Kennedy Casey

Department: Psychology
Faculty Adviser: Casey Lew-Williams
Year of Study: G2
Undergraduate School: Princeton University
Undergraduate Major: Psychology

Personal Bio

Hi everyone! I’m originally from Atlanta, GA, and have now spent many years living in central Jersey. My first exposure to research was through my work as a research assistant in the Princeton Baby Lab (2018-21), and I'm lucky to be back in the same lab as a graduate student now. I have also worked in developmental labs at the University of Chicago and Emory University. Outside of the lab, I enjoy baking, reading, and traveling as much as I can!

Fun Fact

I've lived in 4 different houses on the same street.

Research Pitch

I work with Dr. Casey Lew-Williams in the Princeton Baby Lab, where I study early language learning. Even before babies begin to talk, they already know a lot about language, including the sounds that make up their language(s) and even the meanings of many words. Which words do children learn first, and why? How do children figure out the meanings of words from their everyday language input (i.e., the words they hear and the physical/social environments they experience)?

Young children’s home environments are brimming with information—linguistic, social, perceptual—that help them learn words. My work seeks to explore the features and variability of children’s home language environments that shape their early word learning. This means that my work relies primarily on analyzing naturalistic recordings—both audio and video—from children’s actual home environments. I also often bring children and families into the lab to study the dynamics of linguistic interaction and sometimes have to come up with creative ways of measuring babies’ word knowledge using methods like eye tracking.

Upcoming Programs That I Am Attending:

Plans for Summer 2025

Interested in participating in Summer 2025 ReMatch+ program.