Maya Clark

Program Director and Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders | Georgia Southern University

Savannah , GA, UNITED STATES

Maya Clark is an expert in language development and disorders in school-age children, literacy acquisition and development.

Biography

Maya Clark is Program Director and Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Georgia Southern University.

Areas of Expertise (5)

Social cognitive theory and clinical education

Literacy acquisition and development

Language development and disorders

Cultural, linguistic and socio-economic factors in communication and cognition

Service-Learning

Education (3)

University of Texas at Austin: Ph.D.

University of Mississippi: B.A.

University of Memphis: M.A.

Links (1)

Faculty Page

Media Appearances (1)

Armstrong Holds Fifth MLK, Jr. Awards Dinner

Savannah Tribune online

2017-03-01

On February 23, 2017, Armstrong State University held its Fifth Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Awards Dinner to salute organizations and individuals who through their actions have contributed to improving our community consistent with the teachings and legacy of Dr. King.

Articles (2)

Assessment of Structure Dependent Narrative Features in Modeled Contexts: African American and European American Children English Linguistics Research

Sandra Laing Gillam, Jamison Fargo, Douglas B Petersen, Maya Clark

2012 The purpose of this study was to describe similarities and differences in structure-dependent features of narratives produced by 132 typically developing African American (AA) and European American (EA) children in a modeled elicitation context, across three age groups. Participants included 132 AA and EA children matched for gender, age, and geographic region. Children were divided into young, middle, and older elementary age groups. After listening to a model narrative and answering questions about it, children were asked to generate their own narrative. Narratives were analyzed for story grammar (macrostructure), organizational style (topic centered and topic associating), dialect and cohesion (microstructure). Differences in narratives varied by age and gender but not ethnicity with the exception of the use of overt planning. EA children were more likely than AA children to include a plan in their story across all age groups. Developmental changes in narration are described for children ranging in age from 6;0 to 11;9. The use of African American English (AAE) was not associated with differences in the cohesiveness of narratives. The modeled elicitation context holds promise as a reliable way to examine narration for school-age children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Creative and Stylistic Devices Employed by Children During a Storybook Narrative Task: A Cross-Cultural Study Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools

Brenda K. Gorman, Christine E. Fiestas, Elizabeth D. Peña, and Maya Reynolds Clark

2010 Participants included 60 first- and second-grade African American, Latino American, and Caucasian children. A subset of narratives based on wordless picture books collected as part of a larger study was coded and analyzed for the following creative and stylistic conventions: organizational style (topic centered, linear, cyclical), dialogue (direct, indirect), reference to character relationships (nature, naming, conduct), embellishment (fantasy, suspense, conflict), and paralinguistic devices (expressive sounds, exclamatory utterances).