{"id":70960,"date":"2021-03-09T14:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T19:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=70960"},"modified":"2021-03-24T10:13:43","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T14:13:43","slug":"faculty-focus-lynn-dempsey-bonds-with-her-children-and-her-research-through-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2021\/03\/faculty-focus-lynn-dempsey-bonds-with-her-children-and-her-research-through-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"FACULTY FOCUS: Lynn Dempsey bonds with her children \u2014 and her research \u2014 through reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: Faculty Focus is a monthly series that highlights faculty whose compelling passions, innovative ideas and various areas of expertise help weave together the fabric of Brock University\u2019s vibrant community. For more from the series,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lynn Dempsey knows that if she missed a line while reading her children their favourite book, she\u2019d hear about it.<\/p>\n

Never missing a beat, her daughters would playfully remind Mom of what the next sentence should in fact be \u2014 even before they themselves could read the words on the pages.<\/p>\n

The Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics has always been enamoured with how children comprehend \u2014 and remember \u2014 the silly, funny and educational stories read to them, but becoming a parent herself ignited a new sense of excitement in the Brock University researcher.<\/p>\n

Although her children are getting older \u2014 Sophie and Felicity are 11 and nine, respectively \u2014 Dempsey\u2019s interest in early narrative comprehension has never waned.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Just days after daughter Sophie was born, Lynn Dempsey, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, began reading to her.<\/p><\/div>\n

Her research focuses on how pre-readers understand the storybooks adults read aloud to them: what they understand of a text, what skills they enlist to aid in that comprehension, and how features of books and the way adults share stories impact their understanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy interest has only grown over time as I\u2019ve experienced reading picture books to my own children,\u201d says Dempsey. \u201cMy understanding of the value of book sharing definitely influenced the reading routines I adopted with my kids from early on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dempsey had been studying story comprehension for several years before she and husband Tim started their family, but the first-hand experience gained from reading to her own children added another level to her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI observed what my colleagues and I had recognized: that when children grasp story content, they can retell the story with you, even before they can read themselves,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I read the Robert Munsch book We Share Everything! <\/em>and got to the part where the teacher runs over to solve Amanda and Jeremiah’s dispute, I would pause and my kids would say \u2018Now look. This is kindergarten. In kindergarten we share. We share everything!\u2019”<\/p>\n

One of the story comprehension measures used in Dempsey\u2019s lab is based on the observation that when children understand stories well, they can fill in some of the elements, even if just a word or two, when they are very young.<\/p>\n

While her research focus is all too clear now, it took Dempsey time to establish her career path.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always a good student but didn\u2019t have a firm sense of what I wanted to study or be when I grew up,\u201d she recalls. \u201cBut looking back, I can see how various experiences shaped the direction of my studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was during a placement in a hospital stroke rehab unit while earning her combined Psychology and Social Work degree from McMaster University that Dempsey was first introduced to the field of speech-language pathology.<\/p>\n

Her interest in the field continued to grow when she later took a summer job with Community Living, where she worked with four-year-old twins in their home to implement programs developed for them by a speech-language pathologist and occupational therapist.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill, by the time my fourth year of undergraduate studies rolled around, I wasn\u2019t sure what I would do next,\u201d Dempsey says. \u201cIn truth, I felt a little panicked at the thought of having to leave the university community that I loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

A friend provided aptly timed guidance and encouraged Dempsey to apply to graduate programs. She ultimately chose to pursue her master\u2019s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Western University.<\/p>\n

During her master\u2019s, Dempsey prepared to become a speech-language pathologist, while also engaging in thesis research.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, this was the best of both worlds in that I was acquiring clinical skills and learning to conduct research at the same time,\u201d she says. \u201cI graduated with my master\u2019s degree wanting to put my clinical skills into practice, but I always intended to return to school to pursue research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dempsey worked as a speech-language pathologist with Peel Preschool Speech and Language Services in Mississauga, where she provided assessment and intervention services.<\/p>\n

After working a year in the field, she returned to Western for her doctoral studies in Rehabilitation Sciences with a \u201crenewed sense of the value of the work we were doing in the area of children\u2019s language comprehension,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Dempsey completed her PhD in 2005 and, later that year, joined Brock\u2019s Department of Applied Linguistics.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI think my background really serves to illustrate one of the things I love most about Applied Linguistics and that is its interdisciplinary nature,\u201d she says. \u201cLinguistics is informed by and informs many other scientific fields, so there\u2019s a place in Applied Linguistics for people with a whole range of interests and backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dempsey encouraged students interested in the field to \u201csample from the diverse array of course offerings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know what will most grab your interest,\u201d she says, adding those courses may lead to a number of careers, such as English as a second language teacher, speech-language pathologist, audiologist, editor, translator or communication disorders assistant, among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lynn Dempsey knows that if she missed a line while reading her children their favourite book, she\u2019d hear about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":70961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7484,7,3319,1,4,38],"tags":[72,7948,8634,8996],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70960"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71299,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70960\/revisions\/71299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}