ADHD and bilingualism STUDY

The purpose of this study is to understand the neural processes and patterns involved in the interaction between bilingualism and ADHD. Bilingual and monolingual participants with ADHD will be tested and asked to complete the necessary steps: diagnostic measures for ADHD, a language assessment, and a card-switching task. During the card-switching task, participants will be asked to sit in a chair wearing an EEG cap attached to 128 sensors.

EEG studies of Early Life Stress and Language Development

These studies are funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and aim to understand how stress and other early experiences influence brain and language development. We especially want to discover what makes children resilient in the face of stressful experiences, so we can support all children facing early life stress.  

We record electroencephalography (EEG) by having the children wear a special stretchy cap that is quickly and easily placed on their heads. We also use play-based measures to learn about a child’s language development, collect a language sample from home, and may also collect a small sample of the child’s hair. 

We are currently recruiting 6-month-olds for a longitudinal study and 3-4-year-olds for a cross-sectional study. If you are interested in finding out more, check out more information on how to participate HERE.

Collaborative Studies 

With Kohler Lab 

EEG studies of human vision (adults) 

This study aims to understand the neural processes that give rise to our rich visual and auditory experience of the world to support visually driven behaviours and language development in everyday life. We record EEG by placing 128 sensors on the scalp. Participants will be asked to sit in a chair wearing an EEG cap while watching pictures on a computer screen and/or listening to sounds played through speakers while performing simple perceptual tasks.

EEG studies of human vision (children)

We are seeking babies and kids (2 months to 6 years of age) to participate in a new study which aims to understand how the brain develops complex vision and language. 

What types of research methods do we use? We record electroencephalography (EEG) by having your child wear a special stretchy cap that is quickly and easily placed on their head. It fits a little bit like a swim cap and has 128 different sensors that tell us what the brain is doing. Each sensor is a tiny sponge, so it will feel soft against your child’s head. The sensors will be slightly wet because we soak the caps in a warm saline solution.

With Boston Hospital 

Healthy Baby Study 

The purpose of this study is to reduce the prevalence of lifelong health impairments that may be caused by stressful experiences in the early years of life. To learn about this we look at the range of experiences that babies have when they are very young, within their first year of life, and see how those experiences affect the way their brain and body develop.