Child Hearing, Language, Literacy and Deafness Lab
The CHLLD Lab investigates how children's characteristics and environments impact their vocabulary knowledge. It examines the development of literacy skills in monolingual English and bilingual Spanish-English speaking preschool children with hearing loss. Additionally, the lab explores how speech-language pathologists can effectively assist parents in becoming their child's primary language teacher.
Student Involvement
The CHLLD Lab teaches undergraduate and graduate students how to specifically work with children who have hearing loss, particularly children who are developing spoken language skills.
Specifically, the CHLLD Lab:
- Offers classes related to hearing loss and language development where students complete projects related to understanding the hearing loss-language development connection.
- Allows students to provide clinical speech and language services to children with hearing loss, supervised by CHLLD lab faculty.
- Allows students participate in language-based research with children with hearing loss.
Participate in a Study
The CHLLD lab is always recruiting children with hearing loss to participate in our studies. It publishes papers to help further professional knowledge about children with hearing loss.
If you have a child with hearing loss who is between 4-7 years old and would like to participate in one of our studies, contact e.lund@tcu.edu or call 817-257-4450.
Research Areas
Vocabulary Development in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Explore how characteristics of children, and their environments contribute to their vocabulary knowledge.
Early Literacy in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Explore how monolingual English and bilingual Spanish-English speaking preschool children who are deaf and hard of hearing develop literacy skills.
Parents as Teachers for Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Investigate how speech-language pathologists can best support parents to be their child’s primary language teacher.
Lead Faculty
Emily Lund, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is an is an associate professor in the Davies School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at TCU, associate dean of research in Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences and director of the CHLLD lab. With a background in economics and Spanish, she holds a doctorate in speech and hearing sciences from Vanderbilt University.
Lund is a former clinical bilingual speech-language pathologist and researches language learning in monolingual and bilingual children with hearing loss. Her work is consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Speech Language Hearing Foundation. She received the Fort Worth Business Press Healthcare Heroes Award in 2017 for her contributions to caregiver training for children with hearing loss. In the Davies School, she teaches graduate-level courses in research in communication sciences and disorders and early intervention.