• Determined that early language skills are clinically predictive of long-term neurocognitive outcomes in prelingually deaf cochlear implant users.
• Determined that pediatric cochlear implant users are at a greater risk than their hearing peers for developing clinically significant disturbances in social, emotional and behavioral skills.
• Determined that underlying delays and deficits in language and self-regulation account for differences in social, emotional and behavioral skills in cochlear implant users.

Project title: Parent-child interactions and word learning in young deaf children with cochlear implants

Funding: R01 | NIH/NIDCD

Objective: This project uses head-mounted eye-tracking technology to investigate real-time quantitative and qualitative properties of parent-child social interactions in children with cochlear implants.

Project title: Psychosocial outcomes in deaf children with cochlear implants

Funding: R21 Early Career Investigator Award | NIH/NIDCD

Objective: Investigate how language and executive functions regulate and contribute to individual differences in psychosocial outcomes in prelingually deaf, early-implanted cochlear implant users.

Project title: Underlying mechanisms of psychosocial adjustment in pediatric cochlear implant users

Funding: Dean’s Discovery Grant 

Objective: Investigate children’s physiological responses to stress.