Take Part in Studies

We are invite families with children of any age join our research family.  Want to get involved? Have questions? Choose a study below to learn more.

The Language Learning and Meaning Acquisition (LLAMA) lab seeks to understand how children learn language, and we are looking for families to take part in important and fun research studies on child development.

We study many questions related to language development. For example, we are interested in how children make sense of speech they hear in everyday situations; how children use their growing understanding of the world to expand their vocabularies; and how they interpret language with amazing speed.  We believe that this research can help educators, families and scientists understand important aspects of how children think, learn and develop.

Upcoming and Current Studies

child looking at something on a computer

Toddler Word Learning Study

What is this study about? We are exploring how children learn language before they enter school. We plan to follow families as their children grow…

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a selection of children's toys on a table

STL – Sense To Learn

What is this study about? We are studying how sensory information, like sight, touch, and smell, influences how children learn new words and understand language.…

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girl pointing at object on the computer

LINK – Leveraging Interests and Nurturing Knowledge

What is the LINK project about?  Learning new words can seem really easy, especially when many children do this so effortlessly. In reality, it is…

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word learning with samples of "round" words - moon, pizza, bubble, ball, button

SPELL or Toddler Word Learning Study

What is this study about? When we learn a word, we are not only learning the label itself but the properties of the thing it…

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