Zoe Lawless, Honors Symposium Poster Presentation

Author: Zoe Lawless | Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders | Semester: Spring 2024

My name is Zoe Lawless and I am a senior Honors Communication Sciences and Disorders major with a minor in Human Development and Family Sciences. The aim of my honors thesis was to investigate the difference between infants and toddlers and their engagement styles while being read a picture book. My mentor is Dr. Laura Herold who works in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. This semester was my second semester of direct data collection, but I was in my fifth semester of working on this thesis topic. This semester I finished my data collection, wrote my honors paper, and presented it at several conferences. On May 11th I will be graduating from the University of Arkansas and then in the fall I will be attending the University of Kansas to pursue a graduate degree in Speech-Language Pathology.

At the beginning of this semester I finished my data collection at a campus childhood care center. I observed reading groups of infants and young toddlers being read to by their teachers. My research has an impact and adds to the ever growing knowledge of early childhood education and language acquisition. The data gathered from this study could help change early childhood curriculum to best fit the needs of infants and toddlers and their engagement. In the discussion/conclusion portion of my paper I found that even though infants and young toddlers are so young they have a preference for what they read. There was a difference in developmental level of infant and young toddler book types that the classes were interested in, but also each individual child had preferences in book themes as well. This is important to think about for the speech-language pathology and early childhood education professions. Each of these careers when working with infants and young toddlers will spend a lot of time picture book reading. It is important for these professionals to take the time to understand each child they are working with and pick a book that the child will be interested in to facilitate the best interaction and meet whatever goals they are working on.

My honors mentor, Dr. Laura Herold has been a huge help this past semester as I was wrapping things up with my honors thesis. Dr. Herold has been my mentor for 2 and a half years now, so we know how to work well together. We met frequently throughout the semester to talk about writing my thesis and presenting it at conferences. She was available anytime I needed her for various meetings and was able to answer any and all questions I had. I am so grateful that I had an amazing mentor like Dr. Herold while working on my thesis.

I presented my thesis at two different events this semester. First, I presented my thesis at the Arkansas Speech-Language and Hearing Virtual Conference in February. This conference was held right after I finished my data collection, so I did not present my completed thesis. I was able to present my preliminary results and patterns I observed in my data. Second, I presented my thesis at the University of Arkansas Honors Symposium on April 18th. At this event I presented my full completed thesis with all my conclusions and discussions prepared. Both of these experiences were amazing and I am so thankful that I got the opportunity to talk about the project I have worked so hard on.

I have been forever changed by my honors experience. I know that I am going into graduate school at the University of Kansas more prepared than I would have been if I was not an honors student or did not complete an honors thesis. Completing my honors thesis was challenging, but it was a challenge that has helped me grow academically and professionally. I love the University of Arkansas Honors College. Woo Pig Forever!