Richard G. Schwartz

Richard G. Schwartz is the director of the Child Language Laboratory at The Graduate Center. His primary research interests are language processing (sentence processing and lexical access) and related cognitive processes in various populations of children with language impairments.

He studies children with specific language impairment, children with autism spectrum disorders, and children with cochlear implants in English and other languages as well as bilingual children. His research examines the behavioral and neurobiological bases of these disorders.

Schwartz began his studies in psychology at McGill University focusing on developmental processes and, after several linguistics courses his focused, shifted his focus to typical and atypical language development. Following 23 years of university education and academic positions at the University of Pittsburgh and Purdue University, he returned to New York City where he was born and raised to work at The Graduate Center. He has also directed Speech-Language Laboratory, Rose F. Kennedy Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1993-2002 and the Language and Hearing Research Laboratory, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, Cochlear Implant Center from 2008-2016. Professor Schwartz's research has been supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders for over 40 years.

Awards and Grants

Awards

• 1991 Fellow, American Speech, Language, Hearing Association
• 1992 Editor’s Award, Language Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools
• 1993 Honors, New York Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• 1996 Outstanding Alumnus Award, University of Memphis
• 1998 Marden Fellow, University of Hong Kong
• 2012 ASHA Meritorius Poster Award (w. Kristen Victorino)
• 2014 Honors of the Association, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• 2014 ASHA Research Mentoring-Pair Travel Award (with Zara Waldman DeLuca)

Grants (2000-present)

• Principal Investigator, Behavioral and physiological dynamics of children’s lexical processing (Clinical Research Center for Communicative Disorders--R. Ruben, P.I.) NIDCD, 1997-2001($700,000).
• Principal Investigator, Research Training in Speech and Hearing Sciences (T-32), NIDCD (four predoctoral trainees and two postdoctoral trainees), 1999-2003 ($800,000).
• Co-Investigator, The acquisition of lexical tone contrasts in Cantonese (V. Ciocca, P.I.) Research Council of Hong Kong, 2000-2003 ($700,000 HKD).
• Principal Investigator, Supplement to support a member of an underrepresented minority group (Diana Almodovar-doctoral student), National Institutes of Health, NIDCD, 2000-2002 ($70,000).
• Principal Investigator, Real-time examination of childhood language impairment, National Institutes of Health, NIDCD RO1DC003885, 2002-2008 (1,825,00). Principal Investigator, Functional imaging in childhood language impairment. Senior Fellowship (F33), NIDCD, 2001-2003 ($45,000).
• Co-investigator (K. Marton, P.I.), Working memory capacity in children with SLI, NIDCD, 2002-2004, $225,000. Principal Investigator, Supplement for members of underrepresented minority groups (Melinda Velez--doctoral student), NIDCD, 2003-2004 ($70,000).
• Co-Investigator, The neurodevelopmental basis of speech discrimination (V. Shafer, P.I.), NICHD 5R01HD046193. 7/1/04-6/30/09 ($1,125,000).
• Sponsor, Word Identification & Memory in Children with CIs (M. Cleary, P.I.), NIDCD F32 DC006786-01A1, 8/1/04-7/31/06 ($150,000)
• Co-Investigator (A. Hestvik, P.I.), Structural representation and sentence processing in SLI. NIDCD, RO3, 9/1/03-/8/31/06 ($230,00).
• Consultant, (P. Jacobson, P.I.) Morphology in typical and atypical bilingual development, NIDCD (1R03DC007018-01A) 7/1/05-6/30/08 ($330,000).
• Consultant, (K. Marton, P.I.) The impact of inhibition control on working memory in children with SLI, NIDCD 1R15DC009040-01 08/01/2007-07/31/2010 ($225,000).
• Sponsor, (B.Tropper, P.I.) Cognitive control in children with and without specific language impairment, NIDCD 1F31DC009356. 9/1/2007-8/31/2009 ($65,000).
• Principal Investigator, Language processing in children with cochlear implants, NIDCD 5R01DC011041 7/1/10-6/30/17 ($2,290,481).
• Consultant, (S. Levi). Perception of talker cues and linguistic processing in SLI, NIDCD 1R03DC009851-01A2 12/1/10-11/30/13.
• Sponsor (K. Lopez, P.I.) Pragmatics and semantics in autism spectrum disorder, NIDCD 1F31DC013002-01 9/1/12-5/31/14 ($40,000).

Professional Affiliations and Memberships

• Member, American Speech Language Hearing Association, 1973-present
• Member, International Association for the Study of Child Language, 1977-present
• Member, Society for Research in Child Development, 1978-2016
• Member, New York City Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 1991-2016
• Member, New York State Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 1992-2016
• Member, Society for Cognitive Neuroscience 1997-2016
• Member, American Cochlear Implant Association 2005-present
• Member, Linguistic Society of America 2012-present

Courses Taught

• Professional Issues for Doctoral Students
• Responsible Conduct of Research
• Bilingualism in Typical and Atypical Language Development
• Child Language Disorders
• Research Methods in Language
• Bilingualism in Typical and Atypical Language Development
• Cognitive Science and Childhood Language Impairment

Publications

Refereed Articles (2015-present out of a total of 93)

• Fortunato-Tavares, T., de Andrade, C.R.F., Belfi-Lopes, D.M., Tornyova, L., & Schwartz, R.G. (2015). Syntactic Assignment and working memory in children with specific language impairment, autism or Down Syndrome. Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics, 29, 499-522.
• Victorino, K.R., & Schwartz, R.G. (2015). Control of auditory attention in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58, 1245-1257.
• Eichorn, N., Marton, K., Schwartz, R.G., & Melara, R.D., & Pirutinsky, S. (2016). When less can be more: Dual task effects on speech fluency in stuttering and fluent adults. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences 5, 415-429.
• Rota-Donahue, C., Schwartz, R.G., Shafer, V., & Sussman, E. (2016). Perception of small frequency differences in children with auditory processing disorder and/or specific language impairment. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 27, 489-497.
• Schwartz, R.G., A. Hestvik, Seiger-Gardner, L. & Almodovar, D. (2016). Processing binding relations in children with SLI. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, 58, 1384-1394. doi:10.1044/2016_JSLHR-L-15-0107
• Fortunato-Tavares, T., Howell, P., Schwartz, R.G., Juste, F.S., de Andrade, C.R.F. (2016). Children who stutter exchange linguistic accuracy for processing speed in sentence comprehension. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37, 1-25.
• Cantiani, C., Choudhury, N.A., Yu, Y.N., Shafer, V.L., Schwartz, R.G., Benasich, A.A. (2016). From sensory perception to lexical-semantic processing: an ERP study in nonverbal children with autism. PLoS ONE 11(8): e0161637. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0161637.
• Fortunato-Tavares, T., Schwartz, R.G., de Andrade, C.F., Marton, K., & Houston, D. (2018). Prosodic boundary effects on syntactic disambiguation in children with cochlear implants. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, 60, 1-15. doi:10.1044/2018_JSLHR-L-17-0036.
• Rajan, V., Konishi, H., Ridge, K., Houston, D., Golinkoff, R.M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Eastman, N., & Schwartz, R.G. (2019). Novel word learning at 21 months predicts language-specific outcomes in later childhood. Journal of Child Language, 46, 617-631.
• Levi, S., Harel, D., & Schwartz, R.G. (2019). Language ability and the familiar talker advantage: Generalizing to unfamiliar talkers is what matters. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, 62, 1427–1436.
• Chondrogianni, V., & Schwartz, R.G. (2020). Case marking and word order in Greek heritage children. Journal of Child Language 47, 766–795.

Book Chapters (2015-present)

• Martohardjono, G., Phillips, I., Madsen II, C.N., Otheguy, R., Schwartz, R.G. & Shafer, V.L. (2016). Measuring Cross-Linguistic Influence in First- and Second-Generation Bilinguals: ERP vs. Acceptability Judgments. U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 23.1. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.
• Martohardjono, G., Phillips, I., Madsen II, C.N., & Schwartz, R.G. (2017) Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual processing: An ERP study. BUCLD 41: Proceedings of the 41st Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
• Epstein, B. & Schwartz, R.G. (2017). The neurobiology of child language disorders. In R.G. Schwartz (Ed.) The Handbook of Child Language Disorders 2nd edition. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Schwartz, R.G. (2017). Specific language impairment. In R.G. Schwartz (Ed.) The Handbook of Child Language Disorders 2nd edition. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Schwartz, R.G., Botwinik-Rotem, I., & Friedmann, N. (2017). Linguistics. In R.G. Schwartz (Ed.) The Handbook of Child Language Disorders 2nd edition. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Schwartz, R.G., & Auza, A. (2017). Introduction to language development and disorders in Spanish-speaking children. A.B. Auza, & R.G. Schwartz (Eds.). Language Development and Disorders in Spanish-speaking Children. Dordrecht: Springer.