Research Assistant I

School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences

The University of Texas at Dallas

The Language Interaction and Language Acquisition in Children (LILAC) Laboratory in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas seeks a curious and motivated Research Assistant to coordinate research on early language development in young children.

Position Overview

The Research Assistant will provide technical assistance across a range of research projects and will conduct research activities in accordance with established protocols. Research activities may include patient recruiting and screening, traditional laboratory experiments and activities, informatics tasks, and other assigned research duties.

About the LILAC Lab

In the LILAC Lab, this position will work under the direction of Principal Investigator Dr. Pumpki Lei Su to support active research projects involving autistic children and bilingual children, with opportunities to develop and lead independent projects aligned with individual interests and career goals.

The LILAC Lab employs a combination of naturalistic observation (e.g., all-day home recordings), behavioral methods (language assessments and language sample analysis), and experimental approaches (eye-tracking) to understand how children learn language across developmental and linguistic experiences, including autistic, bilingual, and monolingual children.

Role & Training Opportunities

This position plays a central role in the daily operation of the lab and will engage in all aspects of projects related to early language learning in young children. It offers extensive hands-on research experience, close mentorship, and meaningful opportunities to work directly with children and families.

This role is an excellent fit for recent college graduates interested in obtaining research experience and mentorship before pursuing graduate studies in:

• Speech-language pathology (speech and hearing sciences)
• Psychology
• Special education
• Related fields

This is a 1-year appointment with the possibility of renewal in subsequent years. As a grant-funded position, continued employment is contingent upon the availability of funds and satisfactory performance.