Identifying Breakdowns in Vocabulary Learning in Children with Language Disorders
ALYSON ABEL MILLS
Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) affects two children in every classroom. Children with DLD have trouble using learning and using new words, affecting their reading and broad academic outcomes.
Dr. Alyson Abel Mills directs SDSU’s Language Learning Lab and studies word learning and language processing in children with DLD using a combination of behavioral and brain measures. Behavioral measures of word learning tell us how successful children are learning new vocabulary. Brain measures, such as electroencephalogram (EEG), examine word learning in real-time and offer a way of examining the neural mechanisms and associated processes involved in word learning.
This research will help uncover what influences the vocabulary deficits in children with DLD and will inform clinical practices with these children.
Dr. Abel Mills’ work is supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (1R21DC018865-01).
Research assistants Savannah Kennedy and Natalie Andersen work with Dr. Abel Mills in the computer lab.
A child research participant receiving EEG testing, with research assistant Kirsten Miller.
Photos by Language Learning Lab.