Alisha is in the final year of her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto with a specialist in Health and Disease, a major in Cell and Molecular Biology and a minor in Music History and Culture. She has always had a passion for neuroscience, with a specific interest in early childhood cognitive and neurological development. In terms of research, Alisha has worked as part of investigative teams to help understand behavioural, cognitive and neural phenotypes of a number of neurodevelopmental disorders. Creative outlets such as language and music have been long-standing hobbies of hers, sparking her interest in characterizing the intersection of such outlets with brain development. After completing her undergraduate degree, Alisha looks forward to pursuing a medical career in paediatric neurology and to continuing her engagement in language and music learning. When she’s not studying or in the lab, you can usually find her signing, cooking or baking!

Isabella is currently in the MHSc in Speech-Language Pathology program at University of Toronto. She completed her undergraduate degree at Carleton University where she studied Linguistics with a concentration in Psycholinguistics and Communication Disorders. In terms of research, Isabella completed her honours thesis where she looked at the effects of language background and experience on audio-visual language processing and multi-sensory integration. Currently she is working on a project looking at the efficacy of parent-report data on bilingual child language abilities. Isabella is also passionate about advocating for appropriate assessment and treatment of culturally and linguistically diverse clients with communication disorders. After she completes her MHSc, she hopes to be both a practicing Speech-Language Pathologist as well as continue to be involved in research. Outside of school, Isabella enjoys exercising, cooking and spending time with her dogs!

Nicole holds a B.A honours degree from UofC’s psychology program and is a clinical masters student in the Speech-Language pathology program at UofT. Growing up in a multilingual family, Nicole is particularly interested in developmental psycholinguistics and the effects of multilingualism on cognitive development as well as emergent literacy skills. Her undergraduate honours thesis involves a systematic review that investigates the relationship between children’s home literacy environments (HLE) and their future performance on language and literacy assessments. For over 2 years, Nicole has been a literacy instructor helping children who have difficulties reading and writing, which is why this ongoing project is especially meaningful to her. Outside of the lab, Nicole enjoys running, hiking in the Rocky Mountains, and spending time with her family and friends.