Research
My research work focuses on the study of early childhood development, the role of family and cultural context in the formation of language and social skills.
I strive to combine empirical evidence and practice in order to gain a deeper understanding of how everyday interactions affect a child’s development and how this knowledge can be applied in the educational and social spheres.
01:
Immigrant families
and child care
In my primary line of research, I explore heterogeneity in immigrant families’ participation in child care over time and the factors that associate with belonging to a certain child care participation group. I also examine the role early care and education (ECE) programs play in families’ utilization of public assistance and community services.
Apart from looking at the immigrant population in the United States overall, I specifically focus on Eastern European families’ child care participation, barriers and facilitators of access to ECE, and the bridge between ECE program attendance and the use of services for this understudied group.
Featured papers:
Child care choices among Russian immigrant parents in the United States. (Novikova et al., 2024)
Immigrant families’ participation in child care: A mixed method study (Dissertation – forthcoming).
02:
Child language development
In this research program, I work to uncover the link between audiovisual media exposure and young children’s language development. I use daylong recordings of child language environment and human coding of the audio recordings to measure the amount of total media exposure and time spent exposed to different media program types.
Early years are crucial for language development, and it is possible that time spent viewing media displaces valuable caregiver-child interaction periods. My upcoming research extends beyond monolingual English-speaking children to the bilingual and Spanish-speaking groups to examine the link between media exposure and child vocabulary ability in different samples of children.
I also study child language in various settings, including outdoor areas.
Featured papers:
03:
Early educator professional development
My work also examines ways early educators can acquire new knowledge and skills in order to increase their credentials and competencies. Among the topics I study are early educator career and education pathways, integration of nature-based education into program curriculum, and early educator language characteristics.
Featured papers:
