Short Bio
Bonnie Levin-Asher is a Speech and Language Pathologist (SLP) and a passionate researcher who studies the development of speech, language, and communication in infants. Her clinical expertise lies in diagnosing and treating speech and language disorders in children, particularly those with Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy, and autism. Her doctoral research explored the relationship between early multimodal communication and later language development, and her post-doctoral work at Hebrew University of Jerusalem compared multimodal communication in hearing and hearing-impaired infants. She is currently collaborating with Hunter College and Rockefeller University to study how infants learn speech in both human and robot environments. Her goal is to gain insights into vocal learning in human infants by applying songbird learning models as a framework. Additionally, Bonnie teaches undergraduate courses on clinical integration, assessment, and intervention for language disorders.
Aside from her clinical and scientific pursuits, Bonnie is dedicated to reducing social disparities. She established "Prosing for Gap-Closing," a social enterprise that donates profits from her published children's books to underprivileged children. Her latest book, "Free-Bird," was recently chosen for the prestigious Book Parade by the Israel Ministry of Education. Bonnie also coordinates an academic initiative aimed at closing language gaps among children from disadvantaged backgrounds, developing diagnostic tools and intervention protocols, and providing training programs for parents and teachers. She regularly creates podcasts and delivers lectures to educate the general public about language development.