School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences - SDSU

School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences - SDSU

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Speech & Language Science Laboratories

Bilingual Development in Context

The Bilingual Development in Context (BDC) laboratory is located in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Building on the main campus of San Diego State University. The focus of the BDC is to study how two languages develop and interact with cognitive and social processes within individual learners.  Our work has clinical implications for the assessment and treatment of language impairment in bilingual children.

Bilingualism and Cognition Lab

The Bilingualism and Cognition Laboratory is located in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Building on the main campus. The research conducted in this laboratory focuses on how general cognitive resources support language in monolinguals and bilinguals across the life span. Specifically, we are interested in how extensive bilingual experience shapes the linguistic and cognitive systems as we age, and how bilingual language experience, language learning history, proficiency levels, and cognitive factors influence the expression of aphasia. The laboratory facilities include an EyeLink eye-tracking system, which we use to track the time-course of word activation during monolingual and bilingual language processing, as well as work stations for lab members and research participants. The laboratory provides research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Brain, Environment, and Language Lab (BELL)

  • Teresa Girolamo, Director
  • BELLab

We are the Brain, Environment, and Language Lab (BELL) at San Diego State University. We study how language abilities, together with environmental influences (social determinants of health) shape life outcomes. Our research draws from communication sciences and disorders, education, linguistics, psychology, and public health. We use community-based participatory research, behavioral methods, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine language, environment, and life outcomes in children, adolescents, and young adults.

ChiLD Language Development, Disorders, and Disparities

Our lab’s efforts are rooted in community-based research with the goal of improving assessment and developing targeted interventions for children with language weaknesses. Through our translational research, we aim to help families, educators, community agencies, and policy makers recognize the importance of their role in facilitating children’s language and cognitive development. The ChiLD Language Lab is located in the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Building on the main campus (SLHS 219).

Cognition and Language in Aphasia Laboratory

Research in the Cognition and Language in Aphasia Lab (CLAL) is focused on understanding the implicit, unconscious mechanisms that support the fluent, rapid use of language and how these mechanisms break down in aphasia, an acquired language disorder following stroke. We address both language processes and other cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, that influence language use. Our ultimate goal is to apply this understanding to improving treatment methods for word retrieval impairments in aphasia. The CLAL is located at 6505 Alvarado Rd., Suite 204.

Comprehension Opportunities in Reading and Language (CORAL) Lab

The CORAL Lab is a clinical practice research lab with a  vision to support children, their families, educators, and SLPs to live empowered and fulfilling lives. Our goal is to achieve this by developing tailored and sustainable solutions for children with language and literacy difficulties, while building the capacity of their families, educators, and SLPs to participate in this process. We believe in feasible solutions rooted in scientific evidence and centered on the voices of those in need. Our research focuses on advancing comprehension models of language and reading to improve assessments and interventions for young children with developmental language disorders and dyslexia with an emphasis on accessibility, feasibility, and sustainability for practicing clinicians. The CORAL Lab is committed to translating research into practice and incorporating implementation science frameworks into our research. We aim to create productive and mutually beneficial researcher-practitioner partnerships in our local communities and beyond.

Language and Neuroscience Group

The focus of the Language and Neuroscience Group (LANG) in SDSU’s School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences is to investigate how we go about comprehending sentences and what that tells us about how the mind and brain are organized for language.

The LANG Laboratory consists of four separate research areas in the field of cognitive neuroscience: aphasia, language development, neuroimaging, and psycholinguistics.

Under the direction of Drs. Tracy Love and Lewis Shapiro, the LANG’s efforts are centered on the study of human cognitive processes, with a major emphasis on language processing in adults and children throughout the life span.

Laboratory for the Brain Dynamics of Language

Most speakers can produce words rather effortlessly at a rate of about 3 words per second. However, a range of language and speech disorders can alter this ability so central in our everyday lives. The research conducted at the Laboratory for the Brain Dynamics of Language (LBDL) examines the highly dynamic brain processes that allow us to produce language so efficiently and how these processes are affected in language disorders. The laboratory uses diverse electrophysiology and brain imaging methods (surface and intracranial electroencephalography, electromyography, and magnetic resonance imaging) in healthy speakers and in populations with brain disorders such as stroke, epilepsy, and brain tumors. The LBDL is located at 6495 Alvarado road, suites 105 and 108.

Language Impairment, Bilingual Reading, and Observational Research Lab

The Language Impairment, Bilingual Reading, and Observational Research (LIBRO) Lab investigates best assessment and intervention practices for bilingual children with language impairments, both at the individual and classroom levels. We aim to support this population in the successful acquisition of language and reading skills and, ultimately, in successful participation in their classroom environment. The laboratory work includes projects ranging from testing experimental reading interventions with bilingual children with language impairment, developing literacy assessment tools appropriate for bilingual children, and classroom observation work to determine what types of classroom practices are supportive of positive reading growth among bilingual children with and without language impairment. We are interested in expanding awareness of the SLP’s role in supporting students’ development of reading skills in the school setting.

Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience

The Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience (LLCN) is located at 6495 Alvarado Road, Suite 200. The LLCN research program focuses on signed languages to ask questions about the nature of human language, about the relation between language and other cognitive systems, and about the neural systems that underlie language and cognition using a variety of methods, including fMRI, ERP, EEG/MEG, eye-tracking, motion-capture and psycholinguistics studies. The LLCN provides a rich research training ground for Deaf and hearing students (undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral). Please click on the lab link for more information.

Language Learning Lab

The Language Learning Lab (LLL) studies the process of learning a new word in school-aged children with typically developing language and children with language impairment. We use behavioral word learning tasks in conjunction with brain measures (EEG) to examine changes in processing as a new word goes form unknown to known. Using these methods, we aim to uncover what influences the word learning difficulties in children with language learning difficulties and, eventually, how we can manipulate the learning context to maximize their learning potential. The LLL is located at 6505 Alvarado Rd, Suite 100.

Phonological Typologies Lab

The Phonological Typologies Laboratory is located in the SLHS Building and serves as the primary teaching and research laboratory for Dr. Jessica Barlow, a linguist who conducts research in phonological acquisition and disorders. The lab is equipped with state-of-the art audio and video recording equipment and computer software for the analysis of speech obtained from monolingual and bilingual adults, typically developing children, and children with phonological disorders. The primary research focus of the lab is to characterize the development of sounds, sound patterns, and sound sequences in phonological acquisition, and how this informs our understanding of universal properties of language generally. This in turn is applied clinically order to guide appropriate assessment and treatment strategies for phonological disorders.

SDSU Center for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience

The goal of the SDSU Center for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience is to create a framework for San Diego State University faculty and students to study brain-based language and cognitive processing and its disorders, enhance teaching and research mentoring in clinical and cognitive neuroscience, and to expand SDSU’s capability to become a leader in an area that is rapidly developing and is essential to understanding human behavior.

Speech Physiology Lab

The Speech Physiology Lab is located in SLHS building. The focus of the laboratory is to examine changes in speech physiology and speech motor performance over the course of typical development and how these developmental changes differ in children with speech disorders. In addition, the lab investigates the relations between cognition, language, and speech motor performance interact during speech and language development. The lab primarily uses an eight-camera optical motion capture system to record and transduce the movements of the lip and jaw and also uses of electromyography, aerodynamics, and acoustic analysis techniques.