Language, Experience, and Development (LEAD) Lab

The LEAD Lab has a community-engaged research project in partnership with the Maryland State Library Association, specifically working with the 'Mother Goose on the Loose: Hatchlings' program designed for expectant parents and parents of newborns. 

The Hatchlings program consists of classes in libraries for parents of newborns to emphasise talking, reading & singing to their babies. The Hatchlings program is specifically intended to support under-resourced families, empowering caregivers to raise self-assured, enthusiastic learners by creating a solid foundation at infancy.

The LEAD Lab's research project aims to culturally adapt and evaluate the Hatchling's curriculum by working with various racial, ethnic and linguistic communities to make the program as beneficial as possible for all families. We are also creating a ‘how-to’ guide for other libraries across the country to share the Hatchlings program nationwide. 

The Preschool Language and Neural Engagement Study (PLANES) recruited 125 children ages 3-5 years to investigate how children’s early experiences influence their learning and brain development. Participation involved assessment games, kid-friendly brain imaging sessions at our lab on the UMD College Park campus, and an easy home audio recording of children's language environments. This was completed annually for 2 years Watch this video to see what it is like to visit the LEAD lab and participate in the PLANES study!

Recruiting for the PLANES study is now complete. However, we have recently received funding to follow up with PLANES participants to examine longitudinal relationships between early experiences and children's reading development in elementary school. So stay tuned for more PLANES taking off!

Our Family Inspired Neural Synchrony (FINS) project is exploring if children’s brains “synchronize” with a caregiver’s brain to support development. 

While wearing an fNIRS cap each (a special hat that measures brain activity using near-infrared light) a child and their caregiver played, completed puzzles and talked together. Data was collected in preschools to make taking part in the research project as easy and comfortable as possible for families. 

We are now coding videos of children and their caregivers playing together to link these coded behavioral variables (including emotion variables, caregiver sensitivity, and conversational turns) to brain signals. 

We recently received funding to follow up with FINS participants (now aged 7-10 years) to better understand their mental health development. This will help us to better understand how early experiences with caregivers can help protect children's mental health. 

The LEAD Lab had our own "Language Science Station (‘Light Up Your Language Brain’)" at the Planet Word Museum in Washington, D.C. to conduct interactive experiments with the museum’s visitors. 

Any visitors who wanted to participate would wear an fNIRS cap while listening to a story in one ear, then different stories in each ear, then a story played backwards, to see how different parts of the brain react to processing language. Our pop-up station also allowed us to communicate and share all things language science to museum visitors!

The LEAD Lab has a developed a collaborative research partnership with Judy Centers across Maryland, creating  JUMP (Judy Center – University of Maryland Partnership). 

Judy Centers are a resource hub to help all Maryland kids arrive on their 1^st day of kindergarten ready to succeed. They bring together and support services, identify areas of need in the community, and offer programs to support children's school readiness.

JUMP is a community-engaged research project which aims to find out how Judy Centers can be adapted to be as useful and supportive as possible for families and family service providers. We are doing this by conducting focus groups and interviews with caregivers and service providers to gain their important insights.