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SDSU School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
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Faculty

Julia Evans

Associate Professor, Speech Language
Director, Child Language & Cognitive Processes Lab

Phone: (619) 594-7907
Office: SLHS 238
Office Hours:   By Appointment
Email: jevans@mail.sdsu.edu

Professor's Portrait

Education:

  • Postdoc Carnegie Mellon University, 1990-1993 (Cognitive Psychology)
  • Ph.D. The University of Michigan, 1990 (Speech Language Pathology)
  • M.S. Columbia, Teachers College, 1984 (Speech Language Pathology)
  • B.S. University of Colorado, 1982 (Speech Language Pathology)

Professional Memberships/Affiliations:

  • Society for Research in Child Development
  • American Speech, Language, Hearing Association

Scholarly Areas:

Dr. Julia Evans’ research focuses on processing deficits in school-aged children with language learning disorders. She is particularly interested in how changes in external processing demands affect real-time language processing at phonological, lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels in both typically developing children and children with Specific Language Impairments (SLI). Using both experimental paradigms and computer simulations from a Dynamical Systems framework, her research explores models of language disorders that capture both stability and variability in real time language processing. A second line of research in her lab approaches the study of language from an embodied cognitive framework that encompasses social, emotional, perceptual, and motor representations. This line of research explores an embedded definition of linguistic cognition by applying current models of the co-ordination and mismatch between verbal and gestures during communication and cognitive processing tasks in children with and without language impairments. Her research draws on data from behavioral experiments, speaker’s spontaneous gestures, and electrophysiologal and neuroimaging (ERP and fMRI) data.

Biography:

Dr. Evans received her Ph.D. in Communicative Disorders in 1990 from The University of Michigan. She completed both a Postdoc and NIH Career Award in Cognitive Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1998, she joined the faculty in the department of Communicative Disorders at the University of Wisconsin as an Assistant professor, and received tenure in 2004. While at the University of Wisconsin she also was a PI at the Waisman Center, Director of the Child Language and Cognitive Processes Lab, and member of the Psychology Department. Dr. Evans is author on several book chapters, more than 30 peer reviewed journal articles, and over 60 national and international conference presentations. Dr. Evans has held multiple grants from the National Institutes on Health and the Spencer Foundation, and currently holds an R01 from the National Institute on Deafness and Communicative Disorders. She has served as member and chair of the CDRC review committee at NIDCD and mentored multiple NSRA pre- and postdoctoral awards. She has also served on the Editorial Board and reviewed for Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, Brain and Language, International Journal of Communicative Disorders, Journal of Child Language.

Selected Publications:

  • Coady, J.A., Evans, J.L., and Kluender, K.R. (in press) The role of phonotactic frequency in nonword repetition by children with specific language impairements. IJLCD. read

  • Coady, J.A., Evans, J.L., and Kluender, K.R. (in press) The role of phonotactic frequency in sentence repeition by children with specific language impairments. JSLHR. read

  • Mainela-Arnold, E., Evans, J.L., and Coady, J. (2009) Lexical Representation in Children with SLI: Evidence from a Frequency Manipulated Gating Task. Journal of Speech Language & Hearing Research. 51: 381-393. read

  • Montgomery, J.W., and Evans, J.L. (2009) Complex Sentence Comprehension and Working Memory in Children With Specific Language Impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 52: 269-288. read

  • Evans, J.L., Saffran, J.R., and Robe-Torres, K. (2009) Statistical Learning in Children With Specific Language Impairment . Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 52: 321-335. read

  • Coady, J.A., and Evans, J.L. (2008) Uses and interpretations of non-word repetition tasks in children with and without specific language impairments (SLI). International Journal of Language and Communicative Disorders. 43(1): 1-40. read

  • Graf Estes, K., Evans, J.L., Alibali, M.W., and Saffran, J.R. (2007) Can infants map meaning to newly segmented words? Statistical segmentation and word learning. Psychological Science. 18(3): 254-260. read

  • Coady, J., Evans, J.L., Mainela Arnold, E., and Kluender, K. (2007) Children with Specific Language Impairments perceive speech most categorically when tokens are natural and meaningful. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 50: 41-57. read

  • Graf Estes, K., Evans, J.L., and Else-Quest, M. (2007) Differences in nonword repetition performance of children with and without Specific Language Impairment: A meta-analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 50: 177-195. read

  • Moyle, M.J., Weismer, S.E., Evans, J.L., and Lindstrom, M.J. (2007) Longitudinal Relationships Between Lexical and Grammatical Development in Typical and Late-Talking Children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 50: 508-528. read

  • Mainela Arnold, E., Evans, J.L., and Alibali, M.V. (2006) Understanding conservation delays in children with SLI: Task representations revealed in speech and gesture. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 49: 1267-1279. read

  • Montgomery, J., and Evans, J.L. (2006) Commentary on Nonword repetition and word learning: The nature of the relationship by S.E. Gathercole. Applied Psycholinguistics. 27(4): 573-577. read

  • Coady, J.A., Kluender, K.R., and Evans, J.L. (2005) Categorical perception of speech by children with specific language impairments. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 48: 944-959. read

  • Mainela-Arnold, E., and Evans, J. (2005) Beyond capacity limitations: Determinants of word recall performance on verbal working memory span tasks in children with SLI. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 48: 897-909. read

  • Heilmann, J., Ellis Weismer, S., Evans, J.L., and Hollar, C. (2005) Utility of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory in Identifying Language Abilities of Late-Talking and Typically Developing Toddlersage Impairments. American Journal of Communicative Disorders. 14: 40-50. read

  • Turkstra, L., Gamazon-Wadell, Y., and Evans, J.L. (2004) Traumatic brain injury and postsecondary education. Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders. American Speech Language Hearing Association Special Interest Division 2 Newsletter. 14(3): 19-23. read

  • Evans, J.L. (2002) Variability in comprehension strategy use in children with specific language impairments: A Dynamical Systems Account. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. 37(2): 95-116. read

  • Evans, J.L., Viele, K., Kass, R., and Tang, F. (2002) Grammatical morphology and perception of synthetic and natural speech in children with specific language impairments. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 45(2): 494-504. read

  • Ellis Weismer, S., and Evans, J.L. (2002) The role of processing limitations in early identification of specific language impairment. Topics in Language Disorders. 22(3): 15-29. read

  • Thordardottir, E.T., Ellis Weismer, S., and Evans, J. (2002) Continuity in lexical and morphological development in Icelandic- and English-speaking 2-year-olds. First Language. 22(64): 3-28. read

  • Evans, J.L. (2001) An emergent account of language impairments in children with SLI: Implications for assessment and intervention. Journal of Communication Disorders. 34: 39-54. read

  • Evans, J.L., Alibali, M., and McNeil, N. (2001) Divergence of verbal expression and embodied knowledge : Evidence from speech and gesture in children with specific language impairment. Language and Cognitive Processes. 16: 309-331. read

  • Evans, J.L. (2001) An emergent account of language impairments in children with SLI: Implications for assessment and intervention. Journal of Communication Disorders. 34: 39-54. read

  • Abbeduto, L., Evans, J.L., and Dolan, T. (2001) Progress in understanding language and communication problems in mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Journal of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. 7: 45-55.

  • McNeil, N., Alibali, M., and Evans, J.L. (2000) The role of gesture in children's language comprehension: Now they need it, now they don't. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 24(2): 131-150. read

  • Evans, J.L., and Miller, J. (1999) Language sample analysis in the 21st century. Seminars in Speech, Language, and Hearing. 20(2): 101-116. read

  • Evans, J., MacWhinney, B., and , (1999) Sentence processing strategies in children with expressive and expressive-receptive specific language impairments. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. 34(2): 117-134. read

  • Evans, J.L., Viele, K., and Kass, R. (1997) Response latency and Verbal Complexity: Stochastic Models of Individual Differences in Children with Specific Language Impairments. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 40: 754-764. read

  • Evans, J.L. Plotting the Complexities of Language Sample Analysis: Linear and Nonlinear Models of Assessment. : Brookes Publishing, 1996. read

  • Evans, J.L. (1996) SLI subgroups: Interaction between discourse constraints and morpho-syntactic deficits. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 39: 655-660. read

  • Craig, H., and Evans, J.L. (1993) Pragmatics and SLI: Within group variations in discourse behavior. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 36: 777-789. read

  • Feldman, H., Evans, J.L., Brown, R., and Wareham, N. (1992) Early language abilities of children with periventricular leukomalacia with and without developmental delays. American Journal of Mental Retardation. 97(2): 222-234. read

  • Evans, J.L., and Craig, H. (1992) Language sampling collection and analysis: Interview compared to freeplay assessment contexts. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 35: 343-353. read

  • Craig, H., and Evans, J.L. (1991) Turn Exchange behaviors of children with normally developing language: The influence of gender. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 34: 866-879. read

  • Craig, H., Evans, J.L., Meisels, S., and Plunkett, J. (1991) Linguistic production abilities of 3-year-old children born premature with low birth weight. Journal of Early Intervention. 15(4): 326-337. read

  • Craig, H., and Evans, J.L. (1989) Turn exchange characteristics of SLI children's simultaneous and nonsimultaneous speech. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 54: 334-347. read

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