Dr. Mary Fagan
Email: mfagan@chapman.edu
Website: https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/mary-fagan
College: Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences
Overview of scholarly research/creative activity:
Dr. Fagan studies early speech and language development, focusing on infant vocalizations, mother-infant interactions, word use, and perceptual-motor learning. She investigates similarities and differences between hearing and deaf infants.
She is also engaged in community research in a partnership with a family homeless shelter.
Specific projects working on:
Current Projects:
1. A project identifying early word use and speech emergence in video-recorded interactions between mothers, hearing infants, and infants with hearing loss who use cochlear implants. The goal of the project is to evaluate the benefits and limitations of early cochlear implantation.
2. Documenting maternal word use and interaction styles with hearing infants and infants with cochlear implants from video-recorded home interactions.
3. Evaluating the emergence of pointing and word use in video-recordings of mother-infant interactions.
4. Transcribing audio-recorded interviews with parents of children experiencing homelessness. The project is designed to investigate children's access to books and storybook reading in a family homeless shelter.
Number of students looking to work with:
3-4
When students are needed:
Fall 2023
Spring 2024
What students need to work with Dr. Fagan:
Strong communication skills, attention to detail, consistent and reliable.
What students would be doing:
Transcribing interactions and interviews, coding behaviors, preliminary evaluation of data. Potential for submission of projects to research conferences.
Time commitment for students:
Expected commitment of 3 to 6 hours per week in the lab in the fall and/or spring semesters.
Additional information:
The projects require the ability to work on the Rinker Campus at 9401 Jeronimo Road in Irvine.