Kaja Jasińska

I study the neural systems that support language and cognitive development and learning using a combination of behavioral, genetic, and neuroimaging.

My research focuses on how early life experiences, including bilingual and multilingual language exposure, shape neurocognitive development and learning. I particularly emphasize children growing up in poverty-related risk environments, including rural communities in West Africa and recently resettled refugee children in Canada. Utilizing portable neuroimaging technologies, we advance our understanding of brain development in understudied, low-resource settings worldwide.

I earned my Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, completed postdoctoral training at Haskins Laboratories, and currently lead the BOLD lab. I have received multiple awards, including the Jacobs Foundation Early Career Fellowship and the MIT Solve LEAP Fellowship, and am a visiting scientist at UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute.

Description de son travail

Mes travaux actuels comprennent

• Reducing Poverty and Child Labor by Promoting Literacy Development in Children in Rural Cocoa-Producing Communities: This study, part of the TRECC program, examines how poverty, child labor, and learning to read in a new language (French) affect literacy in children from rural cocoa communities in Côte d’Ivoire. The research uses behavioral tests and portable brain imaging (fNIRS) to understand brain development under these challenges and guide policies to improve literacy and reduce poverty’s impact.
• EdTech literacy program (Allô Alphabet) is a mobile phone ed-tech program that delivers reading lessons to children in rural Côte d’Ivoire to improve foundational literacy skills.
• Impact of displacement on refugee children: Examining how migration and resettlement experiences influence neurocognitive development and learning among refugee children in Canada.
• Supporting internally displaced children in Nigeria: Investigating the socio-emotional and educational needs of children affected by displacement.

Principaux résultats

Developmental timing of education, for example, starting school late, is related to how the brain’s neural network for reading and children’s literacy skills form.