In May 2018 I received my Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, in Developmental Psychology. While at UT, I ran my studies in the Language Development Lab. I am now the primary investigator of the The Little Athenians Lab in the Psychology department at Mount Saint Mary's University, in Los Angeles.

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My research interests lie in the field of children's bilingual language development.  Some of my research questions are about children's metalinguistic skills (and how bilingual vs monolingual children compare on these skills) and more recently, about the intersection between children's self-identity and newly-learned languages.

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In a separate research branch, I am also curious about how college instructor's form of address (e.g., "Dr." "Mrs." "Professor"), attire, and use of colloquial language impact the classroom culture. This is a new area of research for me, but one that my research team and I have seen some really neat findings for!

 

In addition (and as a third line of research in my lab) I study Parenting Styles. Led by my research assistant, Anapaola Munoz, we are investigating the effect of parenting styles on children's ability to independently navigate social challenges (e.g. if Suzie's peer snatches her toy away, how does Suzie react even though there are no adults around, and how does Suzie's parent's parenting style impact her reaction to this scenario?).

 

Check out The Little Athenians Lab research tab, on this website, to learn more about these lines of research and what we've been doing recently :)

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If you are a student at MSMU, please consider joining my lab! I am always looking for disciplined and organized students to help me on my research projects.

See the The Little Athenians Lab  tab for more info :)