• I am a developmental psychologist who studies how children learn verbs between the ages of 2-5 years, both in the US and across cultures. With a team of dedicated undergraduates, we use behavioral enactment, video, and eye tracking procedures to test how children may use information they can discover by comparing multiple events to each other to learn new verbs.  We also have new studies looking at early engineering interests and efficacy in 5-10 year-olds.

    I teach courses that explore various key questions in development, including: How does human thought begin in infancy, and how does it develop?  How are children influenced by their parents, peers, and culture over development? and How do children learn language, and what does that tell us about human thought?

    I live in New Braunfels with my husband, Danny.  I am the faculty adviser for RUF (Reformed University Fellowship).

    • Post-doctoral fellow, Emory University, 1998-2000
    • Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 1998
    • M.A., Developmental Psychology, minor in linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, 1994
    • B.A., Psychology, Baylor University, 1990

    • Childers, J. B.,  Haynes, E.**, Ahimbisibwe, I. & Walugembe, M.  "Examining early noun learning using experimental methods in Uganda"  (2026).  Journal of Cognition and Development.  https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2026.2644870
    • Tovar-Perez, P.**, Smith, G.**, Alarcon Chiroboga, M.**, Gaston-Panthaki, A.**, Castillo, A.**, María Fernández, A., & Childers, J. B. (2025). "How Often Do Verbs Co-occur with Relevant Events? Examining Parent and Toddler Speech in Latin America and the US" Journal of Cognition and Development, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2024.2418628
    • Swearengin, P.**, Mihalicz, P., Marsh, L.**, Baker, Z.**, Perry, F.**, Graham, S. A., & Childers, J. B. (2025). "Examining the influence of encoding and retrieval contexts on 2‐to 4‐year‐olds' acquisition of nouns and verbs" British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 43(3), 730-741, https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12547.
    • Childers, J. B., Imai, M., Ohba, M., Perry, F.**, & Marsh, L.** (2025). "Examining children’s verb learning in the United States and Japan: Do comparisons help?"  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 251, 106129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106129
    • Childers, J. B., Bibiana Cutilletta**, Katy Capps**, Priscilla Tovar-Perez** & Gemma Smith** (2023). "Can children learn verbs from examples separated in time?  Examining how variability and memory contribute to verb learning"  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 227, 105583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105583
       

    • Children's verb learning
    • Early STEM interests and efficacy
    • Cross-cultural studies

    • Social Development
    • Cognitive Development
    • Language Development
    • Principles of Psychology
    • Supervised Research

    • One of the “Best of the Best” faculty at Trinity, 2020.
    • Z.T. Scott Faculty Fellowship award for outstanding achievement in teaching and advising, 2022.

    • Consultant to the DoSeum on exhibits and education, 2023-present
    • Advisory Committee: Connections Individual and Family Services, 2023-present
    • Executive Committee- Secretary: Connections Individual and Family Services, 2020-2022
    • Member of the Board of Directors for Connections Individual and Family Services, 2017-2020; 2022-2023
    • Provider of child development information to parents who bring their children to the Trinity University Children’s Research Lab.