Emily is a registered Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) and PhD candidate at the BAM! lab. She completed her undergraduate degree at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Languages. She is fluent in English, French and Spanish and speaks conversational German. Emily attended McGill University’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, where she earned her clinical master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology. She then worked for seven years as a paediatric SLP, primarily in a schoolboard setting, though she has experience working in hospitals, private practice and in community-based public agencies as well. Currently, Emily is pursuing her PhD under Dr. Molnar’s supervision. She is developing a clinically informed, quasi-linguistically universal dynamic assessment of early word reading skills for bilingual kindergarten students. Her primary objective is to create more equitable assessment practices, and to design measures that are both psychometrically and clinically valid. Outside of her research, Emily has acted as teaching assistant for several courses in the clinical SLP master’s program, including; Child Language Development I and II; Principles of clinical Practice and Advanced principles of clinical practice; and Integrating Client, Practitioner and Research Knowledge. In fall 2024, she will be teaching Child Language I while Dr. Molnar is on sabbatical. Emily maintains her connection to clinical practice by mentoring new clinicians and supervising clinical graduate students. She is an active member of Canada’s national SLP and Audiology organization (Speech Language Pathology and Audiology Canada) and has participated in the writing of two position papers on the topics of virtual care and the role of SLPs in school-based literacy. 

Kai (she/her) has been involved with the lab from its inception, initially as a volunteer for the Tweety Project during her undergraduate studies at UofT, where she majored in Linguistics and Psychology. Her academic journey within the lab progressed to a Master of Science, which she obtained in 2021. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences (SLP stream), with a collaborative specialization in neuroscience. 

Her doctoral research, conducted in collaboration with the Hospital for Sick Children, focuses on examining language and cognition in linguistically diverse children following a pediatric stroke, aiming to better understand the neurodiversity of bilingual development. Additionally, she is working on a mixed-methods study to develop a bilingual language history tool for clinical use also as part of her thesis research.

Outside of lab, she actively participates in student life as part of the RSGSU and as a teaching assistant. Reflecting the multilingual focus of the lab, her language collection continues to grow (including her heritage Cantonese, French, Spanish, Mandarin). 

Wenfu Bao is a Ph.D. student in Speech-Language Pathology and Neuroscience at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto. He earned his M.Sc. in Linguistics at the University of Alberta, where his thesis explored novel word learning in adults from different language backgrounds. Wenfu is interested in examining the cognitive and neural development in bilinguals across the lifespan through different techniques, such as EEG, eye-tracking and heart rate. His research project focuses on the neural and physiological correlates of attention allocation in auditory processing among monolinguals and bilinguals. Outside of the lab, Wenfu is involved in a project which develops a test of higher order language assessment.