William Reyes is the first recipient of the S3 Community Engaged Research Award. He is a MARC Scholar majoring in Psychology with a minor in Statistics and currently conducts research in Dr. Margaret Friend’s Infant and Child Development Lab. His work focuses on early language, literacy, and numeracy development in children between 16 and 60 months of age.
A major focus of the lab’s research is improving assessment tools for English-Spanish bilingual children. Because there are very few Spanish language assessments available for young children, many bilingual children are evaluated primarily in English, which can lead to challenges in accurately identifying their developmental and educational needs. These limitations may ultimately affect referrals, classroom placement, and access to appropriate support services.
To help address this gap, William and his research team developed the Spanish Web-Based Computerized Comprehension Task, an assessment designed specifically for bilingual children. Their work aims to support more equitable evaluation practices and improve access to early educational resources and services for bilingual communities before children enter school.
