Human Development Colloquium: Alexus Ramirez, PhD (LEAD)

Preparing Young Children for Success Through Everyday Conversations

Abstract. Children’s early language development is one of the strongest predictors of their school readiness skills, while also being a social vehicle for the preservation of cultural practices. In this talk, I will discuss how one experiential factor–language input from caregivers–fosters children’s school readiness throughout infancy, toddlerhood, and preschool. Additionally, l will highlight emerging research investigating how caregivers’ beliefs about maintaining heritage language(s) may shape children’s language environments, and in turn, their cognitive and social development. Throughout this talk, I will underscore the importance of everyday interactions in child development.

Bio: Alexus Ramirez (she/her/hers) is a postdoctoral research fellow under Dr. Rachel Romeo’s mentorship at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD), in the Language, Experience, and Development (LEAD) Lab, funded by an NICHD NIH Diversity Supplement Award. She received her bachelor’s in psychology at the University of California, Merced, and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware (UD). Broadly, Alexus is interested in researching how variation in children’s early language experiences relates to developmental outcomes. During her doctoral work at UD, she examined parents’ beliefs about using infant-directed speech, grandparent-grandchild interactions over video chat, and how discussing specific topics, such as math, animals, or colors, during toddlerhood relate to children’s school readiness with Dr. Roberta Golinkoff (Child’s Play Lab). At UMD, Alexus will investigate how children’s home environments and parents’ beliefs about language learning relate to how parents talk with children, and in turn, children’s development of language, executive function, and social cognition in monolingual and bilingual families.