About

Dr. Carol Scheffner Hammer is a Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the Department of Biobehavioral Health at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she also serves as the Director and Principal Investigator of the Developing Language and Literacy Lab. She holds a B.A. in Speech Pathology and Psychology from Augustana College, an M.A. in Speech Pathology from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in Speech Pathology from the University of Iowa. Before earning her doctorate, Dr. Hammer worked as a speech-language pathologist specializing in serving children from birth through five years of age and their families from diverse backgrounds, including two years working with children and families in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas in Micronesia. These clinical experiences have significantly informed her teaching and research endeavors. Dr. Hammer's research centers on the cultural and environmental influences on young children's language and literacy development. She focuses on creating language and literacy assessments and developing and evaluating home- and school-based interventions that promote preschoolers' school readiness, with a particular emphasis on Latino dual language learners (DLLs). Her work has been continuously funded since 2000 by federal agencies such as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health; the Institute of Education Sciences and Investing in Innovation, U.S. Department of Education; and the Administration for Families and Children. Additionally, Dr. Hammer is a past editor of the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Surgery
• Virology
• Developmental psychology
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Social psychology
• Pedagogy
• Emergency medicine
• Medical education
• Environmental health
• Intensive care medicine
• Mathematics education

Selected publications

• Examining Language Use and Classroom Factors Among Spanish-English Dual Language Learners in Preschool

  Early Education and Development · 2025-08-28

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  PublisherDOI

• Language Dominance and the School Readiness of Preschool-Age Spanish-English Dual Language Learners

  Early Education and Development · 2025-06-22 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Research Findings: = 315) early literacy, measured by phonological awareness and letter-word identification, narrative production, and early math skills were assessed in English and Spanish in the fall and spring of preschool. Within-group comparisons by language dominance were made between DLLs' school readiness in English and Spanish. Between-group comparisons were also made among the three dominance groups at both time points. Practice or Policy: Results showed that children's balance between English and Spanish school readiness varied based on their language dominance in the fall. Significant group differences were found at the beginning and end of preschool for all measures except Spanish phonological awareness and letter-word identification. All groups made gains in a majority of measures in both languages. These results underscore the heterogeneity of this population and have implications for assessment and instruction.

  PublisherDOI

• Parents Plus: A Parent-Implemented Intervention for Preschool Children With Developmental Language Disorders

  Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools · 2024-11-26 · 3 citations

  article

  PURPOSE: Parent engagement is a critical component of optimizing services for young children with disabilities, including those with language disorders. Without training, however, many parents may lack the knowledge and skills to effectively facilitate their children's language development during the essential early childhood years. The Parents Plus intervention was designed to support parents, through online training and coaching, in using focused stimulation, an evidence-based strategy for fostering early language development. METHOD: Thirty-one parents and their children with developmental language disorder participated in a small-scale randomized controlled trial to provide a preliminary test of Parents Plus. Sixteen parent-child dyads completed the Parents Plus intervention, while 15 parent-child dyads were in the control condition. RESULTS: Findings indicate that Parents Plus shows promise in improving children's vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills. Additionally, Parents Plus emerged as a socially valid approach, with parents reporting that its goals, content, procedures, and outcomes were acceptable. CONCLUSION: Implications for education and directions for future research are discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Sample Cybersecurity Clauses for EV Charging Infrastructure Procurements

  2023-07-28 · 1 citations

  reportOpen access

  This is the final version of PNNL-34373, with sponsor updates. The proposed sample cybersecurity clauses for EVCI procurements are designed to assist in managing the risk of cyberattacks that may degrade the safety, security, and reliability of EVCI. The sample clauses are intended to be tailored and incorporated into procurement specifications for equipment and services related to the National EV Infrastructure Formula Program deployments. Widespread adoption of the sample cybersecurity procurement language will integrate cybersecurity throughout the life cycle of the infrastructure.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Building on cultural and linguistic strengths and recognizing life challenges - a commentary on Paradis’ “Sources of individual differences in the dual language development of heritage bilinguals”

  Journal of Child Language · 2023-06-14

  letter1st authorCorresponding

  Children growing up bilingually are often treated as a monolithic group; however, heritage language (HL) bilinguals constitute an extremely heterogenous group that vary due to a wide variety of factors. In her keynote, Paradis provides a thought-provoking analysis of the research literature and identifies key internal and external factors that lead to individual differences. Specifically, she identifies age of second language (L2) acquisition, cognitive abilities, and social-emotional wellbeing as important internal factors. She also discusses both proximal and distal external factors. Proximal factors include children's cumulative exposure to L2 and HL, L2 and HL usage at home, and the richness of the L2 and HL environment. Distal factors involve education in HL, parent language proficiency, socioeconomic status (SES), and family attitudes and identities. In my commentary, I expand on Paradis' keynote to include the role of culture, which I consider to be both an internal and external factor, and respond to her discussion of two external factors, the impact of SES and the role of the classroom environment.

  PublisherDOI

• Look who’s talking now: Examining language use with dual language learners in preschool classrooms

  Bilingual Research Journal · 2023-04-03 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author

  The Language Interaction Snapshot (LISn; Sprachman et al., 2009) was used to measure the quantity and quality of language interactions in English and Spanish in 143 preschool classrooms serving Spanish-speaking dual language learners. Both teachers (n = 112) and assistant teachers (n = 92) were included in analyses with a total of 461 Spanish-speaking children. We report the amount of English and Spanish as well as types of language scaffolding used by teachers and assistants. We also disaggregate by classroom language model (Spanish, bilingual, or English instruction) and explore the amount of Spanish and English specifically used by Spanish-speaking teachers and assistants. Seventy five percent of cycles had no language coded and of the rest English was the most frequently used across all classroom language models including with Spanish-speaking teachers and assistants. Implications for improving classroom language environments for DLLs are presented as well as future research directions.

  PublisherDOI

• Teacher language quality in preschool classrooms: Examining associations with DLLs' oral language skills

  Early Childhood Research Quarterly · 2023-01-01 · 20 citations

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• Investigating the Development of Positive Peer Interactions in Low-Income Latino DLL Preschool Children

  Early Education and Development · 2023-09-24 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  ABSTRACTResearch Findings: There is limited research regarding socio-emotional development in low-income Latino Dual Language Learner (DLL) children. A total of 14 studies have been identified in a comprehensive review of the literature (Halle et al. 2014). Within these studies the majority have focused on problem behaviors within this population. Through a strength-based lens, the current study examined changes in the development of positive peer interactions of Latino DLLs across their preschool year, along with child-level and eco-cultural factors that may support this development. A total of 397 low-income preschool Latino DLL children participated in the study. Teachers completed the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS-T) and the Preschool Learning Behaviors Scale (PLBS), children were assessed on oral language measures, and classroom observations took place using the CLASS. Findings indicate positive increases in Latino DLL children's play interaction skills, along with decreases in problem behaviors across the preschool year. Emotional support, teacher's Spanish proficiency, oral language skills, and approaches to learning were positively related to peer interaction scores.Practice or Policy: This study has important implications for practitioners regarding improving the positive peer interactions of Latino DLLs, specifically low-income children, enrolled in preschool classrooms and supports the use of the home language in the classroom. Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by NIH-NICHD [5U01HD060296].

  PublisherDOI

• Center for Early Care and Education Research-Dual Language Learners Child and Family Questionnaire

  PsycTESTS Dataset · 2022-01-01

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Developing Parents Plus

  Infants & Young Children · 2022-05-26 · 6 citations

  article

  In this article, we describe the development and investigation of the social validity of Parents Plus, a parent-implemented intervention for preschool children with developmental language disorder. Parents Plus is a fully online intervention that is delivered through three components: (a) training delivered through an app that educates parents on how to use focused stimulation (FS), a language facilitation strategy; (b) parent implementation of FS during naturally occurring routines; and (c) remote practice-based coaching provided by a coach via Zoom. Parents Plus was developed in three steps: (a) initial content development with input from parents and professional advisory board members, (b) brief field test with five parent–child dyads, and (c) full-length field test with seven parent–child dyads. Throughout the development process, we collected social validity data on the intervention's goals, procedures, content and outcomes. Each step was followed by revisions to Parents Plus. Findings suggest that Parents Plus has strong social validity. Recommendations for early intervention practice are provided based on lessons learned, such as different methods to scaffold learning experiences for parents.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• ASSESSING BILINGUAL PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN YOUNG CHILDREN

  NIH · $2.8M · 2005–2012

• Tools of the Mind: Promoting ELLs' Language, Self-Regulation & School-Readiness

  NIH · $3.5M · 2009–2015

• NIH Grant R01HD039496

  NIH · $3.5M · 2007

Frequent coauthors

• Ana Minaya‐Bravo

  Instituto Cajal

  45 shared

• Samuel Ford

  38 shared

• Raghavan Vidya

  The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

  35 shared

• Angelos G. Kolias

  University of Cambridge

  34 shared

• Grant D. Stewart

  University of Cambridge

  31 shared

• Sudha Sundar

  University of Birmingham

  31 shared

• S McKay

  Royal North Shore Hospital

  27 shared

• Simrandeep Singh

  Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital

  27 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Speech Pathology

  University of Iowa

• M.A., Speech Pathology

  Northwestern University

• B.A., Speech Pathology and Psychology

  Augustana College

Awards & honors

• Honors of the Association, American Speech-Language-Hearing…
• Meritorious Poster, American Speech-Language-Hearing Associa…
• Meritorious Poster, American Speech-Language-Hearing Associa…
• Fellow, American Speech Language Hearing Association, 2010
• Editor’s Award, Outstanding Research Article. Language, Spee…