Ellie Breitfeld is a Developmental Psychology PhD student working in the Infant Learning Lab. Her research explores what kinds of experiences and perceptual cues drive children’s curiosity to explore objects and learn new words. Check out her spotlight post to learn more about her research and interests.
Please describe your research in a way an elementary school student might understand.
My research focuses on how babies and young children begin to learn their native language. In particular, I’m interested in how children learn the meanings of words. As adult language users, we know a lot of different things about words: for example, we know that the word “apple” refers to something that we eat and is related to other fruit words like “banana” and “orange.” My research explores the kinds of experiences that support young children in building up this understanding of what words mean.
What inspired you to pursue that research?
I have always loved working with kids and wanted to be an elementary school teacher for a long time. Once I started spending more time in early education classrooms, it was really striking to me how much variability there was in children’s language skills. I became really interested in what we know, and don’t know, about how language development unfolds and how to support children’s successful language learning.
What are your hobbies outside of school?
I love spending time outside and going for runs or walking my dog along the lake paths. If it’s too cold to be outside, I’ll almost always have a puzzle to work on. When I have time, I also really enjoy finding new recipes to try or perfecting old ones!
What are your favorite places or things to do in Madison?
I really enjoy all of the lake-related activities in the Madison—I paddle board in the summer and ice skate in the winter. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but any restaurant, coffee shop, or bar in Madison with a lake view is my favorite place to be–Lakeside Street Coffeehouse and the Olbrich Biergarten are hard to beat!
What’s a positive experience from graduate school that will stay with you?
I’ve met some of the best people and made life-long friends in my cohort and in my lab. I started grad school in 2020, so my first year was during COVID quarantine and I’ll always remember how close we all still got over Zoom happy hours/stats study sessions and socially distanced park meet-ups. It’s absolutely bittersweet that our time together in Madison is coming to an end, but I know we’ll stay in touch!
Congratulations, you’ve earned your PhD! How will you celebrate and what would you love to do next?
I can’t wait to celebrate with my family (including my twin sister who is earning her PhD in robotics at CMU this Spring as well) and enjoy a relaxing final summer in Madison post-dissertation defense! After that, I’ll be moving to San Diego in the Fall to start a postdoc at UCSD.
One more thing …
I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to complete my PhD here at UW-Madison and I couldn’t have done it without my wonderful advisor, Jenny Saffran.