Young Children’s Questions
I explore different aspects of adult-child interactions to discover underlying factors for the differences in children’s question-asking and support their learning in different sociocultural contexts.
Scientific Learning in Early Years
In this new exciting line of research, I aim to investigate the role of social interaction and family factors in children’s scientific learning. I will explore 1) parent-child everyday conversations about scientific phenomena (e.g., weather patterns, machines, earth’s structure), 2) teacher-child interactions and teachers’ explanations about scientific phenomena. Then I plan to apply this knowledge to the development of intervention strategies to improve learning outcomes for children from diverse backgrounds.
Spatial Thinking Skills and Scientific Understanding
In relation to scientific learning in early years, I also aim to explore the link between preschoolers’ spatial thinking skills (e.g., understanding changes in size, making spatial comparisons, using spatial language) and developing scientific understanding.
Language Development and Narrative Skills
I examine young children’s language and communicative development. I particularly focus on adult-child book sharing interactions, children’s inference-making skills and narrative comprehension. I am also interested in developing book reading intervention strategies to use both at home and at preschools.
Theory of Mind and Referentiality
I explore the developmental relations between preschoolers’ theory of mind skills and their ability to track references in narrative discourse.