HIRSH-PASEK, Kathy 1953-

PERSONAL: Born March 10, 1953, in Williamsport, PA; daughter of Morton (a realtor and businessman) and Joan (a realtor) Hirsh; married Jeff Pasek (an attorney), August 17, 1975; children: Josh, Benj, Michael. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Attended Manchester College, Oxford, 1973-74; University of Pittsburgh, B.S. (summa cum laude), 1975; University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D., 1981. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Musical composition, tennis, swimming.

ADDRESSES: Home—126 St. Georges Rd., Ardmore, PA 19003. Office—Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122; fax 610-642-7675. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Sperry Univac, Inc. (now Unisys Corp.), Blue Bell, PA, consultant research psychologist on software ease-of-use, 1980-84; Medical College of New Jersey, Rutgers University (now University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey), Piscataway, then Newark, assistant professor of psychiatry, 1981-85; Swarthmore College, assistant professor and director of Infant Speech Perception Laboratory, 1982-84; Haverford College, Haverford, PA, assistant professor of psychology and director of Infant Language and Perception Laboratory, 1984-87; Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, assistant professor, 1987-90, associate professor, 1990-97, professor of psychology, 1997—, director of Infant Language and Perception Laboratory, 1987—. Speaker at colleges and universities, including University of Bern, University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, Roen College, Princeton University, Brown University, Duke University, Lehigh University, and Carnegie-Mellon University; appeared in The Human Language Series (television documentary on language processes), broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service, 1995, and on other media programs; creator and coproducer of television series Captain Tikkun; workshop presenter; presenter of benefit musical concerts; consultant to Medical Broadcasting Co., Yerkes Primate Center, and Katzenbach School for the Deaf. Please Touch Museum, member of scientific committee, 1990—; CAGE committee on early childhood, member, 1994—; Electric School House, member of advisory board, 1998-2000; Center for the Improvement of Resources for Children's Lives, cofounder. Federation of Jewish Agencies, member of executive board of Young Leadership Council, 1980-84; Federation of Allied Jewish Appeals, cochair of psychological services division, 1985-87; Jewish Community Centers of North America, vice president of JCC Camps, 1982-84, member of board of directors of Kaiserman branch, 1988-91, and cofounder of Ethical Start (curriculum in moral development for children); Jewish Continuity Committee, member, 1997—. Ardmore Civic Association, vice president.

MEMBER: International Society for Infant Studies, American Psychological Association (fellow; chair of Maccoby Book Award, 2000), American Psychological Society (fellow), Society for Research in Child Development, Jean Piaget Society, Psychology Roundtable, Sigma Xi, Pi Lambda Theta, Omicron Delta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Ford Foundation grant, 1985; Wexner Heritage Foundation fellow, 1991-94; Great Teacher Award, Temple University, 1999; grants from Steven Spielberg's Religious Person's Foundation, National Science Foundation, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Mental Health, Spencer Foundation, and Pew Memorial Trust.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with L. Rescorla and M. Hyson, and contributor) Hurried Children: Research and Policy on Early Academic Learning for Preschoolers, Jossey-Bass (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor, with L. Rescorla and M. Hyson, and contributor) Academic Instruction in Early Childhood: Challenge or Pressure? Jossey-Bass (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Roberta Michnick Golinkoff) The Origins of Grammar: Evidence from Comprehension, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

(With Roberta Michnick Golinkoff) The Magic and Mystery of Language Acquisition, Dutton (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and G. Hollisch) Breaking the Language Barrier: An Emergentist Coalition Model for the Origins of Word Learning, Monographs for the Society for Research in Child Development, 2000.

(Editor, with Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, G. Hollisch, and others, and contributor) Breaking the Word Learning Barrier: What Does It Take? Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and Diane Eyer) Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn—and Why, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 2003.

Other writings include (with Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, G. Hollisch, and others) Word Learner: A Debate on Lexical Acquisition? Oxford University Press (New York, NY); also lyricist and song composer. Coauthor and coproducer of children's music albums, including Jumpin' in a Puddle, 1987, Staying Up, 1988, Hugs and Kisses, 1990, Around the World, 1991, and Making a Difference for K.I.D.S., 1993.

Contributor to books, including Origins and Growth of Communication, edited by L. Feagans, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, and K. Garvey, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1984; Beyond Names for Things: Young Children's Acquisition of Verbs, edited by M. Tomasello and W. Merriman, Lawrence Erlbaum (Hillsdale, NJ), 1995; Consequences of Growing up Poor, edited by J. Brooks-Gunn and G. Duncan, Russell Sage (New York, NY), 1997; The Emergence of Language, edited by B. MacWhinney, Lawrence Erlbaum (Mahwah, NJ), 1999; and Approaches to Bootstrapping: Phonological, Syntactic, and Neurological Aspects of Early Language Acquisition, edited by J. Weissenborn and B. Hoele, John Benjamins (Philadelphia, PA), 2001.

Contributor of more than eighty articles and reviews to periodicals, including Advances in Infancy Research, Psychological Science, American Educational Research Journal, Developmental Psychology, Brain Behavior Sciences, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Child Language, Contemporary Psychology, and Journal of Marriage and the Family. Associate editor, Child Development, 2001—; member of editorial board, Infancy and Child Development.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Editing Action Meets Word: How Children Learn Verbs, with Roberta Michnick Golinkoff.

SIDELIGHTS: Kathy Hirsh-Pasek once told CA: "Watch a child grow up, and you see a miracle unfold before your eyes. Ever since I was a teenager, I stood in awe of what little children can do. I wanted to understand what made children 'tick.' To learn more, I became a student of child development and a professor of developmental psychology. The science behind children's growth teaches us, not only about children, but also about the marvels of how we think and behave, about what it means to be part of the human species.

"In the past fifteen years, there has been a virtual explosion of new data on how children develop. We are now capable of looking at thought processes in infants, observing how brains develop, and researching what happens inside our brains while we think. In my own area of language development, we can now talk about how infants break through the language barrier to learn their first words and how they put these words together to make a sentence. We really are beginning to unravel the human code! My writing has been about this fascinating process.

"When you practice within the scientific community, you quickly notice that many interesting findings get buried in journals that are terse and laden with jargon. The information is often lost to the lay public. In my work, I hope to share our scientific progress, not only with my colleagues, but also with parents, caregivers, and teachers who can benefit directly from this knowledge. As we learn to see children's development through the scientific lens, we can all find the remarkable moments in what appear to be mundane routines. We can reawaken the sense of awe that so many of us have as we watch a child grow."