Building Language and Literacy in Growing Youth Research Lab

Run by Dr. Abbie Olszewski

Building Language and Literacy in Growing Youth Research Lab

Thank your for visiting the Building Language and Literacy in Growing (BLLING) Youth Lab! We are excited to be an integral part of University of Nevada, Reno and the surrounding communities. We welcome you to learn about our mission, current projects, past projects, and presentations.

Mission

Building Language and Literacy in Growing (BLLING) Youth Lab's mission is to:

  1. Contribute to the field of speech language pathology by conducting research, which focuses mainly on language and literacy skills in growing youth.
  2. Provide undergraduate and graduate students with research experience in the field of speech language pathology.
  3. Serve as a community resources by collaborating with the local community (e.g., schools, parents, after-school programs, private practice, etc.) to serve community needs such as training, assessments, or developing projects.
  4. Serve as a word-wide community resource for speech language pathology by creating curricula, conducting service learning projects, and collaborating on customized projects.

Research Topics

Dr. Abbie Olszewski's research focuses on clinical skill development for speech-language pathologists with an emphasis in language, literacy, and transgender women. She involves both undergraduate and graduate students in her research. She is particularly interested in developing language and literacy skills of children who are at-risk or culturally and linguistically diverse. Addtionally, she is training speech-language pathologists about the language and literacy development of children who are Spanish-English bilinguals, Native American, and who have a hearing loss. The BLLING Youth Research Lab also focuses on parent, teacher, and community trainings of language and literacy skills.

Presentations

Please visit Presentations page for handouts.

Word-Wide Volunteer Efforts

Dr. Abbie Olszewski's volunteer efforts are currently highlighted as her position as the Director of the first free, high quality, Speech Language Pathology Program with NextGenU.org. Dr. Olszewski and her research assistants are creating the first five courses of this program including the following: Introduction to Communication Disorders, Phonetics, Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech Mechanism, Introduction to Audiology, and Speech Language Development.

Please contact Dr. Abbie Olszewski with any questions at (775) 784-4887 or aolszewski@med.unr.edu