G. Santo (Giusy)

I am a PhD candidate in the First Language Acquisition research group at the Centre for Language Studies (CLS) and at the Baby and Child Research Center (BRC). I obtained my master degree in Linguistics from Padova University (Italy), after a study period in Ghent University, a research stay at the Stockholm University Brain Imaging Center (SUBIC) and an internship at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL).

In my PhD project, the research focus is on phonology and early language development in Dutch preschoolers, investigating how children's implicit knowledge of possible or impossible patterns of sounds in their native language (i.e. cognisance) plays a role in language processing and word recognition, and how this relates to script.

Answering these questions can be fundamental to better understand language difficulties in children and to improve second language learning and teaching.