Welcome to the Children’s Communication Lab

Exploring children's communicative development for over 25 years! 

Since 1995, researchers at the Children's Communication Lab (formerly the University of Waterloo Centre for Child Studies) have been exploring how children's language and thinking develops in the early years. Our work has received national and international attention.

Children's early language use (also known as pragmatic language development), and related community outreach, is the primary current focus of the Children's Communication Lab. The Language Use Inventory (LUI), a standardized parent-report measure of children's early language use, was developed here and is now used by speech-language professionals around the world. Updates about the LUI, directed more specifically speech-language professionals and researchers using the LUI, are also posted to the LUI facebook page and LanguageUseInventory.com.

Professor Daniela O'Neill is the founder and the Lab Director. Daniela is always happy to talk to parents, community members, and the media about the lab's research and outreach. You can reach her most quickly by email doneill@uwaterloo.ca. Her office number is (519) 888-4567, ext. 42545. You can also find her on twitter @daniela_oneill where she curates information from around the world relevant to children's language and literacy development.

We appreciate all the support of parents, locally and across Canada, who have helped with our research. Each child makes a difference! We also thank the parents who provided us with permission to display the photographs used on this website.

The Lab and Daniela O'Neill gratefully acknowledge funding received from the following sources in support of research conducted by its members:

All aspects of our studies have been reviewed and have received ethics clearance through the Office of Research Ethics at the University of Waterloo.


If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this site please email Daniela O'Neill.

University of Waterloo's privacy statement regarding University of Waterloo websites. Copyright © 1998-2020 Daniela K. O'Neill. All Rights Reserved.