Members

Elin Thordardottir

Associate Professor
School of Communication Sciences and Disorders
McGill University
Beatty Hall, 1266 Pine Avenue West
tel: 514-398-5356
e-mail: elin.thordardottir(at)mcgill.ca

Membership Status

Principal Member

Research Themes

Language Acquisition

Areas of Expertise

Current Research Interests

My primary research interest is in the area of language disorders in children, their underlying nature, as well as assessment and therapeutic intervention. I am interested in the impact of processing capacity limitations on language learning and use, particularly in the interaction of linguistic complexity and processing capability. Past and current research in this area focuses on teh acquisition and use of verbs by children with specific language impairment. I also have a strong interest in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparisons and in normal language development and language impairment in bilingual children. Previous research projects have focused on language acquisition in Icelandic children. This research has included the development of assessment measures that facilitate clinical diagnosis as well as documentation of language level for research purposes. Present projects continue this work in Icelandic. In addition, assessment procedures are being developed for French-speaking children and bilingual children. Issues related to hearing are another area of interest.

Selected Publications

  • Lattermann, C., Shenker, R. & Thordardottir, E. (in press). Progression of language complexity during treatment with the Lidcombe program for early stuttering intervention. American journal of Speech Language pathology.
  • Thordardottir, E., Rothenberg, A., Rivard, M.-E., & Naves, R. (in press). Bilingual assessment: Can overall proficiency be estimated from separate measurement of two languages? Journal of Multilingual Communication Disorders.
  • Kay-Raining Bird, E., Cleave, P., Trudeau, N., Thordardottir, E., Sutton, A. & Thorpe, A. (in press). The language abilities of bilingual children with Down Syndrome. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology.
  • Thordardottir, E. (2005). Early lexical and syntactic development in Quebec French and English: Implications for cross-linguistic and bilingual assessment. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 40, 243-278.

Graduate Students

  • Mahchid Namazi, (PhD candidate)

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