People

Susan Rvachew, Ph.D., S-LP(C), ASHA Fellow

Susan is a Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University and Director of the Child Phonology Laboratory. Her research focuses on phonological development and phonological disorders and the promotion of effective interventions to treat phonological disorders and prevent reading disability. She is co-author of Rvachew, S. & Brosseau-Lapre, F. (2018). Developmental Phonological Disorders: Foundations of Clinical Practice (2nd Ed.). San Diego, Ca: Plural Publishing.

 

 

Aparna Nadig, Ph.D.

Aparna is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University and Director of the Psychology of Pragmatics Laboratory. Her research focuses on the development of social communication skills and on language and communication in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). These studies include investigations into early word learning processes in ASD and typical language development, prosody and conversational exchange in speakers with ASD, and the effectiveness of a transition support program for young adults with ASD.

 

 

Alexandre Herbay, B.Sc., B.A., Doctoral Candidate

Alexandre is a Doctoral Candidate in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University. He investigates the neural underpinning of sentence processing using Event-Related Potentials in the Neurolinguistic and the Neurocognition of Language laboratories. He also develops iPad Apps for Speech and Language Pathologists in collaboration with Susan Rvachew and the Child Phonology lab.

 

 

Dahlia Thompson, B.A., M.Ph., Doctoral Student

Dahlia is a Doctoral Student in Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University. She has an interdisciplinary background in Language, Linguistics, Education, Project Management and Information Technology. Her research interests are in (i) Emergent Literacy, (ii) Literacy & Gender, (iii) Literacy & Technology, and  (iv) Cultural Awareness & Competence in Speech-Language Pathology. Her current project is ‘Using Interactive Technology to Prepare Language Learners for Conventional Literacy Learning at School Entry’.

 

Elizabeth Carolan, B.A., Research Assistant

Elizabeth (Lizzie) completed her bachelor’s in linguistics at McGill in 2014. Currently, she works in the Child Phonology Lab at the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill where she is the project coordinator for Dr. Rvachew’s “Emergent Literacy with Digital Technologies” study. Lizzie plans to pursue her studies in Speech-Language Pathology and hopes to work with special populations in the future.

 

 

 

Emily Goodwin, Undergraduate Research Intern

Emily Goodwin is an Honours Undergraduate Student in McGill’s Department of Linguistics. Her research in communication sciences focuses on linguistic cues in children’s oral language expression which predict learning from shared reading experiences, especially the ability to retell the story.

 

 

Past Project Members

Christina Tausch, Ph.D. coordinated the project in its early days as a post-doctoral fellow. Currently she is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and Human Service Professions, University of Minnesota Deluth.

Kathrin Rees, Ph.D. joined the project after teaching in special education and working in diagnostics and counseling for a centre for language development in early childhood in Germany. She conducted and published several studies as part of the project team before successfully defending her thesis in August 2017. Currently she is working with a group of people in California to found a German school.

Elizabeth Christe, M.Sc., S-LP(C) collaborated with Susan Rvachew and Tribal Nova between 2012 and 2015 to create the iReadWith books which were shown to benefit readers in disadvantaged schools with their innovative features to attract children to print and support the adult’s use of dialogic reading prompts. She works in private practice as a school speech-language pathologist in Montreal.

Other former researchers and volunteers that worked on this project included Sarah Justine Leduc-Villeneuve, B.Sc.; Roxane Carriere, B.A.; Charlotte Guillet, M.Sc. (A); Alissa Azzimmaturo.

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