Skip to content. Skip to main navigation.
Found in everything from space shuttles to dental fillings, composite materials have thoroughly infiltrated modern society. But their potential is still greatly untapped, offering researchers ample opportunity for discovery.
Within the particle showers created at the Large Hadron Collider, answers to some of the universe’s mysteries are waiting.
Model systems like pigeons can help illuminate our own evolutionary and genomic history.
UT Arlington's tiny windmills are bringing renewable energy to a whole new scale.
The stability of our highways, pipelines, and even manholes is reaching a breaking point.
Scientists believe they have discovered a subatomic particle that is crucial to understanding the universe.
UT Arlington researchers unlock clues to the human body’s most mysterious and complex organ.
UT Arlington researchers probe the hidden world of microbes in search of renewable energy sources.
Wounded soldiers are benefiting from Robert Gatchel’s program that combines physical rehabilitation with treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Tiny sensors implanted in the body show promise in combating acid reflux disease, pain and other health problems.
Nanotechnology researchers pursue hybrid silicon chips with life-saving potential.
Biomedical engineers combat diseases with procedures that are painless to patients.
Cynthia Kilpatrick and Jodi Tommerdahl
Language is a deceptively simple, powerful tool. As the writer Penelope Lively said, “Language tethers us to the world; without it, we spin like atoms.” Thus when children exhibit problems with early language acquisition, it is paramount that caregivers not only recognize the issue, but also address it as soon as possible.
Jodi Tommerdahl, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, and Cynthia Kilpatrick, assistant professor of linguistics, are conducting research that could lead to better language assessments for children and timelier intervention for language learning difficulties. For their study, Drs. Tommerdahl and Kilpatrick used hidden cameras to observe parent-child interactions, recording each dyad twice within a one-week period.
The researchers found that language concerns among children could reliably be diagnosed by analyzing smaller utterance samples—about 100 spoken words at a time—than previously thought.
“Clinicians and linguists spend a lot of time recording language samples,” says Kilpatrick. “You want the shortest sample possible to give you the best, most reliable results.” Smaller sample sizes could help clinicians speed up the diagnosis process and potentially help children much earlier in life.
“At the moment, language impairment is often undiagnosed, and when it is, it’s later than you’d want it to be,” explains Tommerdahl. “If we can find meaningful differences in typical and atypical language in children at age 2 instead of age 6, we’re just that much closer to developing more appropriate treatments for those kids and getting them back on track both in the linguistic and educational senses.”
Renowned researcher brings economics expertise, business acumen to UT Arlington.
Does an overlooked class of stars have the potential to host life? How can we prevent solar weather from wreaking havoc on Earth? Do exomoons really exist? These are just a few of the questions UTA physicists are asking as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the universe.
