lancaster University; Sue Buckley, Down Syndrome Education International.
    United States.
    Julia Scherba de Valenzuela & Susan Copeland, University of New Mexico.

Prospective Master’s and PhD students:

We encourage prospective students seeking research supervision to contact us directly to discuss possible topics for research supervision.