Our Team
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Hélène Deacon, Lab Director
The goal of my research program is to investigate the skills that underlie successful reading and writing. I am interested in just how children ‘crack the code’, understanding how language is mapped onto the page, and how they become expert readers. We work with children and adults from across Canada and around the world; it is vital that we understand how children learn to read and write in English, as well as in other languages, including growing up bilingually. This knowledge is important for testing theories of reading development, as well as for developing best-practices in education. I am always grateful for partnerships with students, teachers and the educational community in our research Outside of the academic sphere, I love to spend time exploring my community and the great outdoors, especially with my family. |
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Stef Hartlin, Lab Manager
I completed my BSc and MSc at Dalhousie University with a focus on developmental psychology. I have been working as a lab manager for a number of years and consider myself to be among the lucky few who truly LOVE their job. I get to earn my living helping answer questions about how the world works. How amazing is that?! Although I enjoy all aspects of research, I am really passionate about experimental design and working directly with families and children. Outside of the lab you can find me at my cabin in the Musquodoboit Valley with my husband, dogs, and chickens enjoying the great outdoors and rural living. I joined the Language & Literacy Lab (LLL) in 2019 and look forward to working with the wonderful researchers, students, and staff of the LLL as well as the amazing families who make our research possible! |
Postdoctoral Fellows
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Emilie Courteau, Postdoctoral Fellow
I joined the lab in January 2022 as a Mitacs intern for a project on children’s literacy. I am completing my PhD, with a supervision at the University of Montreal and co-supervision at McGill University. My dissertation focused on grammatical and lexical-semantic processing by French-speaking adolescents with and without developmental language disorders. For my thesis, I investigated oral language comprehension at the behavioral level with linguistic tasks and at the neurocognitive level with the electroencephalography (EEG) technique. Prior to my PhD studies, I worked as a clinical speech-language pathologist and collaborated on a research project that developed an approach to promote speech-language services in the community. In my free time, I enjoy biking, cross-country skiing, and watching movies with my husband and cat. |
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Sophia Giazitzidou, Postdoctoral Fellow
I joined the lab in February 2023 as a Postdoctoral Fellow. In July 2021, I received my PhD in Educational Psychology from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. My dissertation focused on the underlying skills of oral and silent reading fluency in students with and without dyslexia. Particularly, I investigated the relations of morphological awareness and orthographic knowledge with reading fluency, exploring the mediating role of phonological awareness, vocabulary, and processing speed and how these relations differ in students with and without dyslexia. I have also worked on a research program on digital reading, examining its effect on reading comprehension employed eye-tracking technology. Furthermore, I have offered courses to post-graduate students at the University of Crete and Frederick University for learning disabilities. I have over 10 years of experience in teaching students with learning disabilities, particularly those with dyslexia. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, skiing, and traveling. |
Graduate Students
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Alex Ryken, Experimental Psychology PhD Student
I joined the lab in 2017 for my MSc in Experimental Psychology and then started the PhD program in 2019. I’m interested in the metalinguistic skills which underlie reading ability, and am especially interested in punctuation and how prosodic sensitivity (an awareness of the rhythmic components of language) contributes to early reading development. I’ve been fortunate to receive a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship and a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship to support my PhD studies. I moved to Halifax from London, Ontario where I completed my Hons. BA in Psychology at Huron University College at Western University. In my spare time I love to read, travel, and explore the city. |
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Mariam Elgendi, Clinical Psychology PhD Student
I joined the Language and Literacy Lab during my third year of undergraduate studies, initially as a research assistant (supported by NSERC funding for two summers), and later pursued an honors thesis within the same lab. Following this, I began my PhD in Clinical Psychology in September 2020, continuing my research endeavors within the lab. Currently, my research interests include investigating the impact of COVID-19-mandated homeschooling on parent and child mental health, exploring mental health and substance use patterns among university students with a history of reading difficulties, and assessing the contribution of syntactic skills to reading comprehension across the elementary years. Clinically, I have acquired experience working with children, adolescents, young adults, and families dealing with various behavioral and emotional challenges, including learning disorders, ADHD, mood and anxiety disorders, trauma, substance use, and eating disorders. |
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Katherine Hoferek, Clinical Psychology PhD Student
I joined the lab in 2023 for my PhD in Clinical Psychology. I completed my BA (Hons) degree at Carleton University, where I double majored in psychology and linguistics. My thesis focused on how young multilingual adults exposed to English or French post-puberty produce language. I am interested in working on projects involving how digital literacy and syntactic skills impact reading comprehension in children. In my spare time, I love to kayak, go to the gym, hike, and be by the water. |
Research Staff
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Emma Hynes, Assistant Lab Manager
I graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, specializing in neuroscience. Throughout my undergraduate studies, I was involved in research examining the behavioural and neural correlates of language and executive functioning in children and adults. In the fall of 2024, I began my role as assistant lab manager, where I continue to contribute to research exploring language and literacy development among children. Outside of the lab, I enjoy skating, spending time with friends and family, and traveling! |
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Erin MacDougall, Research Assistant
I am third-year undergraduate student at Dalhousie majoring in psychology and minoring in sociology. I joined the Language & Literacy lab as a research assistant in January 2024. I love to learn, and I am excited to embrace the opportunity to do so in a research setting. In this role, I am eager to expand my understanding of language development and contribute to ongoing research. During my free time I enjoy reading, spending time with my friends and family, and playing with my cat. |
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Megan Bautista, Co-op Student
I am a third-year undergraduate student at Acadia University, majoring in Psychology and minoring in English. I will complete my work term as a Research Assistant in the Language and Literacy Lab from January 2025 until April 2025. In my role here, I will be working full-time both in the lab and travelling to schools to administer language tests to children. I love learning new research skills and am very excited to be a part of this team. Outside of research, I teach dance classes at Acadia and am a part of their cheerleading team! I also love to write, read, and listen to music in my spare time. |
Independent Research Student
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Kirsty Longino
I am in my third year studying psychology at Dalhousie. I am excited to join the lab in the Winter 2025 semester where I’ll be completing an independent research project under the supervision of Dr. Deacon. This project involves the development of an orthographic learning task that will be integrated into the lab's ongoing research efforts. I’m passionate about child development and language learning—really anything that helps kids reach their full potential! Outside of school I play for the Dalhousie Women’s Volleyball team and love spending as much time outdoors as possible. |
Volunteers
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Abby Morris
I joined the Language and Literacy Lab in September 2023 as a volunteer. I am currently in my third year of my BSC majoring in psychology and biology. My current research interests are child development and psychopathology. I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge in these subject areas as well as supporting some amazing research currently happening at the LLL lab. Outside of school, I enjoy hiking, baking, reading, and spending time with friends and family. |
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Aliya Dogan
I will be entering my 4th year at Dalhousie in the Fall, majoring in Psychology. I joined the lab in April of 2024 as a volunteer and am eager to learn more about linguistics and childhood language/reading development. Currently, the project I am working on includes finding the Greek unit frequencies for Greek monographs and digraphs. My current interests are child development and psycholinguistics. Outside of school I enjoy crocheting, spending time with family, hiking, and baking. |
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Seohyeon Cho
Hello, my name is Seohyeon, and I recently joined the Language & Literacy Lab as a volunteer. I am a second-year Medical Sciences student at Dalhousie, and I am excited to get more involved in the LLL team and expand my knowledge through volunteer experiences that I will gain at the lab from now on. Outside of school, I enjoy listening to music, watching movies, or reading books. I haven't been able to read books a lot nowadays after the start of another school year, but I still try to read books for at least 30 minutes every day. I enjoy reading fictional novels. My favourite book changes every time, and my current favourite book is "Where the Crawdads Sing." |
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Riko Boudi
I'm going into my 2nd year at Dalhousie this fall, I entered the Language & Literacy lab in early November. I aim to be a child psychologist in the future, and this lab speaks to all of my academic passions. Outside of school, I really like listening to music and going bouldering with my friends, among other things. I'm a huge fan of Sabrina Carpenter. I'm also a massive fan of jewelry of all kinds. Rings, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, and everything in between! |
Research Associates
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Tamara Sorenson Duncan, Research associate
I am Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Carleton University. I completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Language and Literacy Lab with funding support from the IWK and Donald Hill Family Fellowships. I continue to collaborate with the Language and Literacy Lab on a number of projects. My research investigates language and literacy development in diverse populations, focusing especially on children who are at risk for academic difficulty. To date, this work has included children from immigrant and refugee backgrounds, children with developmental language disorder and children with autism spectrum disorder. |
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Bradley Bergey, Research associate
I joined the lab in January 2014 as a postdoctoral fellow, moving from my hometown of Philadelphia, where I received my PhD in Educational Psychology from Temple University. I am now Assistant Professor, in Secondary Education & Youth Services at Queens College, at the City University of New York, but am also continuing the research I was working on in the lab. My research interests include student motivation and self-regulated learning. My work on the Partnership for Student Success project taps my interests in how motivation and learning strategies relate to success, achievement, and well-being in university students who face unique academic challenges. |
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Rebecca Tucker, Research associate
I joined the lab in 2011 as a volunteer, and never left! I completed an independent research project and my honours thesis in the lab before moving on to my graduate research. My research so far has dealt with orthographic learning in children and how they later use that learning when reading other new, related words. I’ve also looked at how we can help to support university students who have a history of reading difficulties and what social/academic aspects of their university experience may affect their decision to stay in university. Outside of the lab most of my time is spent with my son, who was the inspiration for my interest in literacy research! I also enjoy any activity that helps me recover from school/play time – reading, cooking/baking, basketball, knitting, and generally spending time with friends! |