Courtney E. Venker, a PhD candidate in the Department of Communicative Disorders, is the recipient of the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral Fellows from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Ruth L. Kirschstein was an icon at the NIH, with a scientific and administrative public service career that spanned more than half a century
Venker's research focuses on processes of language acquisition in children with language delay and autism spectrum disorders, and on the impact of children's linguistic environments on their language development.
Her project is titled "Statistical Word Learning and Non-Social Visual Attention in Children with Autism."
Venker will use her award monies between August 2012 and August 2013 to complete her dissertation under the guidance of Dr. Susan Ellis Weismer. The project will be completed in the Language Processes Lab at the Waisman Center.