People: UW


	Jan Edwards, Principal Investigator	jedwards2@wisc.edu (608) 262-6768 My research aims to better understand phonological development - the process of learning to talk - in preschool children. Although most adults take the ability to speak for granted, children who are learning language must actually acquire and synthesize a complex system of sounds, words, and social understanding. Doing so competently supports future language development, reading ability, and academic achievement.
	David Kaplan, Co-Investigator	dkaplan@education.wisc.edu My current program of research focuses on the development and testing of Bayesian statistical methods in experimental and observational settings. My recent work has focused on Bayesian propensity score modeling to improve causal inferences in observational settings as well as Bayesian approaches to structural equation modeling. I am also interested in the development of Bayesian informative hypotheses to guide model assessment in experimental studies.
	Nancy Wermuth, Project Manager	nbwermuth@wisc.edu 608-263-0729 As a Speech-Language Pathologist, Associate Lecturer and, Senior Research Specialist in the field of Communication Science, my area of professional interest continues to be helping people communicate. As Project Manager for the Learning to Talk Lab my job is helping the Project Researchers as they work to better understand the process of learning to talk. Please contact me with questions about recruitment, study, or to participate in Learning To Talk projects!
	Franzo Law II, Post-Doctoral Researcher	flaw@wisc.edu My research in first and second language acquisition focuses on phonological processing, the structure of the lexicon, and interactions with phonological/phonotactic probability. I am currently investigating the correlation between speech perception patterns and vocabulary size in children. I am also exploring the perception and production of Canadian French vowels by English-dominant and French-dominant bilingual adults.
	Matthew Winn, Post-Doctoral Researcher	mwinn2@wisc.edu I am an audiologist and also a researcher who focuses on speech perception. I am particularly interested in how listeners make use of many components in complex sounds such as speech. In my work at the Waisman Center, I apply this approach to better understand the experience of people with cochlear implants and young developing language learners.
	Danielle Lee, Ph.D Student	clee284@wisc.edu I am a PhD student in the Quantitative Methods program, Department of Educational Psychology. My research interest is applying Bayesian statistics to the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Longitudinal Studies. I am also interested in missing data in experimental and quasi-experimental researches, especially for longitudinal studies. I am doing a project on Bayesian model averaging approaches to structural equation modeling with my advisor, Professor David Kaplan. I joined this lab as a project assistant. My role is...
	Alissa Schneeberg, Graduate Student	schneeberg@wisc.edu I am currently a second-year graduate student in the Master's program for Speech Language Pathology. After spending three years teaching Kindergarten and 1st grade in Greater New Orleans, I learned the importance of the relationship between language development and literacy. I joined this lab because I know that the research we do can directly affect children's ability to read, and in turn will close the achievement gap.
	Ruby Braxton, Graduate Student	rcbraxton@wisc.edu I am currently a second year graduate student in the Master's program for Speech-Language Pathology. In the lab I have been working on coding language samples from a summer program looking at phonological awareness in preschool students.
	Michelle Erskine, Graduate Student	merskine@wisc.edu I am a first-year graduate student in Communication Sciences and Disorders. My research interests are phonological awareness and literacy skills in developing children.
	Nicole Breunig, Graduate Student	nbreunig2@wisc.edu I am currently a first-year Masters student in the Communication Sciences and Disorders department. I am interested in children's language development and how language development is related to later success in school.
	Tristan Mahr, Graduate Student	mahr@wisc.edu I am currently a second-year graduate student in the MS/PhD program for Speech-Language Pathology. My research interests lie in the computational aspects of phonological acquisition. In the lab, I work on statistical programming for data analysis.
	Antonio Hoye, Consultant
	Daria Lawrence, Graduate Student	ddlawrence@wisc.edu I'm a first year Graduate student in the Communication Sciences and Disorders program. My research interests lie in early learning and literacy development in developing children.
	Kelly Jorgensen, Undergraduate	kajorgensen@wisc.edu I am a junior undergraduate student at UW-Madison in the communicative disorders department. In the lab, I assist graduate students with various projects and am involved in mailings and various administrative tasks. I am interested in language development and have enjoyed learning more about research through my work in the lab. I will be investigating the effects of education and dialect on wordlikeness judgments for my senior thesis starting next summer.
	Amy Muzynoski, Undergraduate	amuzynoski@wisc.edu I am a junior undergraduate student studying Communicative Disorders at UW-Madison. I am particularly interested the process of phonological acquisition in children with Autism and children with cochlear implants.
	Janet Schwartz, Undergraduate	jaschwartz4@wisc.edu I am currently a sophomore undergraduate student in the department of Communicative Disorders. I am particularly interested in further studying the role speech-language pathology has in stroke rehabilitation as well as the speech disorders have on the development in young children.
	Megan Flood, Undergraduate	mflood2@wisc.edu I am a senior undergraduate student in UW-Madison's communicative disorders and TESOL programs. My interests lie in discovering and comparing the processes through which children of diverse backgrounds acquire the sounds of their language and using this knowledge to serve such populations. I currently work with many of the lab's graduate students on their language projects and greatly enjoy the opportunity to explore the findings alongside them.
	Allie Johnson, Undergraduate	aajohnson4@wisc.edu I am currently a student at UW-Madison pursuing my degree in the Communicative Disorders Honors program. My role in the lab involves working with graduate students to prepare stimuli and test subjects. I am especially interested in the cognitive processes involved in language development, such as sound and word storage in the brain. I plan on researching the stability of speech sounds in Canadian-French bilinguals under the advisement of Franzo Law II for my Senior Thesis.
	Malia Silvert, Undergraduate	msilvert223@wisc.edu I am an undergraduate senior at UW-Madison double majoring in Communicative Disorders and Hebrew with a Jewish Studies minor. I intend to go to graduate school for Speech Pathology. My particular interests lie in the overall acquisition of speech and language, specifically with children. I am most interested in exploring play based and child-first therapy.
	Eunjong Kong, Alumna	ekong@kau.ac.kr I am an assistant professor in the English department of the Korean Aerospace University. I am interested in how language-specific phonetic details affect the first/second language acquisition. Currently I am investigating individual differences in speech perception using various task types (Visual Analogue Scaling and Anticipatory Eye Movement) and listeners' language background (adult bilinguals and monolinguals).
	Hyunju Chung, Alumna	hyunju1@ualberta.ca I am a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at the University of Alberta. My research interests include the cross-linguistic study of vowel developmental patterns, both in terms of production and perception.
	Asimina Syrika, Alumna	syrika.asimina@utdallas.edu I am a post doctoral research scientist at the Callier Center for Communication Disorders at the University of Texas at Dallas. My PhD dissertation was on the role of acoustic-perceptual salience in consonant cluster acquisition in Greek. My current work focuses on tongue movement patterns in the production of consonant clusters using electromagnetic articulography (EMA), and the effects of EMA-supplied visual augmented feedback on remediation of speech sounds in adults with motor speech...