Communication, Acquisition, & Translational Studies Lab

Dr. Thorson and CATLab members Sam Pepe and Allison Boldis at UNH's Undergraduate Research Conference on April 26th. Sam presented her work on the impact of prosody on visual attention in preschoolers during a read-aloud story, and Allison presented her systematic review on on prosody in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Congratulations Allison and Sam!

Help us understand how children learn new words! We are looking for 14-16 month old scientists to participate in an eyetracking study. You will receive a $10 gift card and a small gift for your child for your participation. For more information, e-mail us at [email protected]. We would love to meet you and your child!

Did you know that 'baby-talk' is crucial in language development? Check out this article to learn more!

'Baby-talk' aids language development Study showed small words ending in "y" or those featuring repetitive sounds such as choo-choo, boosted vocabulary.

Congratulations to Rachel for successfully defending her Master's Thesis yesterday, and thanks to everyone who came to support her!

Does your child love The Children's Museum of New Hampshire? If so, check out one of our ongoing research studies, Project ACME (Advancing Children's Museum Engagement)! We are looking for children between the ages of 3 and 6 and their guardians to help us understand how families use the exhibits at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire. For your participation, you and your child will receive free admission to the museum and a $20 gift card.

E-mail [email protected] for more information!

CATLab members Allison, Mikaela, Lauren, Rachel and Samantha recently attended the 2019 New Hampshire Speech-Language-Hearing Association Conference. While there, Rachel, Allison and Samantha presented their research!

Supporting your child's brain development isn't as complicated as you may think! Check out this article to learn about findings from a recent study exploring the impact of children's experiences and interactions.

How To Make Your Child’s Brain Grow A new study shows the impact positive parenting can have.

The APPL study (Attentional and Prosodic Processing of Language Study) is an upcoming project that uses eye-tracking to monitor where a child looks on a screen when they hear speech. We are interested in learning about how early patterns of attention and the development of melody in spoken speech and language impact early word learning. If you're interested in trying something new with your child and contributing to research at the same time, please fill out the form below. We would love to meet you and your child!

https://forms.gle/6CxJ1VvpriSJR77v5

Welcome to our page!

We are a research lab at the University of New Hampshire in the Communication Sciences & Disorders department. Our lab, the Communication, Acquisition, and Translational Studies Laboratory (CAT Lab), studies how infants and young children learn how to speak and understand language, looking at how babies begin to produce their first words and sentences and how they learn new words. Many of our studies look at the role of the melody and rhythm of speech (called prosody) at different stages in development, and how these early language processes impact successful communication. If you're interested in helping us on this mission, check out our website to learn more about current and upcoming research projects!
https://mypages.unh.edu/catlab

Welcome to the CAT Lab!