My background is in infant speech perception. I received my research training at Johns Hopkins University investigating infants’ segmentation of words from fluent speech and their recognition of words across different talkers.   After graduating in 2000, I moved to Indiana University School of Medicine and constructed the world's first laboratory to investigate the speech perception and language skills of deaf infants who receive cochlear implants. Since then, my work has investigated the effects of early auditory deprivation and subsequent cochlear implantation on speech discrimination, attention to speech, sensitivity to language-specific properties of speech, word learning, and general cognitive skills in deaf and hard-of-hearing infants and toddlers who receive cochlear implants and/or hearing aids. I joined OSU July 2015. Two new projects investigate: (1) the role of infant-directed speech on word learning and language development in infants and toddlers with cochlear implants and hearing aids; and (2) the dynamics of how infants with cochlear implants and/or hearing aids establish joint attention with their normal-hearing parents and how that affects word learning.