Associate Professor
Biography
Ph.D. Linguistics and Cognitive Science, UCSD, 2013
B.Sc. Neuroscience, Brown University, 2007
Curriculum Vitae
(206 KB)
My main research focuses on understanding the extent and origins of variability in linguistic and brain growth among young children of diverse backgrounds. I use multiple methodologies, including naturalistic recordings in children’s homes and early education centers, magnetoencephalography (MEG), and behavioral language measures in the laboratory.
Research
Selected Research
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Kuhl, P.K. (2020) Early Second Language Through SparkLingTM: Scaling-Up a Language Intervention in Infant Education Centers. Mind, Brain, and Education.
- Kuhl, P.K., N. Ferjan Ramírez (2019) Neuroscience and education: How early brain development affects school. In: Kuhl, P., S-S. Lim, S. Guerriero & D. Van Damme (Eds.), Learning in the digital age: Towards a Science of Learning for 21st Century Education. Education Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris. Pp. 25-36.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Lytle, S., Fish, M., Kuhl, P.K. (2018). Parent coaching at 6 and 10 months improves language outcomes at 14 months: A randomized controlled trial. Developmental Science, e12762. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12762
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Kuhl, P.K. (2017). The brain science of bilingualism. Young Children, 72, 38-44.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Kuhl, P.K. (2017). Bilingual Baby: Foreign Language Intervention in Madrid’s Infant Education Centers. Mind, Brain, and Education, 11(3), 133-43.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Ramírez, R.R., Clarke, M., Taulu, S., Kuhl, P.K. (2016). Speech discrimination in 11-month-old bilingual and monolingual infants: A magnetoencephalography study. Developmental Science, e12427. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12427
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Leonard, M.K., Davenport, T., Torres, C., Mayberry, R.I., Halgren, E. (2014). Neural language processing in adolescent first-language learners: Longitudinal case studies in American Sign Language. Cerebral Cortex. Available online: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25410427
- Leonard, M.K., Ferjan Ramírez, N., Torres, C., Hatrak, M., Mayberry, R.I., Halgren, E.. (2013) Neural stages of spoken, written, and signed word processing in second language learners. Frontiers of Human Neuroscience, doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00322.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Leonard, M.K., Torres, C., Hatrak, M., Halgren, E., Mayberry, R.I.. (2013) Neural language processing in adolescent first-language learners. Cerebral Cortex doi: 10.1093/cercor/bht137.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Lieberman, A., Mayberry, R.I. (2013). The initial stages of first-language acquisition begun in adolescence: When late looks early. Journal of Child Language, 40(2), 391-414.
- Leonard, M.K., Ferjan Ramírez, N., Torres, C., Travis, K., Hatrak, M., Mayberry, R.I., Halgren, E.. (2012) Signed Words in the Congenitally Deaf Evoke Typical Late Lexicosemantic Responses with No Early Visual Responses in Left Superior Temporal Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(28), 9700-9705.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Marjanovič Umek, L., & Fekonja, U. (2024). Language environment and early language production in Slovenian infants: An exploratory study using daylong recordings. Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies, 10.1111/infa.12615. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12615
- Hippe, L., Hennessy, V., Ferjan Ramírez, N., Zhao, T.C. (2024) Comparison of speech and music input in North American infants’ home environment over the first two years of life. Developmental Science, Advance online publication: https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13528
- Sheth, K., Ferjan Ramírez, N. (2024) A Longitudinal Corpus Analysis of the Quantity, Syntactic, and Lexical Aspects of Maternal and Paternal Parentese. Language Learning and Development, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2024.2346099
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Hippe, D. (2024) Estimating infants’ language exposure: A comparison of random and volume sampling from daylong recordings collected in a bilingual community. Infant behavior & development, 75, 101943. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2024.101943
- Ferjan Ramírez, N. (2023). What do parents really think? Knowledge, beliefs, and self-awareness of parentese in relation to its use in daylong recordings. First Language, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237231216010
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Hippe, D., +Braverman, A., Weiss, Y., Kuhl., P.K. (2023) A comparison of automatic and manual measures of turn-taking in monolingual and bilingual contexts. Behavior research methods, 10.3758/s13428-023-02127-z. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-023-02127-z.
- Huber, E., Ferjan Ramírez, N., Corrigan, N., & Kuhl, P.K. (2023) Enriched parent-child interaction advances early childhood language development. Developmental science, e13391. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13391.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Weiss, Y., +Sheth, K., Kuhl., P.K. (2023) Parentese in infancy predicts 5-year language complexity and conversational turns. Journal of child language, 1–26. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000923000077.
- Huber, E., Corrigan, N.M., Yarnykh, V.L., Ferjan Ramírez, N., Kuhl, P.K. (2023). Language experience during infancy predicts white matter myelination at age two years. The Journal of neuroscience: the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 43(9), 1590–1599. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1043-22.2023
- Weiss, Y., Huber, E., Ferjan Ramírez, N., Corrigan, N.M., Yarnykh V.L. & Kuhl P.K. (2022) Language input in late infancy scaffolds emergent literacy skills and predicts reading related white matter development. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 16:922552. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.922552
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Hippe, D., & Lindekugel, K. (2022) Electronic media and social features of language input in bilingually-raised Latinx infants. Infant Behavior & Development, 68, 101740. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2022.101740
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Hippe, D. S., Correa, L., Andert, J., & Baralt, M. (2022). Habla conmigo, daddy! Fathers’ language input in North American bilingual Latinx families. Infancy, 00, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12450
- Ferjan Ramírez, N. (2022). Fathers' infant-directed speech and its effects on child language development. Language & Linguistics Compass, e12448. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12448
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Sheth, K.K.; Kuhl, P.K. (2021). The Effects of Age, Dosage, and Poverty on Second Language Learning through SparkLingTM in Infant Education Centers in Madrid, Spain. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(23), 12758. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18231275.
- Shapiro, N.T., Hippe, D., & Ferjan Ramírez, N. (2021). How chatty are daddies? An exploratory study of infants’ language environments. Journal of speech, language, and hearing research 64(8), 3242–3252. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00727.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Hippe, D., & Shapiro, N.T. (2021). Exposure to Electronic Media Between 6 and 24 Months of Age: An Exploratory Study. Infant behavior & development, 63, 101549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101549.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Lytle, S., Kuhl, P.K. (2020). Parent Coaching Increases Conversational Turns and Advances Infant Language Development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(7), 3484–3491. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1921653117.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., & Kuhl, P.K. (2020) Early Second Language Through SparkLingTM: Scaling-Up a Language Intervention in Infant Education Centers. Mind, Brain, and Education.
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Lytle, S., Kuhl, P.K. (in press). Parent Coaching Increases Conversational Turns and Advances Infant Language Development
Courses Taught
Winter 2025
Autumn 2024
Winter 2024
Autumn 2023
Winter 2023
Winter 2022
Additional Courses
HUM 101: Humanities First: Foundations (AU 2021)
Resources & Related Links
Related News
Related News
- Chair's Welcome (September 8, 2023)
- Congratulations to Professors Qi Cheng, Sharon Hargus, Naja Ferjan Ramírez and Richard Wright. (September 5, 2023)
- Summer 2023 Highlights (September 5, 2023)
- Ferjan Ramírez Distinguished Professorship in Language Acquisition and Multilingualism (February 1, 2023)
- UW linguists at Boston University Conference on Language Development (January 10, 2022)
- New Courses (September 3, 2021)
- Faculty Profile: Qi Cheng (September 3, 2021)
- Lab News (May 12, 2021)
- Faculty profile: Naja Ferjan Ramírez (October 6, 2020)
- Message from Chair Richard Wright (October 2, 2020)
- Wenjun Ma presents at at the Fourth Annual Berkeley Undergraduate Linguistics Symposium (December 3, 2019)
- Jake McManus presents at Undergraduate Research poster session (August 21, 2019)