Early Communication, Language and Social Skills

The Early Communication, Language and Social Skills (CLASS) lab focuses on the association among emotional regulation, early social-communication and the development of joint attention and language in typically developing children with autism.

Of particular interest is:

• The co-construction of joint attention within caregiver-child and clinician-child dyads.
• The early identification of autism.
• The efficacy of social-pragmatic intervention models for children with autism.

Director	Alumni
Location	Publications
Projects	Laboratory Meeting Dates
Current Students

Director

Dr. Pam Rollins  (curriculum vitae)
Associate Professor
Callier Center for Communication Disorders
1966 Inwood Road
Dallas, TX 75235
(214) 905-3153 office
Early CLASS Web site

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Location

Callier Center Dallas, A124 & D106

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Projects

• Affect attunement during early mother-infant interactions.
• Early lexical acquisition in the real world: is coordinated joint attention necessary?
• Seeing language: the efficacy of picture-use as a strategy for facilitating language in children with autism spectrum disorders.

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Current Students

Master’s in Psychology
Jenifer Malaspina

Master’s in Communication Disorders
Emily Kerr
Jess Juliano

Doctorate of Philosophy
Carol Trautman, M.A., Ph.D. candidate.
Stephanie Haass, M.S., CCC-SLP

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Alumni

Lisa Greenwald, Ph.D.

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Publications

Rollins, P.R. (2009). Developmental pragmatics. In L. Coummings  (Ed). Pragmatics Encyclopedia, Routledge

Trautman, C.H. and Rollins, P.R. (2006) Child-centered behaviors of caregivers with 12-month-old infants: associations with passive joint engagement and later language. Journal of Applied Pycholinguistics. 27, 447-463

McDonnell, S. A., Rollins, P. R. and Friel-Patti, S. (2003) Patterns in maternal/child discourse behaviors across repeated storybook readings. Applied Pycholinguistics, 24, 324-341.

Rollins, P. R., (2003) Caregiver contingent comments and subsequent vocabulary Comprehension. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 221-234.

Moller, A., R. and Rollins, P.R.. (2002). The non-classical auditory pathways are involved in hearing in children but not in adults. Neuroscience Letters. 319, 41-44.

Spence, M. Rollins, P. R. and Jerger, S., (2002). Recognizing famous cartoon voices:  development from childhood to adulthood. Journal of Speech, Hearing, and Language Research. 45

Rollins, P. R., McCabe, A. and Bliss, L. (2000). Assessment of narrative skills in children. Seminars in speech and language - Situating Language Assessment: Influences from the past, directions for the future. 21, 223-234.

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Laboratory Meeting Dates

Announced each semester. Contact Dr. Rollins for times.

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