People

Dr. Giovanna Morini (she/her)

Lab Director

Associate Professor
Communication Sciences and Disoders
Email: gmorini@udel.edu

Dr. Morini was born and raised in Colombia (South America). She received a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Florida in 2007. She then earned a PhD in Hearing & Speech Sciences and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science from the University of Maryland in 2014. After graduate school, Dr. Morini completed postdoctoral training in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. In 2017, she joined the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at UD as faculty. Dr. Morini’s research interests include early language acquisition, bilingualism, and questions related to speech perception. Furthermore, she is interested in how cultural and linguistic differences contribute to language development in children with typical language skills, and those who have language disorders.

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Karla Marie Mercedes (she/her)

Lab Manager

Email: kmmerced@udel.edu

Karla Marie graduated from Williams College in June 2023 with a B.A. in Psychology. For her senior thesis, she studied the interactions Spanish-speaking parents have with their bilingual children during mathematics homework help, and how their negative behaviors were affected by either the language or the difficulty of the homework sheet. She plans to continue studying how bilingual children and families interact with the U.S. American education systems.

Mels Ayala (they/them)

PhD Student

Email: aayala@udel.edu

Mels graduated from Claremont McKenna College (located in Claremont, California) in May 2021 with a B.A. in Cognitive Neuroscience. Their interest in learning about bilingualism was sparked while they were studying abroad in Bolivia and Argentina. They are particularly interested in how individuals from various cultural backgrounds acquire language skills, and how cognitive abilities (including memory processes) contribute to bilingual language development. Mels is currently a 2nd year PhD student in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program.

Emily Frazer-Abel (she/they)

PhD Student

Email: emilyfa@udel.edu

Emily graduated from Wesleyan University (located in Middletown, CT) in May 2021 with their BA in Psychology, Education Studies, and International Relations. Emily is currently a 2nd year PhD student in the Communication Sciences and Disorders program. She is primarily interested in bilingual language development in children and adults, and in understanding the relationship between language learning and acquisition for bilingual children that are neurodiverse and/or have communication disorders that impact their cognitive and linguistics skills (i.e. Developmental Language Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder, etc.).

Ekaterina Novikova (she/her)

PhD Student

Email: novikova@udel.edu

Ekaterina received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Linguistics at Tambov State University in Russia. After graduation, she worked as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher for both children and adult students. She is currently getting her PhD in Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware. Ekaterina is interested in studying families raising bilingual children as well as language development in outdoor settings.

Madeline Austria (she/her)

MA Student

Email: maustria@udel.edu

Madeline graduated from the University of Delaware in May 2024 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and a minor in Sociology. She began working at SLAM as an Undergraduate Research Assistant in August 2022. Madeline is currently pursuing a master’s degree through UD’s 4+1 Master of Science Program in Neuroscience. She is interested in studying the various factors that contribute to language acquisition in infants and young children.