Biography
I am a Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. I teach in the area of inclusive education and my primary research interest is the bilingual education of deaf students. My professional background is speech-language pathology. I received both my undergraduate and graduate degrees in this area from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario between 1979 and 1985.
Despite my clinical training, I have always considered myself more of an educator than a clinician. This strongly influenced my work at the Manitoba School for the Deaf (where I implemented classroom-based teaching of communication skills rather than pull-out therapy sessions), and my involvement in a research project affiliated with Sign Talk Children's Centre (1992 - 1994). The work on the Sign Talk project prompted me to pursue a doctorate degree in Educational Psychology at the University of Manitoba so I could continue to research language development in deaf children, the relationship between language and literacy, and support the language rights of deaf children. My doctoral dissertation was titled, "Literacy Development in Deaf Students: Case Studies in Bilingual Teaching and Learning" and won the dissertation of the year honours from the Canadian Association of Educational Psychology in 1999.
Since that time I have received several internal and federal grants (SSHRC) to continue my research in the area of Bilingual Deaf Education with a particular emphasis on language acquisition and literacy development. I have also conducted research through the Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) Science of Learning Center, funded through the National Science Foundation, at Gallaudet University related to ASL phonological awareness and reading skills. For the past decade, I have been developing assessment measures of ASL, initially with the support of a SSHRC Insight Grant. My research team published the first commercially available, standardized measure of ASL (the ASL Receptive Skills Test) in 2013. The companion test - the ASL Expressive Skills Test - was published in 2019. We continue to provide regular online training workshops for the ASL Expressive Skills Test to language specialists and teachers across North America.
I have presented numerous workshops for parents and teachers, as well as formal papers at national and international conferences.
I believe passionately in the need for all students to realize their potential through the development of language and literacy. I also believe it is critical to consider deaf epistemology, involving deaf people in research about deaf people, to gain the valuable scientific and humanitarian contributions provided through their embodied knowledge.
For more details regarding my educational background, supervision of graduate students, and record of scholarship, please refer to my full CV.
Despite my clinical training, I have always considered myself more of an educator than a clinician. This strongly influenced my work at the Manitoba School for the Deaf (where I implemented classroom-based teaching of communication skills rather than pull-out therapy sessions), and my involvement in a research project affiliated with Sign Talk Children's Centre (1992 - 1994). The work on the Sign Talk project prompted me to pursue a doctorate degree in Educational Psychology at the University of Manitoba so I could continue to research language development in deaf children, the relationship between language and literacy, and support the language rights of deaf children. My doctoral dissertation was titled, "Literacy Development in Deaf Students: Case Studies in Bilingual Teaching and Learning" and won the dissertation of the year honours from the Canadian Association of Educational Psychology in 1999.
Since that time I have received several internal and federal grants (SSHRC) to continue my research in the area of Bilingual Deaf Education with a particular emphasis on language acquisition and literacy development. I have also conducted research through the Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) Science of Learning Center, funded through the National Science Foundation, at Gallaudet University related to ASL phonological awareness and reading skills. For the past decade, I have been developing assessment measures of ASL, initially with the support of a SSHRC Insight Grant. My research team published the first commercially available, standardized measure of ASL (the ASL Receptive Skills Test) in 2013. The companion test - the ASL Expressive Skills Test - was published in 2019. We continue to provide regular online training workshops for the ASL Expressive Skills Test to language specialists and teachers across North America.
I have presented numerous workshops for parents and teachers, as well as formal papers at national and international conferences.
I believe passionately in the need for all students to realize their potential through the development of language and literacy. I also believe it is critical to consider deaf epistemology, involving deaf people in research about deaf people, to gain the valuable scientific and humanitarian contributions provided through their embodied knowledge.
For more details regarding my educational background, supervision of graduate students, and record of scholarship, please refer to my full CV.