Caregivers Assisting Remote Evaluations (CARE)
Funding: National Institutes of Health – National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH-NIDCD F31DC019862, awarded to Dr. Quynh Dam at SDSU/UCSD)
Caregivers Assisting Remote Evaluations (CARE) was a project on telepractice with Vietnamese American families. There is a shortage of bilingual speech-language pathologists to provide services for Vietnamese speakers, an understudied yet large U.S. population (>1.5 million). Using mixed methods, this project proposed telepractice as a potential solution for Vietnamese American families by examining caregiver perspectives on telepractice (Aim 1) and the feasibility and social validity of remote preschool language assessment with the help of a caregiver (Aim 2).
Findings from this work contributed to a better understanding of client characteristics and responsivity to telepractice and built the evidence base for telepractice as an effective service delivery model for bilingual populations.
Speech-Language Pathology in the Philippines (PhiSLP)
PhiSLP was a project led by Danielle Guevarra, a second-year master’s student in our lab. This project explored the general experiences, assessment processes, and tools used by speech-language pathologists working with clients in the Philippines.
Danielle Guevarra presenting her PhiSLP poster at the 2022 annual SDSU Student Research Symposium.
Language-Literacy Growth in Vietnamese Children
Funding: National Institutes of Health – National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH-NIDCD K23 DC014750)
This is a pioneering study on language and literacy development for the Vietnamese language. We will measure language and literacy skills in kindergarten, first, and second grade, and identify language and cognitive predictors of later reading outcomes. Data collection takes place in Vietnam in collaboration with Hanoi National University of Education.
Capitalizing on Cross-Language Similarities in Bilingual Intervention
Funding: 2018 SDSU University Grants Program
This study uses a multiple baseline single subject experimental design to examine the effects of a cognate-based vocabulary intervention for school-age bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder. Research questions are: Can bilingual children improve in cognate awareness? How much explicit instruction is needed? Does increased cognate awareness improve overall vocabulary skills?
What Makes a Good Language Learner?
Funding: 2016 SDSU University Grants Program
In collaboration with San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), this project identified supporting factors for dual-language learning among Vietnamese-speaking children in the early elementary school years. Next to Spanish, Vietnamese is the second most common home language for English learners in SDUSD. However, resources for Vietnamese speakers are few. Outcomes of this project included identifying components that support Vietnamese and English development and the creation of assessment measures for Vietnamese.
Spanish and English Language Sample Transcription
Funding: 2014 University of Massachusetts Amherst Faculty Grant
The purpose of this study is to understand how Spanish-English bilingual children develop discourse skills as they tell stories in each language using the Multilingual Assessment Instrument of Narratives (MAIN: Gagarina et al., 2012). As part of a larger project, over 60 bilingual children in the early school years told stories in each language that we later transcribed and coded using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software (Miller & Iglesias, 2012).
Project VoLT: Vocabulary Learning and Transfer
Funding: University of Massachusetts Amherst Faculty Research Grant, 2014- 2015 University of Massachusetts Amherst Public Service Endowment Grant, 2013 – 2014
The purpose of VoLT was to examine how bilingual children learn new words and definitions in their first language and transfer skills to English. Participants, aged 6 to 8, spoke either Spanish or Vietnamese as the first language and English. Children were recruited from Barbieri Elementary Spanish Immersion School in Framingham, MA, and VietAID Community Center in Boston, MA.
Preschoolers Learning Vietnamese and English
Funding: University of Massachusetts Amherst Public Service Endowment Grant, 2013 – 2014
The purpose of this project was to measure Vietnamese and English language skills among preschoolers, ages 3 to 5. Participants were recruited from Au Co Preschool in Boston, MA, a program that has certified teachers fluent in Vietnamese and English. For more information, read initial findings. This poster was presented at the 2014 American Speech-Language Hearing Association Convention in Orlando, FL.
Project CANVAS: Community-based Assessment of Needs for Vietnamese Americans in Springfield
Funding: Western Massachusetts Public Health Training Center, 2012 - 2013
The purpose of CANVAS was to identify the communication needs and skills of children living in Springfield, Massachusetts, who speak Vietnamese as a home language. We collaborated with the Springfield Vietnamese American Civic Association to administer surveys with Vietnamese American parents, conduct child language testing in Vietnamese and English, and analyze local and state educational data. This initial project served as the blank canvas for future collaborative projects that will address the identified needs. For more information, read the article in The Republican or the CANVAS Results Summary.
