About

Dr. Sudha Arunachalam is a Professor of Communicative Sciences and Disorders and serves as the Principal Investigator and Lab Director at the LEARN Lab at New York University. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics and an M.A. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Southern California. Her research program focuses on understanding how infants, toddlers, and preschoolers acquire their native language. She studies language development in children who are typically developing, as well as those with autism spectrum disorder and language delay. Dr. Arunachalam is particularly interested in the learning mechanisms that underlie language acquisition and the role of caregiver-child interactions in supporting this learning process. Outside of her academic work, she enjoys taking long walks in New York City and exploring new foods.

Research topics

• Linguistics
• Cognitive psychology
• Psychology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Science
• Developmental psychology
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• Looking forward: eye-gaze methods in vocabulary development research

  Trends in Cognitive Sciences · 2026-04-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Tuning of unscripted parent narratives directed to autistic and non-autistic children: An exploratory eye-tracking study

  PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · 2026-01-24

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Most autistic children have language delays, which can result in challenges with comprehending narratives. We explored how unscripted narratives produced by parents might be tuned to support their child’s language comprehension, and how children visually follow along with their parents’ speech. Data from English-acquiring 18 autistic (48-78 months) and 18 language-matched non-autistic children (32-50 months) and one of their parents were analyzed (n = 36). We examined variables related to topic identification and maintenance, including how often parents mentioned the narrative’s topic, how they referred to it (e.g., “the pig” vs. “it”), and how much children looked at it. Results indicated many similarities between groups, but also some key differences: parents of autistic children produced shorter narratives and talked about the primary character proportionally more than parents of non-autistic children. In both groups, children looked at the primary character more than other characters, and the parent’s proportion of topic reference was positively associated with children’s proportion of looking at the primary character. Similar patterns arose with the full sample of autistic children, which includes children who had not been able to be matched on language (n = 32). These findings suggest that parent input to autistic children may be tuned to support challenges that autistic children might experience, such as slower language processing or distractibility by unrelated story elements, and, given this tuned input, autistic children were successful, at least in the sense of looking at the primary character, in following along with the narratives.

  Publisher

• ManyBabies 3: A Multi-Lab Study of Infant Algebraic Rule Learning

  PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · 2026-04-01

  preprintOpen access

  The ability to learn and apply rules lies at the heart of cognition. In a seminal study, Marcus et al. (1999) reported that 7-month-old infants learned abstract rules over syllable sequences and were able to generalize those rules to novel syllable sequences. Dozens of studies have since replicated that finding and extended it using different rules, modalities, stimuli, participants (human adults and non-human animals) and experimental procedures. Yet questions remain about the generalizability of Marcus et al.’s (1999) core findings, and sources of variation across these findings. In the current study, we address this issue by testing 839 infants of a wide age range (5;0-12;0 months) in a multi-laboratory (30 laboratories, [31 samples]) conceptual replication of the Marcus et al. (1999) study. This study and the analyses were submitted as a registered report. A mixed-model analysis of the looking times at consistent vs. inconsistent test trials indicated no significant effect. The current study therefore finds no evidence for rule-learning; to the contrary, a Bayesian analysis of the data indicated strong evidence for a null effect. This was similarly the case for the moderating factors that were part of the design: mono- vs. multilingualism, age, and experimental paradigm; none of these factors showed significant effects. Robustness analyses indicated that the results were not different in the case of different choices in the (pre-)processing of the data. A follow-up analysis for single labs indicated that there was no evidence of rule-learning in 30 of the 31 contributed samples. The current finding raises fundamental issues about rule-learning that are presented in Discussion.

  Publisher

• Linguistic Accommodation made by Non-autistic Speakers in Response to Being Told the Listener is Autistic

  PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · 2026-01-24

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Many people adjust their speech to accommodate listeners who may face comprehension difficulties, including older adults and non-native speakers, giving rise to registers such as Elderspeak and Foreigner-Directed Speech. In the current pre-registered study, we investigated whether non-autistic speakers similarly modified their speech in interactions with listeners who disclosed they were autistic. We used the Map Task paradigm; 33 participants (mean age = 36 years) gave verbal instructions to a confederate in two conditions: one in which the confederate disclosed being autistic and the other in which they did not. Participants did not show evidence of linguistic accommodation toward the autistic listener on any of the linguistic measures we coded for, including speech rate, syntactic complexity (e.g., MLU), semantic complexity (e.g., type-token ratio) and discourse features (e.g., repetitions). Although there was no average difference on these measures between the autistic and non-autistic listener conditions, exploratory analyses showed that more positive attitudes toward autism were associated with lower degree of accommodation to the autistic listener on one measure, MLU. No associations were found between level of contact and degree of accommodation. These findings suggest that an autism label alone does not cue linguistic accommodations, and that more positive attitudes towards autism may reduce the likelihood of linguistically accommodating autistic listeners.

  Publisher

• Linguistic Accommodation made by Non-autistic Speakers in Response to Being Told the Listener is Autistic

  2026-01-24

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Many people adjust their speech to accommodate listeners who may face comprehension difficulties, including older adults and non-native speakers, giving rise to registers such as Elderspeak and Foreigner-Directed Speech. In the current pre-registered study, we investigated whether non-autistic speakers similarly modified their speech in interactions with listeners who disclosed they were autistic. We used the Map Task paradigm; 33 participants (mean age = 36 years) gave verbal instructions to a confederate in two conditions: one in which the confederate disclosed being autistic and the other in which they did not. Participants did not show evidence of linguistic accommodation toward the autistic listener on any of the linguistic measures we coded for, including speech rate, syntactic complexity (e.g., MLU), semantic complexity (e.g., type-token ratio) and discourse features (e.g., repetitions). Although there was no average difference on these measures between the autistic and non-autistic listener conditions, exploratory analyses showed that more positive attitudes toward autism were associated with lower degree of accommodation to the autistic listener on one measure, MLU. No associations were found between level of contact and degree of accommodation. These findings suggest that an autism label alone does not cue linguistic accommodations, and that more positive attitudes towards autism may reduce the likelihood of linguistically accommodating autistic listeners.

  PublisherDOI

• Tuning of unscripted parent narratives directed to autistic and non-autistic children: An exploratory eye-tracking study

  2026-01-24

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Most autistic children have language delays, which can result in challenges with comprehending narratives. We explored how unscripted narratives produced by parents might be tuned to support their child’s language comprehension, and how children visually follow along with their parents’ speech. Data from English-acquiring 18 autistic (48-78 months) and 18 language-matched non-autistic children (32-50 months) and one of their parents were analyzed (n = 36). We examined variables related to topic identification and maintenance, including how often parents mentioned the narrative’s topic, how they referred to it (e.g., “the pig” vs. “it”), and how much children looked at it. Results indicated many similarities between groups, but also some key differences: parents of autistic children produced shorter narratives and talked about the primary character proportionally more than parents of non-autistic children. In both groups, children looked at the primary character more than other characters, and the parent’s proportion of topic reference was positively associated with children’s proportion of looking at the primary character. Similar patterns arose with the full sample of autistic children, which includes children who had not been able to be matched on language (n = 32). These findings suggest that parent input to autistic children may be tuned to support challenges that autistic children might experience, such as slower language processing or distractibility by unrelated story elements, and, given this tuned input, autistic children were successful, at least in the sense of looking at the primary character, in following along with the narratives.

  PublisherDOI

• Inquiry and innovation: Considering curiosity and creativity in autism

  Acta Psychologica · 2026-03-09

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Curiosity and creativity are faculties that support innovation, achievement and emotional well-being. They are early-appearing and lifelong, serving a critical role in human development. In this paper, we suggest that these essential capabilities have been broadly overlooked in our understanding and description of development in autistic individuals. We critically evaluate two assumptions: that curiosity and creativity are (1) diminished and/or (2) different in autism. In support of future research, we provide a number of suggestions for how we, and other important stakeholders like educators, parents, and providers, can deepen our appreciation for the ways in which curiosity and creativity might be expressed in autism. We also aim to highlight the ways in which curiosity and creativity can support personal growth and flourishing across the lifespan in autistic individuals, just as they do for nonautistic individuals.

  PublisherDOI

• Quantifying Question Asking in Young Autistic Children: Exploring the Role of Context

  Seminars in Speech and Language · 2026-05-11

  article

  Abstract Questions are an important component of social communication. Autistic children experience difficulties in social communication, and question asking is a common target of services. We know little about how context shapes question asking in autistic children. The current study quantifies the frequency (rate per minute), form (wh-, yes/no, intonation), and function (information-seeking, directive, initiation/maintenance) of questions produced by autistic children (n = 15; mean age = 5.6 years) in two social contexts: a semi-structured activity (the “tablet task”) and unstructured play (a naturalistic play session). Autistic children asked slightly more questions in the play session (M =1.35 questions/minute) than in the tablet task (M = 0.81 questions/minute), but there was no significant difference between conditions (effect size = 0.36). For question form, children asked wh-questions at similar rates across contexts, but they asked significantly more yes/no and intonation questions in the play session (effect sizes = 0.01, 0.62, 0.85, respectively). Finally, in function, children's use of information-seeking questions was similar across contexts, but they used significantly more directive and initiation/maintenance questions in the play session (effect sizes = 0.008, 0.82, 0.80, respectively). These findings offer important considerations for the assessment of question asking in autistic children.

  PublisherDOI

• Comprehension of parent narratives

  OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2026-03-02

  otherSenior author

  This exploratory eye-tracking study investigates lower-level comprehension skills in young autistic and non-autistic children as they hear unscripted parent narratives. The lower-level comprehension skills we focus on are identifying and maintaining topic, resolving referential expressions and paying attention to contextually relevant elements. This study also investigates if narratives produced by parents of autistic children are tuned to support comprehension. We look for potential accommodation in certain broad and discourse specific measures.

  Publisher

• ASDBank English NYU-Emerson Corpus

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  datasetOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  children with ASD and normal controls

  OA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Children's real-time language processing and verb learning during interactions with caregivers

  NSF · $312k · 2018–2023

• Language Processing and Word Learning in Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

  NIH · $2.0M · 2018–2025

• Learning new words from overhearing in children with ASD

  NIH · $1.8M · 2020–2025

• Mechanisms underlying word learning in children with ASD: Non-social learning and

  NIH · $688k · 2014–2018

• NIH Grant R03HD067485

  NIH · $149k · 2015

Frequent coauthors

• Rhiannon Luyster

  Emerson College

  18 shared

• Sandra R. Waxman

  Northwestern University

  13 shared

• Allison Fitch

  Rochester Institute of Technology

  11 shared

• Sabrina Horvath

  Medical University of South Carolina

  11 shared

• Angela Xiaoxue He

  Hong Kong Baptist University

  9 shared

• Amy M. Lieberman

  Boston University

  8 shared

• Isabelle Roy

  Laboratoire de Linguistique de Nantes

  5 shared

• Elaine S. Andersen

  University of Southern California

  5 shared

Labs

• LEARN Lab at NYUPI

Education

• Ph.D., Linguistics

  University of Pennsylvania

  2007

Awards & honors

• ASHA fellow