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Dr. Meghan McGarry will be using EEG to examine how signs are processed in the brain.

Gallaudet is hosting postdoctoral fellow Dr. Meghan McGarry, who will be researching how to encourage hearing parents of deaf children to learn sign language. Her project is funded by the National Institutes of Health’s prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral National Research Award for Individual Postdoctoral Fellows. Known as the NRSA F32 program, this will provide $232,188 to cover three years of fees, a stipend, and an institutional allowance as McGarry completes an integrated program of research and training. She is sponsored by Dr. Lorna Quandt, Co-Director of the Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) Center, and Co-Sponsored by Associate Professor Dr. Deanna Gagne from Linguistics.

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Dr. Lorna Quandt, Co-Director of the Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) Center, looks forward to the discoveries McGarry will make at Gallaudet.

McGarry started with the VL2 team this January as a Postdoctoral Researcher in its Action & Brain Lab (ABL). “I’m very excited to join Gallaudet/VL2’s exciting, collaborative research environment so that I can be supported in my growth both as a researcher and someone continuing the journey of coming into their identity. I’m really happy to be here,” says McGarry.

Her proposed work focuses on improving the likelihood of hearing caregivers learning signed language to support their deaf children. She says, “I hope that my research focus can, in the long run, help identify ways to support sign acquisition in adults, especially the hearing parents of DHH children who are trying to learn to sign.” 

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Supporting parents is integral to promoting early access to sign language, says Linguistics Associate Professor Dr. Deanna Gagne.

Research-wise, she plans to do this by examining iconicity in ASL using electroencephalogram, or EEG, focusing on how iconic signs (signs that look like what they mean, such as ‘HAMMER’) are processed in the brain and whether they may be more easily learned by adults learning to sign. 

The Linguistics and Educational Neuroscience programs have long encouraged early sign language for deaf children, and Gagne says supporting their parents is integral to their success. “I look forward to working with Drs. McGarry and Quandt. This project is a valuable contribution to our community, especially for parents of deaf kids who are beginning their journey in learning sign language,” she says.

McGarry comes to Gallaudet from Oregon. Prior to that, she worked with Dr. Karen Emmorey at San Diego State University. There, she conducted EEG/ERP (Event Related Potential) research exploring the production of iconic signs in native signers. She has roots in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she attended Hampshire College and where her own interest in ASL research began when she started to learn sign language. “My hearing loss occurred after a traumatic brain injury when I was almost sixteen and I spent several years extremely isolated before I started to learn to sign. As a result, sign language and accessibility are very important to me,” McGarry says.

Quandt says, “We are thrilled to welcome Meghan to VL2 and look forward to the new discoveries she will make while she is here. Her work is important for understanding more about how people learn ASL, with a special focus on how hearing parents of deaf babies can best learn to sign.”

This F32 award is funded by the National Institute On Deafness And Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number F32DC022467.

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