Susie Curtiss, PhD

Susan Curtiss is currently Professor of Linguistics at UCLA. Her research has focused on the issues of a Critical Period for language acquisition, the relationship of grammar as a mental faculty to nonlinguistic cognition both in development and breakdown, and the ability of each hemisphere of the brain to develop language. Professor Curtiss has studied the famous case of “Genie” as well as the case of Chelsea, a deaf woman exposed to language for the first time in her 30s, mentally retarded children who, despite pervasive retardation, have selectively intact language and adults with progressive dementias who, despite pervasive cognitive dissolution, have remarkably spared grammatical function. She has studied the selectively impaired language of children with SLI (Specific Language Impairment) and adults with acquired aphasia. She has also studied the language of children, adolescents and adults with sex chromosomal anomalies; e.g., Turner’s syndrome (X0) and Klinefelter’s syndrome (XXY). Her current work focuses on the effects of pediatric hemispherectomy – the removal of one entire hemisphere of the brain -- on language acquisition.

Professor Curtiss is Co-Director of the UCLA Neuro/Psycholinguistics Laboratory and Co-Director of the UCLA Infant Language Laboratory.