The Baby Language Lab at the University of Manitoba

The Baby Language Lab is recruiting research participants!
If you have a baby under 12 months old, you may be eligible to participate.

We’re studying how babies learn language by playing speech sounds for them and seeing how they respond. The study involves a one-time, in-person appointment that will take about 30 minutes in total (and you will be with your baby at all times!)

Interested? You can email us at [email protected], or send us a direct message here. We’re happy to answer any questions!

Congratulations to the graduating Honours students and Research Assistants from the Baby Language Lab (seen here with Dr. Melanie Soderstrom at the Honours reception). 🎉

Screens are everywhere - but what do they really mean for your child’s language and communication development? The Hearing Experience and Language Learning Outcomes Lab (HELLO Lab) at the University of Connecticut have an episode out that examines the impact of screen time on infant language development.

To watch the full video, a link can be found in our bio, (first link of our "links of interest" page).

PhD student Sana Fekrazad was awarded the Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral (CGRS-D) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). This scholarship will support Sana's research on the impact of caregiver-infant communication on infants' preferences for familiar versus new objects. Congratulations, Sana! 👏

Come find us and the Young Minds Research Lab () at Science Rendezvous in the University College Great Hall on May 9th from 11am-3pm. 🧠

Science Rendezvous is Manitoba's largest science festival, open to everyone, free to attend, no sign-ups necessary, with more than 60 interactive science booths! 🔬

We wanted to acknowledge and congratulate our two Undergraduate Honours Students, who have successfully completed their final Honours Thesis presentations! 🎉👏

Recent research shows that when caregivers engage in back-and-forth interactions (like responding to babbles, making eye contact, and taking turns), babies show increased brain activity linked to attention, and this predicts stronger language development later on.

If you are interested in reading the full article, a link can be found in our bio, (first link of our "Links of Interest" page).

Congratulations to undergraduate student, Marlea Sabo, on receiving her acceptance to the University of Manitoba's Masters of Arts program in Applied Behavioural Analysis! Marlea is finishing up her honours thesis work on the effect of maternal stress on maternal and infant communication, and will be starting this new endeavor in the fall. Congrats Marlea!

The Hearing Experience and Language Learning Outcomes Lab (HELLO Lab) at the University of Connecticut have a second episode out that explores childhood multilingualism. Whether you are a monolingual or multilingual family, this episode offers concise, research-based insights about how you can support language development at home.

To watch the full video, click on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq-Pmhou_KU

Congratulations to Baby Language Lab's Dr. Sara Montazeri, who successfully completed her Final Doctoral Dissertation Oral Defense.

Sara's dissertation is titled "Linguistic Environment of Persian-Learning Infants in Iran: Quantity and Prosodic Characteristics of Caregiver Speech."

Sara is pictured here with the lab director and advisor, Melanie Soderstrom, as well as a few other members of the lab. Congratulations again!