Lab Members
Karen Garrido-Nag, PhD, CCC-SLP
Lab Director
Principle Investigator
Karen Garrido-Nag, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is an Associate Professor at Gallaudet University. Her main area of teaching is on pediatric child language development and disorders. She has also worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist in early intervention, school systems and private practice. Her areas of research are in typical and disordered neurophysiology of speech and language processing. She is the director of the Developmental Neurolinguistics and Cognition Lab.
James McCann, EdD, CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor
Dr. McCann is an assistant professor in the speech-language pathology program at Gallaudet University. His teaching and research interests include language and literacy in children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing, child language development and disorders, AAC, and issues of cultural and linguistic diversity.
Zoe Aquilino
MS-SLP Student
Graduate Research Assistant
Zoe is a second year SLP student at Gallaudet University. She earned her bachelor's degree in Communication Sciences & Disorders from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests include the development of language, play, and early literacy, as well as parenting and early intervention practices for children vulnerable to delays.
Barbara Bustamante
PhD Student
Barbara Lynna Bustamante, M.S., CCC-SLP is a doctoral student at Gallaudet University and a full-time bilingual speech-language pathologist. Her research interests include language development, bilingualism, and autism. She is currently working on her dissertation proposal focused on semantic development in bilingual children with autism. She also works as an outpatient speech-language pathologist where she provides early intervention and speech-language therapy to children with developmental delays and/or neurodevelopmental disorders.
Veronica Cristiano
Former MS-SLP Student
Veronica graduated in May 2019 with her master’s in SLP from Gallaudet University. She completed her undergraduate work in Communication Sciences & Disorders from the Pennsylvania State University. She is currently interested in the ways that language exposure may influence language acquisition across different contexts and language modalities (spoken vs. signed languages).
Lauren Dodson, M.S., CCC-SLP
PhD Student
Graduate Research Assistant
Lauren Dodson M.S., CCC-SLP is a PhD student at Gallaudet University. Her interests within the field of speech-language pathology include language development and disorders in school-age children, neurodiversity in communication disorders in both children and adults, and the treatment of voice disorders in adults. She has worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist in school systems and private practice. Her areas of research interest include typical and disordered speech and language development and auditory processing.
Caryn Heskey
PhD Student
Caryn Heskey, M.S. CCC-SLP is a PhD student at Gallaudet University. She has worked in a school-based setting to provide services for children with hearing loss. Her research interests include pediatric aural rehabilitation and multilingual language acquisition.
Lajayah Medina
Audiology Doctoral Student
Hi there! I’m a third year AuD student at Gallaudet University. I earned my Biology and Linguistics degree from University of California, Santa Barbara. What brought me to Gallaudet was ability become fully immersed into the DHH culture and language. As a Black and Mexican American I am fascinated with language and how it connects us to those around us. It’s what sparked my research interest in second language English learners perform in noise when there’s phonological differences. The big question is if we rely on our language or auditory skills to decipher what was said. The answer is to be determined. Stay tuned!
Christopher Nightingale
PhD Student
Graduate Research Assistant
Christopher is a PhD Student in the Hearing, Speech, and Language Department at Gallaudet University. He received his master's degree from New York University in Communicative Sciences and Disorders in 2016. Before coming to Gallaudet, he was a pediatric Speech Language Pathologist in Hawai'i. His research interests include multilingualism, language development and disorders, and investigating the neurological underpinnings of language processing.