Completed Federal Grants
Funded by the US Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition
(Grant #T365Z170114)
Role: Principal Investigator
Dates: 2017 - 2022
The goal of this grant is to improve the school readiness of children who are from low-income homes and who speak a language other than English at home. The grant will train teachers and assistant teachers who work in the NYC Department of Education to use high quality language and literacy practices in their classrooms through ExCELL (Exceptional Coaching for Early Language and Literacy), which is a web-based professional development (PD) program with remote coaching. The grant will also test the efficacy of the PD through a randomized control trial.
Funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
(Grant #R305A160081)
Role: Principal Investigator
Dates: 2016-2022
The purpose of this project is to develop a reliable and valid, comprehensive assessment of phonological sensitivity in Spanish and English that can be used with 3-to 5-year-old DLLs. The test, entitled the Bilingual Assessment of Phonological Sensitivity (BAPS), will efficiently measure dual language learner (DLL) preschoolers’ abilities across tasks that capture the developmental continuum of phonological sensitivity (PS). Teachers and speech-language pathologists will be able to use the BAPS to: (a) develop an in-depth understanding of where Spanish-speaking DLLs are on the developmental continuum of PS in both languages; (b) determine where to begin instruction on PS; and (c) identify children who have difficulties with PS.
Funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
(Grant #R324A160070)
Role: Co-Principal Investigator (PI = Sawyer, Lehigh University)
Dates: 2019-2022
The goal of this project is to develop Parents Plus: Language Coach, an internet-based program, which will train parents to use high quality language facilitation strategies to promote the language skills of their children with language impairment.
Funded by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Role: Co-Principal Investigator
Dates: 2017 - 2018
The Háblame Bebé (Talk to Me Baby; Baralt, Darcy Mahoney, & Brito, 2020) grant tested the effectiveness of this parent training intervention program with Latino mothers of toddlers whose first language is Spanish. Háblame Bebé is a text-based coaching program and app that teaches parents that they are their baby’s first and best teacher by explaining how and why to give “Language Nutrition” within every-day routines. Háblame Bebé uses video examples, text message tips, and reminders to support mothers as they implement language facilitation strategies. Mothers are incentivized by earning hearts in the app when they incorporate and document use of language nutrition in daily routines. Mothers record their baby’s developing vocabulary into a bilingual word registry. The ultimate goal of the grant was to improve Spanish-speaking toddlers’ language skills.
Investing in Innovation, U.S. Department of Education (U411C110111)
Role: Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Wasik)
ExCELL (Exceptional Coaching for Early Language and Literacy) is a web-based, data-driven professional development model that trains preschool and kindergarten teachers on evidence-based language and literacy instructional techniques. ExCELL focuses on building oral language skills, including vocabulary and phonological sensitivity, that are critical for learning to read but often overlooked in early-grade classrooms. The purpose of this project was to develop and test the effectiveness of the PD program.
Funded by: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health (U01HD060296)
Role: Principal Investigator
The purpose of this grant was to investigate the efficacy of the curriculum of Tools of Mind, a school readiness curriculum, when implemented in classrooms that served dual language learners.
Funded by: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education (R324A120046)
Role: Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Morgan – Penn State University)
This project rigorously estimated the extent to which children’s learning of vocabulary prior to school entry (i.e., as toddlers and preschoolers) contributes to their academic and behavioral readiness in kindergarten. It also identified potentially malleable factors (e.g., parenting practices, high quality child care, intervention services) that moderatee the relationship between children’s oral vocabulary knowledge and their school readiness.
Funded by: Administration for Children and Families (90YR0041)
Role: Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Castro – University of North Carolina)
The purpose of CECER: DLL was to “advance the capacity of the research field to address the challenges associated with conducting valid and sound research with the DLL population as well as identifying under-examined issues in the study of young DLLs and their families.”
Funded by: National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, National Institutes of Health (R01-HD051542)
Role: Principal Investigator
The purpose of this project was to develop an assessment of the phonological skills of Spanish-English DLLs from 3 ½ to 6 years of age. The assessment, Bilingual Assessment of Phonological Abilities (BIPA), was designed for use by speech-language pathologists.
Funded by: Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services (90YF0065)
Role: Principal Investigator
Through this project, a culturally-informed book reading intervention was developed for Latina mothers and their children who are DLLs. This intervention show promise for increasing DLLs language abilities.
Funded by: National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, National Institutes of Health & Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education (R01-HD39496)
Role: Principal Investigator
The goal of this project was to study the trajectories of DLLs’ language and literacy development during two years in Head Start through second grade and to identify home and school factors that impacted children’s development.