Kaya LeGrand

Graduate Student

Psychological Sciences

Kaya is a PhD candidate studying language in autism, specifically the nature of language development, language knowledge, and language processing in low-verbal autistic individuals. Her current projects investigate generativity in language comprehension, the nature of abstract linguistic knowledge, and processing of scripted phrases (i.e., phrases produced in inflexible ways) in low-verbal autism. Before coming to UConn, Kaya worked as a speech-language pathologist at a residential school for autistic students.

Publications:

LeGrand, K., Parish-Morris, J., & Naigles, L. (2025). Longitudinal analyses of early verb production in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

LeGrand, K. J., Wisman Weil L., Lord, C., & Luyster, R. J. (2021). Identifying childhood expressive language features that best predict adult language and communication outcome in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.