Research Topics

Human beings are endowed with the unique ability to communicate orally with others. While the act of speaking is very natural and effortless for adults, it takes more than a decade for children to become proficient orators in their native language. Sometimes, neurocognitive or articulatory challenges may affect the typical course of their language progression.

At LOLA – the Laboratory for Oral Language Acquisition – we are interested in understanding how children develop the articulatory coordinations necessary for fluent and intelligible speech production and how this happens concomitantly with phonological and lexical development.

• We study (co)articulatory mechanism in adults who have a full knowledge of their language and a mature control of their speech motor system. We track how this mechanism mature in preschoolers and school-aged children. This work is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Mark Tiede, Prof. Khalil Iskarous, Prof. Martijn Wieling.
• We examine the acquisition of spoken language and reading in reading disordered children. We conduct this research within the Marie Curie Innovative Training Network PredictAble and in collaboration with Prof. Barbara Hoehle and Prof. Ken Pugh.
• We investigate how words and syllables are planned in the mind of children and adults before being produced aloud. We examine the role of structural, phonological and lexical properties of the ambient language on these processes. This research is conducted in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Christine Mooshammer.
• We look at the links between the perception and production of speech in infants who are beginning their journey towards learning to speak their native language (with Prof. Barbara Hoehleand Nicole Altvater Mackensen).