Ongoing Projects
Analysis of children's story books (with Marsha Weinraub [Temple], Gina Maurer, Caitlin Lindley, & several other students). We are examining the various manifestations of theory of mind content (especially false belief & deception) in commercially available children's books. Our aim is to delineate increasing levels of book complexity that could be used to best promote social understanding abilities in young children, especially children with autism or those from low-language environments.
Read alouds in a preschool classroom: Supporting inferential thinking and question-asking (with Elizabeth Hale & Kate Leech [Harvard University] and Gina Maurer). We are analyzing large-group bookreading verbal interactions between a teacher and her preschool classroom with the goal of delineating the specific strategies that this master teacher uses to support her student's development of oral language and oral listening comprehension.
Promoting oral listening comprehension among preschoolers through inference-making abilities (with Kai Cortina [Univ. Michigan] and Marsha Weinraub [Temple]). We are working in developing and testing an 8-week bookreading inference-making intervention to promote oral listening comprehension. (This is based on Aline de Sa's dissertation project.)
Narrative comprehension and inference-making skills among preschoolers (with Caitlin Lindley)
We are examining how children understand carefully selected picture books to identify what are some of the difficulties that hinder their understanding (e.g., mentalizing concepts that dominate the storyline, number of main characters and character perspective shifts)
The relation between online inferencing abilities and overall narrative comprehensioncy (with Burcu Unlutabak & Caitlin Lindley)
Examination of factors that promote early childhood narratives and vocabulary skills (with Brook Sawyer & Anne-Marie Hindman)
Question-asking among low-income and middle-class Turkish preschoolers (with Burcu Unlulabak & Ayhan Aksu-Koc)
Assessing story production and in preschool children: Is there an optimal method? (with Carolyn Brockmeyer Cates).
Analysis of Oral Narratives by Preschoolers
The development of evaluative constructions in young children’s narratives in social context (with Hande Ilgaz [Bilkent Univ.] & Martha Shiro [Univ. of Venezuela]
The development of character reference in young children's stories
This project examines children's ability to introduce, maintain, and shift characters in picture stories using two different elicitation methods (single page vs. booklet) while varying both the number of characters (one vs, two) and the type of dramatic problems portrayed (physical vs. psychological problem).
Gender differences in the development of central and peripheral characters in young children's stories.
International Collaborations
Narrative. Literacy, and other skills: Studies in intervention (with Edy Veniziano, Unic. Paris-Descartes}
Preparing an edited volume for SiN Series Benjamins.
Cross-cultural comparison of narratives among English and Chinese monolinguals and Chinese/English bilinguals. Project in progress with Shelley Xiuli Tong (University of Hong Kong)
A cross-linguistic study of character reference in young children’s narratives (with Ayhan Aksu-Koc, Ianthi Maria Tsimpli.
This study examines the universal and language specific-specific aspects of children's ability to introduce maintain and switch characters in six languages (English, Greek, and Turkish). These languages differ in the extend to which they allow ellipsis of nominal arguments (pro-drop or nonprop-drop languages).
A cross-linguistic study of coordination and subordination in preschoolers’ narratives (with Ayhan Aksu-Koc)
This study examines syntactic complexity and cohesive elements as indicators of expanded linguistic competence for English, Greek, and Turkey preschoolers.