Learning to talk is one of the most fascinating things that children do.

In a few short years, most children go from cooing and crying to explaining why they really should be able to eat donuts for dinner. Learning to talk is also the basis for learning to read – and subsequent success in school.

While learning to talk comes easily for most children, some children struggle. It seems that children learn more if their families and friends talk with them a lot. And some children have difficulty because they can’t hear their parents talking. Our research focuses on finding out more about how children learn to talk so we can figure out better ways of helping children who have difficulty.