Author

Daniela O’Neill

Dr. Daniela O’Neill

The author of the Language Use Inventory, Daniela O’Neill is a professor of developmental psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada where she is also the founder and director of the UW Children's Communication Lab. For over 20 years, her research has focused on the interplay between children’s developing understanding of mind and their communicative development. Her research has included studies of children’s gesture use in word learning and storytelling; topic initiations in peer-to-peer conversation; the ability of children to “step into the shoes” of story characters; parent-child talk during picture-book sharing; and relations between children’s early narrative ability and mathematical and abstract thinking.

She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto in 1989 and her doctoral degree from Stanford University in Psychology in 1993. From 1993-1995, she was a postdoctoral visitor at the Medical Research Council’s Cognitive Development Unit in London, England She joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo in 1995. In 2000, she was the recipient of an Ontario Premier’s Research Excellence Award.

She has authored over 30 research articles and book chapters and has presented her work at international conferences and workshops for audiences including researchers, early childhood educators, school boards, and speech-language pathologists. Her research has been supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

In 2008, she founded Knowledge in Development Inc. to distribute the Language Use Inventory to speech-language professionals, clinicians and researchers.

In 2015, Daniela was nominated for a WOW Waterloo Region award for her help in the organization of Breakfast Club and undergraduate reading volunteers at Westmount Public School in Kitchener.

For more information about Daniela O’Neill’s research visit the UW Children's Communication Lab or her Faculty web page at the University of Waterloo.

Follow Daniela on Twitter: @doneill_oneill

Contact

Daniela O’Neill can be reached by email at doneill@uwaterloo.ca.

Workshops/Talks/CEE

Daniela O'Neill, the developer of the Language Use Inventory, welcomes invitations to talk or present workshops about the LUI and early pragmatic language development in children. Please contact her directly at doneill@uwaterloo.ca.

Daniela has conducted workshops (3+ hours to full day presentations) at:

  • The Hanen Centre, Toronto, ON. (Dec. 2016)
  • BC Association of Speech/Language Pathologists and Audiologists (BCASLPA) Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC. (Oct. 2013)
  • York Region Preschool Speech and Language Program. Thornhill, ON. (Jan. 2013)
  • Minnesota Department of Education, Minneapolis, MN. (Oct. 2012)
  • Marion K. Saloman & Associates, Inc. Melville, NY. (Mar. 2012)
  • The Hanen Centre, Toronto, ON. (Nov. 2009)
  • BC Association of Speech/Language Pathologists and Audiologists (BCASLPA) Annual Meeting. Harrison, BC. (Oct. 2009)

Research behind the LUI has been presented at international conferences:

  • International Association for the Study of Child Language Conference (IASCL), Universite de Lyon, France. (July, 2017)
  • Annual Meeting of the American Speech Hearing Association (ASHA), Orlando, FL (Nov. 2014)
  • Head Start’s Eleventh National Research Conference, “Research on Young Children and Families: Effective Practices in an Age of Diversity and Change.” Washington, DC. (June 2012)
  • International Association for the Study of Child Language (IASCL), Universite de Quebec a Montreal, QC. (July 2011)
  • Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists, Montreal, QC. (April 2011)
  • Child Language Seminar at City University London, UK. (June 2010)
  • Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Colloquium, University of Western Ontario, London, ON. (Oct. 2009)
  • Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research (WIHIR) Research Seminar, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON. (Oct. 2009)
  • Centre for Research in Human Development, Concordia University, Montreal, QC. (Oct. 2009)
  • CIHR – Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health Scientific Forum, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON. (Sept. 2009).
  • Annual Meeting of the American Speech Hearing Association (ASHA), Chicago, IL (Nov. 2008)

Videorecorded Talks and Continuing Education

CASLPA members may be interested in viewing the following webcast of a presentation by Dr. Daniela O'Neill, developer of the LUI, in CASLPA's Professional Development Resource Centre:

  • O'Neill, D. K. (2011). Assessing pragmatics and its impact using the Language Use Inventory. Presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists, Montreal, QC. There is a charge by CASLPA of $20 for one webcast (with a second free). For SLPs, this webcast can fulfill CEE requirements under Category A, 1.0 CEE/hr of educational content.

Members of CASLPA may also be interested in the following articles and video presentations relevant to the LUI for self-study:

Children's Communication Lab

The Children's Communication Lab is Daniela O’Neill’s child research lab at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Canada where parents and children take part in studies conducted by Daniela O’Neill and her students. She founded the lab in 1995 and is its director.

Twitter

Follow Daniela O’Neill on Twitter at: @doneill_oneill for updates on research about children’s language and thinking from around the world