Elizabeth Simmons
Office Location
Elizabeth Schoen Simmons draws from her training as a cognitive psychologist and over a decade of clinical practice to inform both her course instruction and research program. When not in the classroom, Dr. Simmons can be found in her laboratory, the Toddler Language Development (ToLD) Lab, working with infants, toddlers, and their families to better understand how very young children learn and process spoken language. Dr. Simmons takes students as research assistants in her lab almost every semester. Student projects from the lab have been presented at local and national conferences, including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention. Dr. Simmons encourages students who may be interested in infant and toddler development to send her an email to schedule a meeting.
Degrees & Certifications
- Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, University of Connecticut (2020)
- MS, Speech Language Pathology, Southern CT State University (2006)
- BS, Communication Disorders, Southern CT State University (2003)
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC-SLP)
- Connecticut Speech Language Pathology License
Teaching Responsibilities
Dr. Simmons enjoys teaching both at the undergraduate and graduate levels and provides instruction on a range of topics in communication disorders and sciences including psycholinguistics, language disorders, and clinical methods. She frequently teaches the undergraduate Cultural and Structural Linguistics and Introduction to Clinical Methods courses along with Research Seminar. At the graduate level, Dr. Simmons teaches Language Disorders, Birth to Five and Capstone Seminar.
Research Interests & Grants
How do infants and toddlers acquire a language system? What mechanisms underlie the ability to become an efficient language learner? How does this information help us treat our clients? These are the types of questions Dr. Simmons’ research program attempts to answer. She uses behavioral techniques including eye tracking along with electrophysiological measurements like EEG to better understand how infants and toddlers process spoken words before they can really talk. This work is done in collaboration with Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, CT. Dr. Simmons’ work has been funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Sacred Heart University.
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