Cynthia Puranik
Professor - Principal Investigator of the Child Reading and Writing Lab (CRAWL) Communication Sciences and Disorders- Education
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Florida Center for Reading Research
Doctor of Philosophy in Speech & Language Pathology, University of Florida
Master of Science in Speech & Language Pathology, University of Florida
Bachelor of Arts in Economics & Statistics, University of Bombay
- Specializations
Writing development
Writing assessment
Writing instruction and intervention
Cognitive factors related to writing
Early/emergent literacy intervention
Connections between oral and written language
- Biography
Cynthia Puranik is a professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the College of Education and Human Development. In addition, Puranik is the principal investigator for the Child Reading and Writing Lab (CRAWL) and an affiliate faculty of the Research on the Challenges of Acquiring Language and Literacy Initiative at Georgia State University.
Research interests include examining the developmental progression of early writing and factors that contribute to writing skills, assessment of emergent and early writing skills, exploring the concurrent relationship between children’s skills within literacy domains, understanding the relationship between oral and written language skills, assessing and facilitating writing in elementary school children, and examining the relationship between writing and aspects of cognitive functioning. She has simultaneously explored both basic theoretical and highly applied research pathways to address questions pertaining to children’s emergent and early conventional writing.
Her research has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Her articles have appeared in journals such as the Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, and Reading & Writing.
- Publications
Puranik, C., Branum-Martin, L., & Washington, J. (2020). “The relation between dialect density and the co-development of writing and reading in African-American children.” Child Development, 91, e866-e882. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13318
Puranik, C. S, Boss, E., & Wanless, S. (2019). “Links between self-regulation and emergent writing: Domain specific or task dependent?” Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
Puranik, C. S, Petscher, Y., Al Otaiba, S., & Lemons, C. (2018). “Improving kindergarten students’ writing outcomes using peer-assisted strategies.” Elementary School Journal, 118(4), 680- 710. https://doi.org/10.1086/697432
Puranik, C. S, Philips, B. Lonigan, C, & Gibson, E (2018). “Home literacy practices and preschool children’s emergent writing skills: An initial investigation.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 42, 228-238. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2017.10.004
Puranik, C. S, Patchan, M., Lemons, C., & Al Otaiba, S. (2017). “Using peer assisted strategies to teach early writing: Results of a pilot study to examine feasibility and promise.” Reading and Writing, 30, 25-50. doi 10.1007/s11145-016-9661-9
Patchan, M, & Puranik, C. (2016). Using tablet computers to teach preschool children to write letters: Exploring the impact of extrinsic and intrinsic feedback. Computers and Education, 102, 128-137. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2016.07.007.
Kim, Y.-S., Puranik, C., & Al Otaiba, S. (2015) Developmental trajectories of writing skills in first grade: The effects of SES, and speech and language impairments. The Elementary School Journal, 115(4), 593-613. https://doi.org/10.1086/681971
Puranik, C. & Lonigan, C. (2014). Emergent writing in preschoolers: Preliminary evidence for a theoretical framework. Reading Research Quarterly. 49(4), 453-467. doi: 10.1002/rrq.79.