Sarah F. Pedonti

Biography

Dr. Pedonti earned her degree in Child Development from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2008 and M.Ed. in Human Development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2009. She taught in public early childhood programs and worked in Head Start for 10 years before earning her Ph.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill in Applied Developmental Sciences and Special Education.

Education

• Ph D, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• MA, Harvard University

Teaching Interests

Early Childhood Literacy Birth-5 (BK 315)<br>Interagency Planning (BKSE 412)<br>Family Collaborative Planning (BKSE 411)

Research Interests

My research focuses on the emergent language and literacy skills of young children at risk for later reading difficulty, including children in poverty (Head Start/Early Head Start), children with disabiities, and dual language learners (DLLs), as well as children at the intersection of those identities. As part of my interest in supporting this population, I have previously investigated the dimensions of Head Start disability services for children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers enrolled in early care and education settings, and how those dimensions relate to children's skills. I am especially interested in designing interventions that can support diverse families to provide rich language input and scaffold literacy skills during book-reading, and in cross-disciplinary and cross-sector research that can support young children and families.