Dr Andrea Salins
Research Fellow
The Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy
Areas of expertise: children’s language and literacy development; oral language, reading, and math development; children with hearing difficulties; how reading and/or math problems interact with children’s emotional health; Aboriginal children’s hearing health project; implementing a culturally safe speech language supports program
Email: Andrea.Salins@acu.edu.au
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4218-0372
Dr Salins’ earned her PhD in Cognitive Science from Macquarie University in 2022 before taking up a position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Andrea has worked as a lecturer at Macquarie University and Australian Catholic University teaching various undergraduate units for cognitive science, psychology, and speech language pathology.
Dr Andrea Salins’ research investigates how to support children’s language and literacy development. Specifically, her research focuses on identifying supports for oral language, reading, and math development in typically developing children and children with hearing difficulties. She is also interested in how reading and/or math problems interact with children’s emotional health.
In her role within the Aboriginal children’s hearing health project, Dr Salins worked on co-designing and implementing a culturally safe speech language supports program for Aboriginal children with ear/hearing difficulties in rural New South Wales. She continues to be involved in this work.
Publications
- Galea, C., Robidoux, S., Salins, A., Noble, C., & McArthur, G. (2024). The Impact of Shared Book Reading on Children and Families: A Study of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Tamworth, Australia. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2024.2322731
- Salins, A., Cupples, L., Leigh, G., & Castles, A. (2023). Orthographic facilitation of oral vocabulary acquisition in primary school children. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 76(5), 1045-1056. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218221102916
- Salins, A., Nash, K., Macniven, R., Halvorsen, L., Lumby, N., & McMahon, C. (2023). Culturally safe speech-language supports for First Nations children: Achieving Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, 8 and 10. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(1), 152-156. https://doi.org/1080/17549507.2022.2143565
- Salins, A., Leigh, G., Cupples, L., & Castles, A. (2021). Orthographic facilitation of oral vocabulary acquisition in children with hearing loss. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64(8), 3127-3139. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00660
- Morrow, A., Orr, N., Nash, K., Coates, H., Cross, C., Evans, J. R., ... & Macniven, R. (2023). Parent Perspectives of Ear Health and the Relationship with Children’s Speech and Language in the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. Children, 10(1), 165. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10010165
Projects
- University of Jyvaskyla. (2024). Examining the maintenance factors for poor reading and anxiety in secondary school. Salins, A. ($9918)
- Macquarie University Centre for Reading – Research Support Awards. (2023). Relationship between reading and emotional health in children with ear and hearing difficulties. Salins, A. ($10000).
- Centre for Numeracy Development and Learning seed funding, Macquarie University, Australia. (2022-23).
- Examining math and emotional health in children with and without hearing difficulties. Salins, A. ($5000).
- Macquarie University (ECR Enabling Scheme). (2021). Orthographic facilitation of adjective learning. Salins, A. ($2959.6).
Accolades or awards
- 2023 - Excellence in Research Award, Macquarie University.
- 2022 - Vice Chancellor's Commendation for Academic Excellence (PhD thesis), Macquarie University.
Public engagement activities
Conference presentations
- Salins A., Robidoux, S, Sharma., M, Trang, D., Bull, R. (2024) Math and Emotional Health Development in Children with Ear/Hearing Difficulties. DSF Conference – Language Literacy and Learning, Perth, Australia.
- Salins A., McArthur, G., Jones, A., Robidoux, S. (2023) Reading and Emotional Health Development in Children with Ear/Hearing Difficulties. Society for Scientific Studies of Reading, Port Douglas, Australia.
- Salins, Cupples, Leigh & Castles (2020). Orthographic facilitation of spoken word learning in children with hearing loss. Oral presentation at the Perspectives of Language in Children with Hearing Loss online workshop. Child Language Centre, Macquarie University, Australia.
- Salins, Cupples, Leigh & Castles (2019). Orthographic facilitation of spoken word learning in children with hearing loss. Poster presentation. American Speech-Language and Hearing Association Conference, Orlando, Florida.
- Salins, Cupples, Leigh & Castles (2019). The effect of orthography provision on oral vocabulary learning in hard of hearing children. Poster presented by Leigh.G. at The International Conference On Teaching Deaf Learners, The Netherlands.
- Salins, Cupples, Leigh & Castles (2017). Orthographic facilitation for word learning in deaf and hard of hearing children. Poster presentation awarded best student poster at CCD Annual Workshop, 2017. Sydney, Australia.
- Salins, Cupples, Leigh & Castles (2017). Orthographic facilitation for word learning in deaf and hard of hearing children. Oral presentation. At “Maximising the potential for proficient reading in young people with hearing loss: What does the evidence tell us?”, Sydney, Australia.
- NextSense Institute Podcast, Episode 60 - Andrea Salins, 8 September 2020. “Podcast on using spellings to support vocabulary acquisition in children with hearing loss”.
