Naomi Caselli
Assistant Professor, Deaf Studies, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Dr. Naomi Caselli studies how American Sign Language is structured, learned, and used. She leads an NSF funded project developing ASL-LEX, a database documenting the structure of the American Sign Language lexicon. She has also developed the ASL-CDI, an ASL adaptation of the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory, that assesses ASL vocabulary in children younger than five. She leads an NIH funded project that uses ASL-LEX and the ASL-CDI to examine how deaf children learn ASL vocabulary, and how early exposure to ASL affects language acquisition. Caselli’s work also explores the use of AI in sign language computing, and she is the co-director of the AI and Education initiative.