News & Events
September 2021
The last year has flown by and a lot has happened in the LLL across the board!
Regarding Our Team:
Welcome to our newest members…
Master’s of Experimental Psychology student Savannah Heintzman. We are so happy to have you aboard.
Honours student Daneesha Williams. We are delighted to have you working with us in the final year of your degree.
Volunteers Sophie Bhaskara, Christian Guinard, and Emmy Sharples. Together with veteran volunteer Valerie Metlege and 2021-2022 honours students Elise Lynch and Daneesha Williams, you made quite the dream team this summer. Thank you for all your work.
New roles in the lab…
Emily Taylor has worked with the LLL team as a volunteer, independent research student, and undergraduate summer research award recipient. She continues to work as a LLL research assistant, and this year she will also be completing her honours project in the lab co-supervised by Dr. Hélène Deacon and post-doc Klaudia Krenca.
Elise Lynch has worked with the LLL team as a volunteer and undergraduate summer research award recipient. This year, she will be completing her honours project in the lab co-supervised by Dr. Hélène Deacon and Experimental PhD student Alex Ryken.
Thank you both for your commitment, we are so pleased to have you continuing on with the team in your new roles!
Congratulations to...
Long-time LLL member and postdoctoral fellow Kyle Levesque for accepting a position at Public Services and Procurement Canada. We are thrilled for you and look forward to seeing where your career takes you!
Postdoctoral fellow Klaudia Krenca for completing the first year of her work with the lab remotely. We are so happy to have you here with us in Halifax this year!
PhD student Liz Mackay who matched to the clinical pre-doctoral residency with the IWK Pediatric Health Psychology Track and started her internship this month. All the best to you!
PhD student Mariam Elgendi for completing the first year of her graduate studies and marking it with three journal article publications and six peer-reviewed conference presentations. Incredible work!
Experimental PhD student Alex Ryken for completing the fourth year of her graduate studies. We continue to be impressed by your hard work!
Master’s of Experimental Psychology student Danika Desroches for successfully defending her thesis in August 2021. Best of luck as you move on to complete you Bachelor of Education at Crandall University.
Master’s of School Psychology students Emily Cote and Adena Cox for completing and successfully defending their theses in August 2021 and September 2021 respectively. Amazing work!
Honours students Kaitline Fournier, Kirsten Claussner, and Leigha Macpherson for completing their undergraduate degrees and presenting their theses virtually in April 2021. Excellent job!
Emily Taylor for completing her third-year independent research project this winter. Great job!
Ava Holman, Emily Taylor, Katie Standage, and Nicole Basso for receiving Undergraduate Student Summer Research Awards. Thank you all for completing a summer of incredibly hard and helpful work.
Thank you to...
Lab manager Stef Hartlin and research assistant Jalyssa Shadbolt for all the support you provide to our LLL team behind the scenes. We could not do all that we do without you!
Regarding Grants:
Congratulations to...
Dr. Hélène Deacon, Dr. Maximiliano Wilson (PI), Dr. Phaedra Royle, and Dr. Robert Laforce for receiving a SSHRC Insight grant for their project titled Aging and the time-course of morphology for reading in French.
Dr. Hélène Deacon and Dr. Kyle Levesque for receiving a Mitacs Accelerate grant for their project in partnership with the Canadian Children's Literacy Foundation titled Putting the science of literacy into the hands of Canadians.
Dr. Hélène Deacon and Dr. Jenny Thomson for receiving a SSHRC Partnership Engage grant for their project in partnership with the Canadian Children's Literacy Foundation titled Partnering to empower parents to support full literacy for children.
Finally…
Please feel free to look at our publications page for the 15+ new academic articles/chapters that have been published by lab members and our collaborators this year. There are ones on topics that include sentence comprehension, shared reading, print knowledge, prosodic sensitivity, autism spectrum disorder, COVID-19, etc.
October 2020
Congratulations to...
Dr. Hélène Deacon and her coauthors on the publication of their RSC policy briefing titled Easing the Disruption of COVID-19: Supporting the Mental Health of the people of Canada. The publication is now available here and all authors of the report will participate in a panel discussion at the 2020 RSC Celebration of Excellence and Engagement (COEE) on Monday, November 23. Information on the 2020 COEE can be found here.
September 2020
Congratulations to...
Dr. Hélène Deacon for being elected to the College of the Royal Society of Canada. We are so happy to see your outstanding achievements recognized in this way. Those named to the College represent the emerging generation of scholarly, scientific, and artistic leadership in Canada. They address issues of concern to new scholars, artists, and scientists for the advancement of understanding and the benefit of society.
Dr. Hélène Deacon and Dr. Sherry Stewart (PI) for receiving a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant or their project titled COVID-19 Pandemic: Factors that Support and Impede Family Well-Being During Mandatory Homeschooling
Our summers at home have come to a close and we are thrilled to begin the new academic year with our refreshed and expanded team.
Welcome to our newest members…
Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Klaudia Krenca. Congratulations for receiving the Donald Hill Family Postdoctoral Fellowship. We are so glad to have you joining our team!
Master’s of Experimental Psychology student Danika Desroches. Congratulations for receiving a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship. We are so happy to have you aboard!
Honours student Leigha Macpherson. We are delighted to have you working with us in the final year of your degree.
Volunteer Valerie Metlege. Even though it’s from home, we appreciate your help so much!
Welcome back to our members with new roles this year…
Clinical Psychology PhD student Mariam Elgendi. Congratulations for graduating from the BSc program with the 2020 University Medal in Psychology and the Gerald Gordon Undergraduate Prize. As well, for receiving the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship as you begin your PhD work. Very well done!
Honours students Kaitline Fournier and Kirsten Claussner. It’s great to have you both continue your work with the lab as you close out your degrees!
Research assistant Emily Taylor. We are so pleased to have you back with a new RA hat on!
And thank you for your continued hard work to all of returning lab members…
Lab Manager Stef Hartlin and research assistant Jalyssa Shadbolt. Thank you for all you have done to keep us up and running from your homes this summer.
Research associates Tamara Sorenson Duncan and Bradley Bergey. We tremendously value your continued partnerships with the lab!
Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Kyle Levesque. Thank you for your ongoing dedication to advancing our research program!
Master’s of School Psychology students Emily Cote and Adena Cox. We are so excited to have you working with us from Mount Saint Vincent University! And congratulations to Emily for receiving the Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship.
PhD students Liz Mackay, Rebecca Tucker, and Alex Ryken. Special congratulations to Alex for receiving a 2020 SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship and the Dr. Mabel E. Goudge Scholarship in Psychology & Neuroscience. Well done!
Volunteers Elise Lynch, Michael Bellefontaine, and Kyle Cameron.
August 2020
Thank you to…
Undergraduate Student Research Award recipients Mariam Elgendi, Victoria Smith, and Elise Lynch for all the crucial work you did for us over the summer. Job well done!
July 2020
Congratulations to...
Dr. Hélène Deacon, Dr. Shelley Tong (PI), and Dr. Joyce Kwan for receiving funding from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for their project titled The intriguing role of syntactic awareness in one language and reading comprehension and reading comprehension difficulty in another language in Chinese-English bilingual children: A longitudinal study.
Dr. Hélène Deacon and Dr. Sherry Stewart (PI) for receiving a Dalhousie Department of Psychiatry Research Fund for their project titled No Exit: A Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Contagion Effects on Maladaptive Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Responses to COVID-19-Related Quarantine in Romantic Couples.
April 2020
Congratulations to...
Dr. Hélène Deacon for receiving a NSERC Discovery Grant for her project titled Children’s reading development: Identifying underlying mechanisms.
Dr. Hélène Deacon and Dr. Janet Werker (PI) for receiving a SSHRC Partnership Grant for their project titled Ensuring full literacy in a multicultural and digital world.
Dr. Hélène Deacon and Dr. Aaron Newman (PI) for receiving a SSHRC Insight Grant for their project titled What makes a skilled reader.
Honours students Mariam Elgendi and Fatemah Saadat for completing their undergraduate degrees and successfully presenting their theses virtually. Excellent job!
Mariam Elgendi, Victoria Smith, George Faza, and Elise Lynch for receiving NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards. We're so happy to have you working (virtually) in the lab over the summer!
Márcia Oliveira, Dr. Kyle Levesque, Dr. Hélène Deacon, and Dr. Márcia da Mota on the publication of their article titled Evaluating models of how morphological awareness connects to reading comprehension: A study in Portuguese in the Journal of Research in Reading.
November 2019
Congratulations to...
Honours student Mariam Elgendi for receiving the Frances L. Stewart Memorial Prize for outstanding potential as a scientist practitioner in Clinical Psychology. Way to go Mariam!
Volunteer Kaitline Fournier for receiving the Lilyan E. White Prize for outstanding performance as a student in second year Psychology. Way to go Kaitline!
August 2019
Congratulations to...
Master's student Alex Ryken for successfully defending her Master's thesis this past July and receiving a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship Doctoral award as she continues into her PhD. Congrats Alex!
Dr. Tamara Sorenson Duncan for moving on from postdoctoral fellow in the lab to her new position as Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton University. We're all so happy for you Tamara!
Dr. Hélène Deacon for receiving Tier 1 and Tier 2 funding through the Nova Scotia Business Inc. Productivity and Innovation Voucher Program in relation to her work with Squiggle Park to create research based digital literacy technologies to support educators in the delivery of English literacy programming.
April 2019
Congratulations to...
Dr. Hélène Deacon, Dr. Nicole Conrad and Dr. Kyle Levesque for receiving an IURN Grant.
Abby Howard-Gosse, Jalyssa Shadbolt, Emily Cote and Mariam Elgendi for receiving NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards for the summer. We're so happy to have you working in the lab over the summer!
Honours students Abby Howard-Gosse, Emily Cote and Manasi Karkada for completing their undergraduate degrees and presenting their theses at the Psychology and Neuroscience Honours Conference. Excellent job!
July 2018
Congratulations to...
Dr. Hélène Deacon for receiving a SSHRC Insight Grant
https://www.dal.ca/news/2018/06/04/dal-researchers-receive--2-4-million-in-funding-from-sshrc.html
April 2018
Congratulations to...
Dr. Erin Sparks for successfully defending her thesis. Congratulations, Erin!
Abby Howard-Gosse, Jalyssa Shadbolt, and Emily Cote for receiving NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards for the summer!
Honours students Nikita Crowell and Ally Hallett for completing their undergraduate degrees and presenting their theses at the Psychology and Neuroscience Honours Conference. Well done!
And to Dr. Tamara Sorensen Duncan on receiving the Donald Hill Postdoctoral Fellowship. We are so glad to have you staying with the lab for a couple more years!
Thank you to...
Christian Pineda for a great term with the lab! Christian received an Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program Scholarship. He is completing his Ph.D. with Dr. Marcia Mota in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Safe travels home, and best of luck with the rest of your research!
Congratulations to...
Dr. Hélène Deacon, Dr. Nicole Conrad and Dr. Kyle Levesque for receiving an IURN Grant.
Abby Howard-Gosse, Jalyssa Shadbolt, Emily Cote and Mariam Elgendi for receiving NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards for the summer. We're so happy to have you working in the lab over the summer!
Honours students Abby Howard-Gosse, Emily Cote and Manasi Karkada for completing their undergraduate degrees and presenting their theses at the Psychology and Neuroscience Honours Conference. Excellent job!
July 2018
Congratulations to...
Dr. Hélène Deacon for receiving a SSHRC Insight Grant
https://www.dal.ca/news/2018/06/04/dal-researchers-receive--2-4-million-in-funding-from-sshrc.html
April 2018
Congratulations to...
Dr. Erin Sparks for successfully defending her thesis. Congratulations, Erin!
Abby Howard-Gosse, Jalyssa Shadbolt, and Emily Cote for receiving NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards for the summer!
Honours students Nikita Crowell and Ally Hallett for completing their undergraduate degrees and presenting their theses at the Psychology and Neuroscience Honours Conference. Well done!
And to Dr. Tamara Sorensen Duncan on receiving the Donald Hill Postdoctoral Fellowship. We are so glad to have you staying with the lab for a couple more years!
Thank you to...
Christian Pineda for a great term with the lab! Christian received an Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program Scholarship. He is completing his Ph.D. with Dr. Marcia Mota in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Safe travels home, and best of luck with the rest of your research!
January 2018
Happy New Year!
Congratulations to...
Christian Pineda for receiving the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program scholarship. Christian is completing his Ph.D. with Dr. Marcia Mota in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. He will be joining us in the lab for the next few months. We are so excited to have you on board!
Happy New Year!
Congratulations to...
Christian Pineda for receiving the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program scholarship. Christian is completing his Ph.D. with Dr. Marcia Mota in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. He will be joining us in the lab for the next few months. We are so excited to have you on board!
September 2017
Summer flew by and a lot happened!
Congratulations to...
Dr. Kyle Levesque for successfully defending his PhD and welcome back aboard with your new Postdoctoral hat on!
Dr. Tamara Sorenson Duncan for receiving the IWK Postdoctoral Fellow award - we are thrilled to have you join the team!
Alex Ryken for receiving the Dr. Mabel A Goudge award - we are also thrilled to have you join us to complete your Master's!
Our colleague, Dr. Nicole Conrad and her team of volunteers for doing a stellar job organizing the international annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading!
Summer flew by and a lot happened!
Congratulations to...
Dr. Kyle Levesque for successfully defending his PhD and welcome back aboard with your new Postdoctoral hat on!
Dr. Tamara Sorenson Duncan for receiving the IWK Postdoctoral Fellow award - we are thrilled to have you join the team!
Alex Ryken for receiving the Dr. Mabel A Goudge award - we are also thrilled to have you join us to complete your Master's!
Our colleague, Dr. Nicole Conrad and her team of volunteers for doing a stellar job organizing the international annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading!
April 2017
Congratulations to...
Abby Howard-Gosse, Emma Cameron, Nikita Crowell, and Sana Rehan for receiving the Undergraduate Student Research Assistantships! We are so lucky to have you in the lab for the summer.
Congratulations to...
Abby Howard-Gosse, Emma Cameron, Nikita Crowell, and Sana Rehan for receiving the Undergraduate Student Research Assistantships! We are so lucky to have you in the lab for the summer.
October 2016
Congratulations to...
Nikita Crowell for receiving the Lilyan E. White prize for best performance in second year!
Congratulations to...
Nikita Crowell for receiving the Lilyan E. White prize for best performance in second year!
September 2016
Thank you to...
Dr. Marcia Mota for visiting from Rio de Janiero, Brazil this July-September 2016! We love learning about Brazil and the important Portuguese reading research you do. Marcia works at Universidade Salgado de Oliveira and Rio de Janiero State University.
Thank you to...
Dr. Marcia Mota for visiting from Rio de Janiero, Brazil this July-September 2016! We love learning about Brazil and the important Portuguese reading research you do. Marcia works at Universidade Salgado de Oliveira and Rio de Janiero State University.
June 2016
Thank you to...
Dr. Helene Breadmore for visiting from Coventry University in the U.K., and meeting with all of us on our projects!
Thank you to...
Dr. Helene Breadmore for visiting from Coventry University in the U.K., and meeting with all of us on our projects!
June 2016
Another successful conference season is in gear!
Have fun and safe travels for SSSR in Portugal! Bring home some goodies to the labbies who stayed behind ;)
June 2016: Dalhousie hosted the International Clinical Phonetics and linguistics Association Conference. Many of our crew presented their research: Catherine Mimeau, Rebecca Tucker, Kira Sklar, Erin Sparks, Kyle Levesque, and Leela Shaw. Our USRA students got involved too, volunteering to help make sure everything ran smoothly: Teba Hamodat and Jabran Umar.
April, 2016: Halifax hosted the Speech-Language and Audiology Canada Conference. Many labbies had the opportunity to present their research here: Kira Sklar, Leela Shaw, and Catherine Mimeau.
June 2016: Dalhousie hosted the International Clinical Phonetics and linguistics Association Conference. Many of our crew presented their research: Catherine Mimeau, Rebecca Tucker, Kira Sklar, Erin Sparks, Kyle Levesque, and Leela Shaw. Our USRA students got involved too, volunteering to help make sure everything ran smoothly: Teba Hamodat and Jabran Umar.
April, 2016: Halifax hosted the Speech-Language and Audiology Canada Conference. Many labbies had the opportunity to present their research here: Kira Sklar, Leela Shaw, and Catherine Mimeau.
April 2016
Congratulations goes to ....
Teba Hamodat! For receiving a SSHRC Undergraduate Student Research Award and the IWK Summer Student Award.
Jabran Umar! For receiving the SSHRC Undergraduate Student Research Award.
Elizabeth MacKay! For acceptance in the Clinical Psychology program here at Dal and for receiving the Killam Predoctoral, NSGS, and SSHRC funds.
Kyle Levesque! For his new position as Research Associate at the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University.
Dr. Catherine Mimeau! For receiving a two-year postdoctoral funding award from Fonds de recherche du Québec Société et Culture for her work on orthographic and semantic learning in reading development.
Dr. Helene Deacon! For being awarded the Faculty of Science Killam Professorship.
Dr. Bradley Bergey! Moving on from post-doctoral fellow to his new position as Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology in the Department of Secondary Education & Youth Services at Queens College, at the City University of New York.
Jabran Umar! For receiving the SSHRC Undergraduate Student Research Award.
Elizabeth MacKay! For acceptance in the Clinical Psychology program here at Dal and for receiving the Killam Predoctoral, NSGS, and SSHRC funds.
Kyle Levesque! For his new position as Research Associate at the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University.
Dr. Catherine Mimeau! For receiving a two-year postdoctoral funding award from Fonds de recherche du Québec Société et Culture for her work on orthographic and semantic learning in reading development.
Dr. Helene Deacon! For being awarded the Faculty of Science Killam Professorship.
Dr. Bradley Bergey! Moving on from post-doctoral fellow to his new position as Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology in the Department of Secondary Education & Youth Services at Queens College, at the City University of New York.