Barbara Conboy
Professor
Communication Sciences & Disorders
About
Barbara Conboy is a bilingual speech-language pathologist with specialized training in language and literacy development, developmental language disorders, and bilingualism. She is a professor of communication sciences and disorders, coordinator of the specialty certificate in bilingual speech-language pathology: Spanish language focus, and faculty/advisor in the interdisciplinary undergraduate program in Latin American studies. Professor Conboy co-directs Project TEAMMATES-LL (Transdisciplinary Educational And Multicultural/Multilingual Approaches for Teaching Elementary Students Language and Literacy), a program funded by the U.S. Department of Education focused on training speech-language pathologists and special education teachers to support language and literacy development in children from linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Education
- Ph.D., language and communicative disorders, University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University
- M.A., speech-language-hearing sciences, Temple University
- B.A., Latin American studies, Smith College
Professional Background
Barbara Conboy's professional experience includes work in public schools, Head Start programs, community and university clinics, hospitals, and private practice. She has held positions as a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and as a bilingual teacher of students with moderate special needs in Massachusetts.
She is committed to providing scientifically based oral and written language services to children from linguistically diverse backgrounds and to supporting the training of educational professionals to deliver evidence-based services. She holds the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Certificate of Clinical Competence, a California state license in speech-language pathology, and a Language, Speech & Hearing Specialist credential from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
Since joining University of Redlands in 2009, she has taught courses in language and cognitive development, language science, bilingualism, cultural and linguistic diversity, and research design and methodology, as well as a bilingual child language clinical course and a service-learning travel course in Guatemala focused on language, culture, and education.
Professor Conboy has received funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Scholar Program, private foundations, and University of Redlands faculty grants to study linguistic and nonlinguistic factors in language development and processing, with a focus on bilingual children.
Her research employs behavioral-experimental, observational, parent-report, and event-related brain potential (ERP/EEG) methods to examine dual language development in bilingual and monolingual infants and children in the United States, Guatemala, and Mexico. She has published peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and review papers on child language development and speech-language pathology practice with bilingual children and coauthored the Spanish version of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory.
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Research Articles
- Nieva, S., Rodríguez, L., Aguilar-Mediavilla, E., & Conboy, B. T. (2020). Competencias profesionales para el trabajo con población multilingüe y multicultural en España: Creencias, prácticas y necesidades de los/las logopedas. Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología, 40(4), 152–167.
- Sundara, M., Ward, N., Conboy, B., & Kuhl, P. K. (2020). Exposure to a second language in infancy alters speech production. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1–14.
- Conboy, B. T., Brooks, R., Meltzoff, A. N., & Kuhl, P. K. (2015). Social interaction in infants’ learning of second-language phonetics: An exploration of brain–behavior relations. Developmental Neuropsychology, 40(4), 216–229.
- Conboy, B. T., & Kuhl, P. K. (2011). Impact of second-language experience in infancy: Brain measures of first- and second-language speech perception. Developmental Science, 14(2), 242–248.
- García-Sierra, A., Rivera-Gaxiola, M., Percaccio, C., Conboy, B. T., Romo, H., Klarman, L., Ortíz, S., & Kuhl, P. K. (2011). Bilingual language learning: An ERP study relating early brain responses to speech, language input, and later word production. Journal of Phonetics, 39(4), 546–557.
- Kohnert, K., Kan, P. F., & Conboy, B. T. (2010). Lexical and grammatical associations in sequential bilingual preschoolers. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53(3), 684–698.
- Conboy, B. T., Sommerville, J., & Kuhl, P. K. (2008). Cognitive control factors in speech perception at 11 months. Developmental Psychology, 44(5), 1505–1512.
- Kuhl, P. K., Conboy, B. T., Coffey-Corina, S., Padden, D., Rivera-Gaxiola, M., & Nelson, T. (2008). Phonetic learning as a pathway to language: New data and Native Language Magnet Theory–expanded (NLM-e). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 363(1493), 979–1000.
- Silva-Pereyra, J. F., Conboy, B. T., Klarman, L., & Kuhl, P. K. (2007). Grammatical processing without semantics? An event-related brain potential study of preschoolers using jabberwocky sentences. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19(6), 1050–1065.
- Conboy, B. T., & Mills, D. L. (2006). Two languages, one developing brain: Effects of vocabulary size on bilingual toddlers’ event-related potentials to auditory words. Developmental Science, 9(1), F1–F11.
- Conboy, B. T., & Thal, D. (2006). Ties between the lexicon and grammar: Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of bilingual toddlers. Child Development, 77(3), 712–735.
- Kuhl, P. K., Conboy, B. T., Padden, D., Nelson, T., & Pruitt, J. (2005). Early speech perception and later language development: Implications for the critical period. Language Learning and Development, 1(3–4), 237–264.
- Gutiérrez-Clellen, V. F., Brown, S., Conboy, B., & Robinson-Zañartu, C. (1998). Modifiability: A dynamic approach to assessing immediate language change. Journal of Children’s Communication Development, 19(2), 31–43.
Books, Chapters, and Review Papers
Nieva, S., Conboy, B. T., Aguilar-Mediavilla, E., & Rodríguez, L. (2020). Prácticas en logopedia infantil en entornos bilingües y multilingües: Recomendaciones basadas en la evidencia. Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología, 40(4), 194–213.
Simon-Cereijido, G., Conboy, B. T., & Jackson-Maldonado, D. (2020). El derecho humano de ser multilingüe: Recomendaciones para logopedas. Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología, 40(4), 178–186.
Conboy, B. T. (2016). Bilingüismo infantil y práctica basada en la evidencia. In M. T. Martín-Aragoneses & R. López Higues (Eds.), Claves de la logopedia del siglo XXI (pp. 73–91). Madrid: UNED.
Conboy, B. T., & Montanari, S. (2016). Early lexical development in bilingual infants and toddlers. In E. Nicoladis & S. Montanari (Eds.), Bilingualism across the lifespan (pp. 63–79). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Conboy, B. T., & Bosseler, A. (2015). Perceptual processing of speech in infancy. In R. H. Bahr & E. R. Silliman (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Communication Disorders (pp. 114–123). London: Routledge.
Conboy, B. T. (2013). Neuroscience research and early language development. In California’s Best Practices for Young Dual Language Learners (pp. 1–50). Sacramento: California Department of Education.
Conboy, B. T. (2012). Research techniques and the bilingual brain. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1010
Conboy, B. T. (2011). Language processing and production in infants and toddlers. In B. A. Goldstein (Ed.), Bilingual Language Development and Disorders in Spanish-English Speakers (2nd ed., pp. 47–71). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
Conboy, B. T. (2010). The brain and language acquisition. In M. Shatz & L. Wilkinson (Eds.), The Education of English Language Learners (pp. 25–47). New York: Guilford Press.
Mills, D. L., & Conboy, B. T. (2009). Early communicative development and the social brain. In M. de Haan & M. R. Gunnar (Eds.), Handbook of Developmental Social Neuroscience (pp. 175–206). New York: Guilford Press.
Conboy, B. T., Rivera-Gaxiola, M., Silva-Pereyra, J. F., & Kuhl, P. K. (2008). Event-related potential studies of early language processing. In A. D. Friederici & G. Thierry (Eds.), Early Language Development (pp. 24–64). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Conboy, B. T., & Kuhl, P. K. (2007). Early speech perception and social interaction. In S. L. Bråten (Ed.), On Being Moved (pp. 175–199). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Jackson-Maldonado, D., & Conboy, B. T. (2007). Utterance length measures for Spanish-speaking toddlers. In J. G. Centeno, L. K. Obler, & R. Anderson (Eds.), Studying Communication Disorders in Spanish Speakers (pp. 142–155). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Mills, D. L., Conboy, B. T., & Paton, C. (2005). Brain organization and symbolic functioning. In L. Namy (Ed.), Symbol Use and Symbolic Representation (pp. 123–153). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Jackson-Maldonado, D., Thal, D., Marchman, V., Fenson, L., Newton, T., & Conboy, B. (2003). User’s Manual: MacArthur Inventario del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.