Please note: Much of my work focuses on individual differences associated with socioeconomic status (SES). I do this work because I am mechanistically interested in how experiences influence development, and because I genuinely strive for children from all backgrounds to have every possible opportunity to thrive — in whatever way thriving looks like. I am also keenly aware that this research, if misinterpreted, can be harmful. I do not believe nor assert that parents are in any way responsible for the malicious cycle of poverty. Nor is there a single “right” way to raise a child. I also believe that the language we use and the way we talk about these issues matters, and those of us with undue privilege must keep this at the forefront as we communicate research and work for change. I am constantly learning and growing, and I invite you to please contact me with any thoughts and suggestions.
Journal Articles
Romeo, R.R., Flournoy, J.C., McLaughlin, K.A., & Lengua, L.J. (In press). Language development as a mechanism linking socioeconomic status to executive functioning development in preschool. Developmental Science.
Romeo, R.R., Pezanowski, R., Merrill, K., Hargrave, S., & Hansen, A. (Accepted). Benefits and barriers to communication with infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Journal of Child Healthcare.
Romeo, R.R.*, Leonard, J.A.*, Robinson, S.T., Mackey, A.P., West, M.R., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2021). Replication and extension of a family-based training program to improve cognitive abilities in young children. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2021.1931999 PDF
Romeo, R.R., Choi, A.B., Gabard-Durnam, L.J., Wilkinson, C.L., Levin, A.R., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Nelson, C.A. (2021). Parent language input predicts neuroscillatory patterns underlying language development in infants at risk of Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05024-6 PDF
Romeo, R.R., Leonard, J.A., Grotzinger, H.M., Robinson, S.T., Takada, M., Mackey, A.P., Scherer, E., Rowe, M.L., West, M.R., Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2021). Neuroplasticity associated with conversational turn-taking following a family-based intervention. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 49, 100967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100967 PDF
Hubbard, N.A., Romeo, R.R., Grotzinger, H., Giebler, M., Imhof, A., Bauer, C., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2020). Reward-sensitive basal ganglia stabilize the maintenance of goal-relevant neural patterns in adolescents. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 32(8), 1508–1524. https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/jocn_a_01572 PDF
Cychosz, M., Romeo, R. R., Soderstrom, M., Scaff, C. H., Ganek, H., Cristia, A., Casillas, M., Bang, J., & Weisleder, A. (2020). Long form recordings of everyday life: Ethics for best practices. Behavior Research Methods, 52, 1951–1969. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01365-9 PDF
Romeo, R. R. (2019). Socioeconomic and experiential influences on the neurobiology of language development. Invited review at Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups: Special Issue on the Neurobiology of Language Development and Disorders, 4, 1229–1238. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_PERSP-19-00073 PDF
Guell, X., D’Mello, A., Romeo, R. R., Hubbard, N., Schmahmann, J. D., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Gabrieli, J.D.E, & Anteraper, S. A. (2019). Functional territories of human dentate nucleus. Cerebral Cortex, epub bhz247, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz247 PDF
Leonard, J. A., Romeo, R. R., Park, A. T., Takada, M., Robinson, S.T., Grotzinger, H., Finn, A. S., Gabrieli, J. D. E., & Mackey, A. P. (2019). Associations between cortical thickness and reasoning vary by socioeconomic status in early childhood and adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100641 PDF
Romeo, R. R., Segaran, J., Leonard, J. A., Robinson, S., West, M. R., Mackey, A. P., Yendiki, A., Rowe, M. L., Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2018). Language exposure relates to structural neural connectivity in childhood. Journal of Neuroscience, doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0484-18.2018 PDF
*Selected as cover image: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/38/36.cover-expansion
*Chosen as topic of student journal club: doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2895-18.2018
Romeo, R. R., Leonard, J. A., Robinson, S. T., West, M. R., Mackey, A. P., Rowe, M. L., Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2018). Beyond the “30 million word gap:” Children’s conversational exposure is associated with language-related brain function. Psychological Science, 29(5), 700–710. doi:10.1177/0956797617742725 PDF
*Most cited article in Psychological Science, 2018-2021
Romeo, R. R.*, Christodoulou, J. A*, Halverson, K. K., Murtagh, J., Cyr, A. B., Schimmel, C., Chang, P., Hook, P. E., & Gabrieli J. D. E. (2017). Socioeconomic status and reading disability: Neuroanatomy and plasticity in response to intervention. Cerebral Cortex, 28(7), 2297-2312. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhx131 PDF
Tuomainen, O., Hazan, V., & Romeo, R.(2016). Do talkers produce less dispersed phoneme categories in a clear speaking style? Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 140(4), EL320. doi:10.1121/1.4964815 PDF
Romeo R., Hazan V., & Pettinato M. (2013). Developmental and gender-related trends of intra-talker variability in consonant production. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134(5), 3781 – 3792. doi:10.1121/1.4824160 PDF
Invited Book Chapters
Romeo, R.R. & Christodoulou, J.A. (forthcoming). How Neuroscience Can Help to Overcome Adversity in Education. In A. Holliman & K. Sheehy (Eds.),Overcoming Adversity in Education. Abington, UK: Taylor & Francis.
Romeo, R.R. (forthcoming). The neuroscience of early literacy development. In S. Cabell., S. Neuman, & N. Patton Terry (Eds.) Handbook on the Science of Early Literacy, 2nd edition. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Rowe, M.L., Romeo, R.R., & Leech, K.A. (forthcoming). Early environmental influences on language. In S. Cabell., S. Neuman, & N. Patton Terry (Eds.) Handbook on the Science of Early Literacy, 2nd edition. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Romeo, R. R., Imhof, A., Bhatia, P., Christodoulou, J. A. (2018). Relationships between socioeconomic status and reading development: Cognitive outcomes and neural mechanisms. In S. J. Lipina, & M. S. Segretin (Eds.) Exploring the neuroscience of poverty (pp. 166-198). Erice, Italy: International Mind, Brain and Education School (Ettore Majorana Foundation for Scientific Culture). ISBN 978-987-86-2055-8.
Full book in English and Spanish for download
Rachel R. Romeo, PhD, CCC-SLP 