Graduate Students
As a graduate student you will have the opportunity to contribute to ongoing projects, including with opportunities to initiate your own research. You will be encouraged and supported to write manuscripts and present your findings at national and international conferences. Students completing theses in the LLL have exceptional employment rates; most have gained faculty positions in Education, Linguistics, and Psychology at highly regarded universities across North America and around the world, and many others are working in highly impactful positions, such as data analysts with Statistics Canada and as directors of educational programs.
Masters or PhD Positions
Masters Level Positions in Clinical Programs
Masters students in other clinical programs can also do thesis work in the lab. These programs include Speech and Language Pathology or Audiology in the Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University and School Psychology at Mount Saint Vincent University.  Students in the thesis track in these programs are eligible for Canadian scholarships (e.g., SSHRC). ​Learn more about these programs:
Research Opportunities
As a graduate student there are many opportunities to get involved in research projects. These can include any of the below, based on interests and skills.
Make an impact with existing data
Leaps and Bounds: From Reading Words to Understanding Texts
We have recently completed a 6-year longitudinal research study on how children’s oral language skills underpin their reading development from grades 1 to 6. In this study, we captured morphological, syntactic, and prosodic skills, and word reading and reading comprehension, including in digital contexts. Trainees can get involved in analysing and publishing this rich, six-year longitudinal data set.
Get involved in new and innovative research
The Power of Children’s Learning in Their Reading Development
To be successful readers, children must learn how to map oral language on to print. While a great deal of attention has been devoted to the importance of oral language, far less attention has been paid to the other piece of the puzzle: the role that print plays in learning to read. Our project addresses this question by assessing what young children know about print, as well as their orthographic learning skill, and investigating how these contribute to strong reading development over time. We are preparing to launch the second year of data collection in the Winter of 2026 for this new four-year longitudinal study. There are opportunities to add measures and join this innovative project.
Join an international team of experts exploring digital literacy
Digital Literacy: How Do Children Understand What They Read Online?
The medium in which reading is occurring is shifting; children are increasingly reading in a digital format. One of the main distinctions between paper-based and digital reading is the presence of digital features. These features may distract children from reading in a deep and focused manner. We are working with a wide range of learners, to understand the skills that different children use while reading digitally. As education moves online at a pace far greater than our understanding of digital environments, our findings will examine how we can best support children’s digital understanding of text across the elementary grades.
Interested in joining our team?
Please send a copy of your CV, transcripts (unofficial on copies are fine!), 3 professional and/or academic references, and a brief description of your scientific interests and why you are interested in completing your graduate studies in the Language and Literacy Lab by email to Dr. Hélène Deacon at Helene.Deacon@dal.ca, cc’ing LangLabManager@dal.ca.