My programmatic line of research evaluates longitudinal prelinguistic and early speech development in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities at risk for speech or language impairments like cerebral palsy. The goal of this research is to identify developmental patterns that can be used to predict speech and language outcomes in these children.

1. A probe study on vocal development in two infants at risk for cerebral palsy (Long, Eichorn, & Oller, under review)

2. Social and endogenous motivations in the emergence of canonical babbling in infants at low and high risk for autism (Long et al., under review)

3. Functional communication abilities in youth with cerebral palsy: Association with impairment profiles and school-based therapy goals (Koopmans et al., 2021)

4. Early vocal development in tuberous sclerosis complex (Gipson et al., 2021)

This secondary line of research evaluates attitudes and behaviors associated with communication sciences and disorders (CSD) scientists' participation in open science practices such as self-archiving publications for public use. We seek to learn more about existing knowledge, perceived barriers, and interest in actively engaging in open sciences practices and making data at various stages of the research cycle legally and publically available.

1. Open science practices in communication sciences and disorders: A Survey. (El Amin et. al., in preparation). Preregistration.

My predoctoral work evaluated endogenous and social factors influencing infant vocalizations as indicators of developmental progress or, with respect to evolutionary-developmental biology, "fitness signals." This research is founded in the notion that the stages of prelinguistic vocal abilities follow a natural logic of development foundational to advanced linguistic skills in humans and high rates of prelinguistic speech-like vocalizations, or "protophones," may be under positive selection pressures to signal wellness and development to caregivers.

1. Social and endogenous motivations in the emergence of canonical babbling in infants at low and high risk for autism (Long et al., under review)

2. The origin of language and relative roles of voice and gesture in early communication development (Burkhardt-Reed et al., 2021)

3. Protophones, the precursors to speech, dominate the human infant vocal landscape (Oller et al., 2021)

4. Social and endogenous infant vocalizations (Long et al., 2020)

5. Infant boys are more vocal than infant girls (Oller et al., 2020)

6. Preterm and full term infant vocalization and the origin of language (Oller et al., 2019)

7. Reliability of listener judgments of infant vocal imitation (Long, Oller, & Bowman, 2019)