SPHHS Doctoral Student Receives National Award to Support Dissertation Research in Puerto Rico

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Ada López González, a doctoral candidate in speech, language and hearing sciences, has been awarded a two-year, $98,000 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (F31-Diversity) from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant will support her dissertation research, which focuses on developing caregiver-implemented early language interventions for Spanish-speaking families in Puerto Rico. López González will conduct all her research in Puerto Rico, beginning this spring.

The F31-Diversity award supports research training for predoctoral students from diverse backgrounds, including those from underrepresented groups in the biomedical, behavioral or clinical research workforce. The fellowship experience is designed to enhance the trainee’s potential to develop into a productive, independent research scientist.

“Ada’s work is at the forefront of priorities in our field related to health equity, and she is the ideal scholar to conduct this work,” notes Megan Gross, an assistant professor of speech, language and hearing sciences, who serves as López González’s faculty mentor and directs the Bilingual Language Development Lab. “This has been Ada’s passion project since she started as a doctoral student in 2021, fueled by her own experiences growing up and working in Puerto Rico. Ada excels in setting goals and taking the necessary steps to achieve them – learning new research skills, connecting with mentors across the country who have relevant expertise, and building trusting relationships with community partners. This fellowship will help to launch not only her career, but also those of the many students Ada will mentor as a future independent researcher.”

In addition to her F31 grant, López González has received two other awards in support of her dissertation research: a $2,000 2024 Student Research Grant in Early Childhood Language Development from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation, intended to support studies that focus on children at the preschool or earliest school developmental level; and a $6,638 Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the UMass Amherst Graduate School, which is designed to support expenses only related to the project’s data collection.

“The F31 fellowship will be essential to facilitate training and gain knowledge from experts in diverse research domains,” López González says. “With this funding, I will have the opportunity to concentrate all of my efforts on the implementation of my dissertation project in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, funding from the UMass Graduate School and the ASH Foundation will be essential to cover my living and research expenses as I collect data on the island. This project has been my dream since I began my career as a speech-language pathologist and now as a researcher. Receiving support from both external institutions and UMass exceeds my expectations. I am immensely grateful.”

In her study, López González will gather key information about current early intervention practices and the perspectives on early intervention of caregivers and speech-language providers in Puerto Rico. Early intervention is crucial to improve academic and social outcomes for children at risk for language impairment. Intervening in the early stages of development is key to taking advantage of brain plasticity, which is more effective in early childhood.

Coaching caregivers to use language facilitation strategies with their children has been documented as an effective approach to support children’s communication development. Hence, caregivers play a critical role in their children’s language development and are known as children’s first language teachers.

However, the majority of this research has been conducted with white, non-Hispanic families, limiting equitable access to culturally and linguistically appropriate caregiver-implemented early language interventions for Latine children.

“We will gather key information about current early intervention practices used by speech-language providers and early interactions between caregivers and their children with language delays in Puerto Rico,” López González says. “This study uses a mixed-methods approach to examine the use of coaching practices by speech-language providers and the use of naturalistic language facilitation strategies by caregivers in Puerto Rico, with the ultimate goal of developing or adapting a caregiver-implemented early language intervention that could benefit this population.”

López González’s study will include three research aims: 1) to characterize the use of naturalistic language facilitation strategies by caregivers and the factors that influence the use of these strategies; 2) to examine the use of language facilitation strategies and coaching practices by speech-language providers, and identify the factors that influence the use of coaching practices; and 3) to describe the perspectives of speech-language providers and caregivers about caregiver-implemented early language interventions.

“Ultimately, the project will address the needs of underserved and historically marginalized families in Puerto Rico,” adds López González. “The significance of this research lies in its potential to serve as the initial step toward the adaptation and development of the first culturally and linguistically responsive caregiver-implemented early language intervention for families in Puerto Rico.”