Research Interests

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Current Areas

I conduct applied research and am a faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno (since August of 2009). My research interests currently focus on family involvement and engagement, home visiting, and vocabulary acquisition in the context of shared storybook reading.

Family Involvement and Engagement

I remain committed to exploring and to examining ways to promote family involvement and engagement in children's learning.

Sample publication:
​Walsh, B. A., Cromer, H., & Weigel, D. (2014). Classroom to home connections: Young children’s experiences with a technology-based parent involvement tool. Early Education and Development, 25, 1142-1161. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/10409289.2014.904647

Home Visiting

Sample publications: 
Walsh, B. A., Mortensen, J. A., Peterson, C. A., Cassidy, D., & Collaborative for Understanding the Pedagogy of Infant/Toddler Development (2019). Competency alignment and certification for pre-service home visitors. Family Relations. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12414
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Walsh, B. A., Mortensen, J. A., Edwards, A., & Cassidy, D. (2019). The practice of Family Life Education within Early Head Start home visiting. Family Relations. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12392

Vocabulary Acquisition

Although I do not have any active projects, I have examined via experiments what helps children learn new words in the context of shared storybook reading.

​Sample publications: 
Walsh, B. A., Sánchez, C., & Burnham, M. M. (2016). Shared storybook reading in Head Start: Impact of questioning styles on the vocabulary of Hispanic Dual Language Learners. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44, 263-273. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s10643-015-0708-3 

Walsh, B. A., & Blewitt, P. (2006). The effect of questioning style during storybook reading on novel vocabulary acquisition of preschoolers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(4), 273-278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-005-0052-0