I was educated at the University of British Columbia, the University of London, and after postdoctoral studies at Dalhousie University, I taught and conducted research for many years at the University of New Brunswick. I study the acquisition of the thoughts, language, and emotions of children and youths.

At UNB, our community-based action research findings are reported in a video and handbook on gender-sensitive violence prevention: “Worlds apart… Coming together”, available free of charge from the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Family Violence Research Centre. I collaborated with MMFC colleagues in 2004 to edit “Understanding abuse: Partnering for change,” University of Toronto Press and we completed an evaluation of dating violence prevention in New Brunswick in 2007.

I now conduct research at UBC as an Honorary Professor and UNB as an Honorary Research/Emerita Professor. My early studies of young children’s cognition have broadened to include: Cross-cultural studies of lying and truth telling, truths and trust; emergent literacy (specifically, written expression); children’s telephone communications; young children and teenagers’s humour; cultural studies of early years and adolescent resilience; and psychosocial stress reactivity.  Our international ‘early years’ team has recently completed a book, published in 2010 from Palgrave Macmillan, entitled ‘International perspectives on early childhood research: A day in the life.’

I enjoy productive collaborations with valued students, former students and colleagues. Some have taken me far afield from my roots in early cognition.