LaB Director
Our
Team
Todd Cunningham
Todd is a faculty member in the Applied Psychology and Human Development department of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children after earning a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Toronto. His area of expertise is adaptive educational technology, specifically the circumvention of students’ academic weaknesses to help them better attain and retain knowledge.
Our Team
LaB Director
Todd Cunningham PhD C.Psych
Todd is a faculty member in the Applied Psychology and Human Development department of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children after earning a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Toronto. His area of expertise is adaptive educational technology, specifically the circumvention of students’ academic weaknesses to help them better attain and retain knowledge.
LaB Director
Graduate Students
Bronwyn Lamond MA OCT
Current Program
PhD 5th Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
MA in Child Study and Education from OISE
BSc. in Honours Specialization Psychology from Western University
Research Interests
Bronwyn's research focuses on student and teacher perceptions of assistive technology. She is particularly interested in the barriers to assistive technology integration into classrooms.
Contact her at bronwyn.lamond@mail.utoronto.ca
Harrison McNaughtan MA
Current Program
PhD 4th Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
MA in Developmental Psychology and Education from OISE
BScH in Psychology from Queen's University
Research Interests
Harrison's current research focuses on developing and validating ATSelect.org, a free online tool to help teacher's and clinicians find the best suited assistive technologies for their students/clients. Harrison is currently conducting focus groups with teachers to gather their perspectives on using the tool, and will soon be moving into a validation study seeking to demonstrate the efficacy of ATSelect.org empirically.
Contact him at h.mcnaughtan@mail.utoronto.ca
Francis Wall MA
Current Program
PhD 4th Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
BScH in Psychology from University of Toronto Scarborough
Research Interests
Francis is currently studying the use of assistive technology for children with difficulties in writing. He hopes to identify ways in which assistive technology can be used to bypass areas of specific weakness, such as planning, organizing, or producing words to reduce the cognitive load of tasks that may otherwise be overwhelming.
Contact him at francis.wall@mail.utoronto.ca
Emily Staffiere MA
Current Program
PhD 3rd Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
BScH in Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University
Research Interests
Emily’s research examines the trajectory of typing skill development for elementary students in response to direct typing instruction. This research will inform intervention recommendations for students with writing challenges so they can develop their typing skills when provided a laptop as an assistive technology, and in doing so optimize its use.
Contact her at emily.staffiere@mail.utoronto.ca
Andrea Zians MA
Current Program
PhD 4th Year
Developmental Psychology and Education
Previous Education
MA in Psychology from OISE
BA in Psychology from Yeshiva University
Research Interests
Andrea's research focuses on post-secondary students and their usage of supports and resources that increase academic success. She is primarily interested in how under-represented groups in post-secondary settings utilize resources and supports like assistive technology and learning strategies.
Contact her at andrea.zians@mail.utoronto.ca
Damian Page Ma
Current Program
PhD 2nd Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
BA Honours in Psychology from the University of Victoria
Research Interests
Damian's research focuses on exploring factors that affect the early identification of emerging mental health disorders in children. Specifically, he is interested in the association between mental health literacy and the ability of teachers to discriminate between developmental typical student behaviour and behaviours indicative of emerging mental health disorders.
Contact him at damian.page@mail.utoronto.ca
Lisa Phyllis MA
Current Program
PhD 7th Year
Developmental Psychology and Education
Previous Education
MA in Child Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University
Research Interests
Lisa's research is focused on improving educational equality for children labelled with special education needs.
Contact her at lisa.phyllis@mail.utoronto.ca
Kunio Hessel MA
Current Program
PhD 1st Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE
MSc in Psychology from The University of Western Ontario
BCogSci(H) in Cognitive Science from Carleton University
Research Interests
Kunio's research interests involve barriers to education and school engagement in refugee high school students. His doctoral research will expand on his master's thesis and investigate ways in which refugee students and their families, schools, and communities can tackle barriers to education and work towards creating more equitable educational opportunities for refugee youth.
Contact him at kunio.hessel@mail.utoronto.ca
Shona Mistry MA
Current Program
MA 2nd Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MA in Developmental Psychology & Education from OISE
MEd in Developmental Psychology and Education from OISE
BA in Psychology and Neuroscience from McGill University
Research Interests
Shona's research focuses on the interaction between learning challenges and disabilities and youth substance use. Her prior MA thesis focused on the role of family factors in substance use treatment for youth with learning disabilities. The aim of my research is to understand the intersection between education and developmental psychology when treating youth with severe mental health challenges and addictive behaviors.
Contact her at shona.mistry@mail.utoronto.ca
Paige Vaccarella ba
Current Program
MA 1st Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
BA Hons. in Child and Youth Studies and Psychology from Brock University
Research Interests
Paige is extremely passionate about creating accessible and barrier-free education for neurodiverse students. Specifically, her research interests include identifying the barriers that prevent students with learning disabilities (LD) from using assistive technology in the classroom. She hopes to focus on students' attitudes and perceptions of assistive technology.
Contact her at paige.vaccarella@mail.utoronto.ca
emillie Vu ba
Current Program
MA 1st Year
Developmental Psychology and Education
Previous Education
BA in Psychology from York University
Research Interests
Emillie's research focuses on children and youth with learning difficulties.
Contact her at emillie.vu@mail.utoronto.ca
jessica wing yee ho MEd
Current Program
MA 1st Year
School and Clinical Child Psychology
Previous Education
MEd in Developmental Psychology and Education from OISE
Research Interests
Jessica's research focuses on the development of accurate screening tools for children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This research aims to understand the impact of culturally relevant content on students' performance and provide them with engaging assessment materials.
Contact her at jessicawy.ho@mail.utoronto.ca
Research
Placement
Students
These students have joined our lab for one school year as part of an undergraduate Research Opportunity Program or OISE's MEd Research Practicum Course.
Safiyyah Tahirah Alli
MEd Research Placement Student
Audrey Chiu
MEd Research Placement Student
Zarfishan Qureshi
ROP Student
Shentong Yan
MEd Research Placement Student
Yiyuan Zhang
MEd Research Placement Student
Volunteers
These lab members volunteer their time to support a variety of on-going research studies happening in our lab.
Christina Zakala
Research Assistant
Liran Leidershnaider
Research Assistant
Ke Wong
Research Assistants
Former Lab Members
Calista Barber
Casiah Cagan
Mirelle D'Mello
Monica Farag
Maarib Kirmani Haseeb
Shenali Lowe
Caity Lynch
Jordyn Manis
Megha Manoj
Stephanie Morris
Rudra Patel
Hannah Santilli