January 28, 2016
Photographed (left to right) are Brittany Quickel, BL2 intern; Dr. Barbara Manini, Post-Doctoral Researcher; Dr. Clifton Langdon, Assistant Professor, Ph.D. in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) program & BL2 Assistant Director; Professor Laura-Ann Petitto, BL2 Scientific Director, VL2 Science Director, and Gallaudet’s NSF Science of Learning Center, VL2, Co-PI; Bobbi Cordano, 11th President of Gallaudet University; TraciAnn Hoglind, BL2 intern; Bradley White, PEN student, and BL2 intern; Yessica Rodriguez, BL2 intern; Cryss Padilla, BL2 intern; Tara Congdon, VL2 Manager of Communication and Dissemination; and Kristine Gauna, BL2 Research Administrator.
On Thursday, December 3rd, Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto and the Brain & Language Laboratory for Neuroimaging (BL2) welcomed the Gallaudet University’s new president, Roberta “Bobbi” Cordano. President Cordano is the 11th and the first deaf woman President of Gallaudet University, where BL2 is situated. We were honored and very much enjoyed the opportunity to share with President Cordano how Dr. Petitto’s vital findings in the research areas of bilingualism, language acquisition, and reading have shed revolutionary light on the importance of early visual language experience in deaf children, leading to advantages for lifelong success in reading and learning. We showed her our investigative technologies, including fNIRS neuroimaging system and eye tracker, that are utilized in the laboratory’s groundbreaking experiments to yield new findings that dispel common beliefs and myths about young deaf and hearing children — especially new findings that lay bare striking learning advantages in young deaf visual learners. The tour concluded with a detailed discussion about our thriving Ph.D. in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) program. Thanks for visiting, President Cordano, and we look forward to working with you to advance the research priorities here at Gallaudet.
Welcome to Gallaudet University!
1st year PEN student, Bradley White, explains sign language acquisition to President Cordano.
TraciAnn Hoglind, an undergraduate student in Psychology, discusses the state-of-art features of BL2’s research analysis station.