Studying Verbal Development with Tajik Children

 Nada Haikel, Verrazzano Class of 2023, completed major in Psychology & minor in Biology

 As a psychology student, I have always had an interest in child development. When I first came across the flyer for Dr. Karasik’s research lab, I figured it would be an interesting addition to my curriculum during my final year of undergraduate studies. Not only was it an intriguing culture and development research lab, but it also meant I wouldn’t have to take an extra class to complete my degree.

As I joined the lab and learned about the several ongoing projects Dr. Karasik had been working on, I quickly found myself interested in one regarding Tajik infants interacting with a novel toy in a longitudinal study. Working with several graduate and undergraduate students, we coded and discussed data until we completed the project in a matter of weeks.

Although I spent a majority of the first semester of my final year working on this project, it’s not what I decided to use for my capstone. Using the same data set, we developed more questions including the ones used for my capstone. Rather than looking at the development of Tajik children, we looked at the verbal information given by the mothers of the infants during this particularly challenging task.

When the time came to submit my capstone abstract, I remember panicking and not knowing what to write for a one-page double-spaced abstract on a project I had been working on for nearly two semesters. With a few encouraging words from Cheryl, I pushed through and finally submitted my abstract.

Looking back, it really shouldn’t have been that hard to write. After all, psychology majors don’t write 10-page papers to then get stuck on writing just one page. I am grateful for the experiences that I’ve had doing research with an incredible group of people and the having the best moral support system.