Research Rookies Student Profiles

Name: Diana Lopez

Cohort: Freshman Research Rookie

Major: Speech-Language Pathology

Hometown: Blue Island, Illinois

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Janet Olson

Last year, Diana Lopez worked as a teaching assistant at a preschool. She loved working with the kids, but realized that there was a three-year old in her class that could not talk. She and the teacher were concerned, so they approached the child’s parents about speech-therapy. Realizing that she loved psychology, social work, and working with people, Diana decided to become a bilingual speech pathologist to help people, especially children like her student.

For her Research Rookies project, Diana is working with her mentor to observe how four mothers interact with their 13-month old babies. Their hypothesis is that mothers who use more internal state words that refer to emotions, thoughts, or interactions with the baby will help their children develop a more extensive vocabulary and ability to comprehend these internal state cues. Children with autism are not able to understand these personal and emotive internal state words, which is why Diana and her mentor are looking at the role of mothers in the internal-state comprehension of their children. Better understanding of this could help lead to new learning techniques for children and maybe even assist children who are at risk for autism.

Regardless of the results, Diana is excited about the project. Of course, she would like to have good results that could potentially help children. But, if not, she is ready to learn from the experience, and continue toward her goal of becoming a bilingual speech pathologist.

Diana on what being a Research Rookie means: “Being a Research Rookie means being ahead of the game and being successful.”