The Rowe Lab is based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. We study the role of social interactions in children’s cognitive development, primarily language and literacy development from birth to age five. 

Meredith Rowe is an educational psychologist interested in environmental effects on learning. She examines the role of parent and family factors in children’s early language and cognitive development and develops intervention strategies for caregivers of young children.

Sandra G. El Hadi is currently pursuing her PhD in Human Development, Learning, and Teaching at Harvard University, where she has also completed her master’s in International Education Policy. Her interests lie primarily in developmental psychology, language acquisition, and early childhood care and education. She uses both quantitative and qualitative methods in her research, and she aims to better understand the role caregivers play in the cognitive and language development of their children. Her professional experience has been mainly in international development, having worked with UNHCR, UNESCO IIEP, the World Bank, as well as ministries of education in various countries. She is also passionate about teaching, and has taught more than 15 courses as an instructor and teaching fellow at Harvard University and the American University of Beirut (AUB). Sandra also holds a master’s in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology from Oxford University, and she completed her undergraduate studies in Political Studies and English at AUB. In her free time, she enjoys dancing and reading.

Zhongyu Wei is a doctoral student in the Human Development, Learning and Teaching program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is interested in how the early home environment, particularly parent-child language interactions, shapes children’s language and cognitive development. Zhongyu holds a B.A. in linguistics and economics from Tsinghua University and an Ed.M. in international education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Lauren Schilling is is a doctoral student in the Human Development, Learning and Teaching program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She received a B.A. in Psychology and Education Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and taught preschool in Waunakee, Wisconsin. Lauren is interested in how children’s home and school language environments support their word learning and print recognition. She is also interested in the role of embodied cognition in language and literacy development and how it may be leveraged in instruction. She hopes to enhance literacy outcomes by drawing on theory and children’s lived experiences.

Iris Jeffries is a doctoral student interested in adult-child interactions, early childhood language and cognitive development, and the unique context of rural regions. Prior to pursuing the Ph.D. in Human Development, Learning, and Teaching, she taught Spanish at Harvard University and worked as a lab manager in the Bonawitz CoCoDev Lab as well as research assistant in the Rowe Lab and Schmitt Lab. She received a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a master’s in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which led her to serve as a Teach For America corps member in Appalachia and teacher in the Cambridge Public Schools. She conducted research for Teach For All and the Tennessee Department of Education.

Alyssa Guillu is a doctoral student and NSF-GRFP Fellow at Harvard University in the Human Development, Learning, and Teaching program. Alyssa’s work bridges observational and experimental methods to investigate how features of children’s everyday learning environments shape early language and literacy development. Before joining the Rowe Lab, Alyssa was a lab manager for Dr. Casey Lew-Williams at Princeton University and received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Chicago.

Lizzie Baird is an early childhood educator with a decade of experience serving in elementary school classrooms. She graduated with an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard in 2020 where she was a fellow with the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative. Lizzie earned a B.A. in sociology from Bates College in 2014. In the Rowe Lab, she assists with intervention curriculum writing and training focused on parents and caregivers of young children.

Zhong Cao earned her bachelor’s degree in educational science major from the University of California, Irvine in 2022, and her Ed.M. in Human Development and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2024. As a research assistant in the Rowe Lab, she contributes to projects focusing on math talk and parental engagement. Her research interests include early childhood language development, parent-child interaction, as well as topics related to emotion and motivation.

Meihan Guo is a research assistant in the Rowe Lab interested in parent-child interactions and their influence on children’s early development. She graduated from Harvard Graduate School of Education with an Ed.M. in Human Development and Education in May 2024. Currently, she is assisting on the PLAY project and the Gates Foundation project. 

Xinqi Yin is a research assistant at Rowe Lab, assisting with the project studying early childhood STEM learning. She graduated with an Ed.M in Human Development and Education with a concentration in Literacy and Languages from Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2024. She earned a B.S. in English Language and Literature from Sun Yat-sen University in 2023. She’s also interested in early language acquisition among diverse learners, including bilingual children and children with reading challenges.

Jiayuan Chen is a research assistant at the Rowe Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research interests focus on parenting beliefs, family engagement, and home-based learning, particularly how these factors interact to support children’s early language, math, and socio-emotional development. She holds an Ed.M. in Education Policy and Analysis from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Education Studies from University College London. Before joining the lab, she worked on multiple projects related to parenting and the learning experiences of children and adolescents in both academic and applied settings across diverse cultural contexts. She is passionate about supporting families through culturally grounded, evidence-based practices.

Peju Bobbett (she/her) is currently a post graduate research fellow in the Rowe lab. She graduated from Wheaton College with a B.A. in International Relations and Spanish, holds her Ed.M. in Human Development and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and plans to pursue her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Her work as a research assistant focuses on gestures with the learning of mathematical concepts by children. She has long been interested in the emergence of racial literacy in childhood and its impact on the development of ethnic-racial minoritized youth. Her research aims to promote social justice and healing. Peju also works as a research assistant in the Lab for Youth Mental Health (John R. Weisz, Ph.D.) at Harvard University on Project SMILE, a meta-analysis, examining the effectiveness of school-based interventions for youth with elevated mental health symptoms.

Xiaoyue Dai is an early childhood researcher, Social Emotional Learning coordinator, and consultant. She graduated from the Human Development Education program in May 2023 with a concentration in Early Childhood Education. She completed her B.S. in Childhood Education and Childhood Special Education at New York University in May 2022. Xiaoyue’s work is guided by a deep respect for social emotional learning and an appreciation of interactions that occur in our everyday lives. In her spare time, Xiaoyue loves to read, cook, rap, and go on bike rides.

Stephanie Li is a master’s student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research interests include multilingual and multicultural students in special education, immigrant youth experiences, and family dynamics. She is currently working on the Families Count study at the Rowe Lab, which explores how home-based interventions can enhance parent–child math communication and support early math skills in preschool-aged children.