I am a PhD candidate at the Eerste Taalverwerving research group of the Radboud University under the supervision of Paula Fikkert and Merel Van Goch.
I am particularly fascinated by how effortlessly and rapidly infants learn their first language(s) and efficiently achieve the main language milestones within the first 3 years of life. But what are the neural mechanisms behind this process? And how do infants process and learn to make sense of the language(s) around them? How do they build their lexicon?
In my research the focus is on phonology and early language development in Dutch preschoolers. Some challenging questions we will try to answer are: how does the child’s implicit knowledge of possible or impossible sequences of sounds in their native language(s) (i.e. cognisance) play a role in language processing? How does cognisance relate to explicit language abilities and later reading and writing skills?
Answering these questions might also help to better understand language difficulties in children and to improve second language learning and teaching.
