Research Interests
My research aims to provide more precise, longitudinal characterizations of early grammatical development for young children with developmental language disorder (DLD), to improve the identification of toddlers at-risk for DLD, and to develop effective, evidenced-based early language interventions. This work has been funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Science Foundation, and the Institute of Educational Sciences. I am also deeply committed to translational research and aligning research efforts with the needs of clinical practitioners.
Education
Child Language, Ph.D., 1993
Certificate of Clinical Competence, 1990
Speech-Language Pathology, M.A., 1989
Speech Language Pathology, B.A., 1987
Grants
Active
Govindaraju, V., Kientz, J., Hadley, P., Feil-Seifer, D., Xiong, J. (2023). AI Institute for Transforming Education for Children with Speech and Language Processing Challenges. National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement #2229873. Award: $20,000,000. 01/15/2023-12/31/2027 (estimated). Role: Co-PI.
Additional Campus Affiliations
Charles and Kay Stenberg Professor, Speech and Hearing Science
Professor, Speech and Hearing Science
Professor, Linguistics
Affiliate, Social & Behavioral Sciences Institute
External Links
Recent Publications
Krok, W., Preza, T., Harrington, E. K., Manning, B. L., Wakschlag, L. S., Norton, E. S., & Hadley, P. A. (2026). Assessing Sentences in Young Children: A Comparison of the Sentence Diversity Priming Task and Play-Based Language Samples. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 69(6), 2623-2637. https://doi.org/10.1044/2026_JSLHR-25-00408
Mattie, L. J., Fanta, D., Falcon, E., & Hadley, P. A. (2026). Child Deictic Gesture Use and Maternal Labeling in Toddlers With Down Syndrome. American journal of speech-language pathology, 35(2), 586-599. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_AJSLP-25-00258
Hadley, P. A., Harrington, E. K., Krok, W. C., Prezaa, T., Harriott, E. M., Manning, B. L., Wakschlag, L. S., & Nortonb, E. S. (2025). Evaluating the Construct Validity of Sentence-Focused Diversity Measures With Late-Talking Toddlers and Same-Age Peers. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 68(4), 1886-1901. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_JSLHR-24-00558
Harrington, E. K., Hadley, P. A., & Rispoli, M. (2025). Spontaneous Lexical Overlap in Early Conversations: Automated Sequential Coding of Parents and Toddlers. Journal of Child Language. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000925100184
Harrington, E. K., & Hadley, P. A. (2024). A Brief Intervention to Teach Parents Naturalistic Language Facilitation Strategies. American journal of speech-language pathology, 33(2), 990-1003. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJSLP-23-00146