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Donna J. Norbo Thal
(Ph.D., Graduate School and University Center of CUNY, 1978)
Donna regrets she will not be in attendance for our 40th HS anniversary reunion. Following is information from Donna's web page at San Diego State University, where she is a Professor of Communications Disorders.
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/chhs/cd/Faculty/thal_home.html
Office: CC-Alv 231
Phone: (619) 594-7110
Positions Currently Held:
Director, Developmental Psycholinguistics Laboratory
Doctoral Program Executive Committee Research and Teaching Emphases:
Identification of predictors of language impairment in infants and toddlers; relationships between language and other aspects of cognition at the earliest stages of development; communication assessment tools for infants and toddlers; differential trajectories of development in populations with different sources of communication delay (specifically) language impaired, children with focal brain injury, Williams syndrome, Down syndrome; development of measures for assessing communication in Spanish-speaking infants and toddlers.
Details of Research Program:
My research program focuses on early identification of risk for language disorder and learning disabilities by building on data which suggest different courses of development for children with expressive only versus expressive and receptive language delays. Motivation for the research includes studies in which predictors of risk were identified in late-talking toddlers which indicate that children with delays in both comprehension and production are at greater risk for language disorders than those with delays only in production (Thal & Katich; 1996; Paul, 1996; Thal, 1999), studies of toddlers with congenital focal brain injury that suggest potential brain development explanations for differences found in comprehension and production (Thal, Marchman, Stiles, Trauner, Nass, Aram, & Bates, 1991; Bates, Bates, Thal, Aram, Eisele, Nass, & Trauner, 1997), and reports of changes in brain development in this period which suggest that it may be an optimal time for intervention (see Bates, Thal & Janowsky, 1992; Bates, Thal, Finlay, & Clancy, in press).
Donna won't be able to join us for the reunion, unfortunately, as she will be work that weekend on her Feldenkrais training which will lead to her certification. (Maybe we can get Donna to start thinking about joining us for our 50th!)
