Background
Alida Anderson earned her PhD in special education from the University of Maryland, College Park. Research and teaching interests focus on contextual factors associated with language development and literacy acquisition in children from diverse backgrounds. Research projects have focused on development of literate oral language by preschool age children with language impairments and typical language, relationships between cross-linguistic features and reading ability in school age monolingual and bilingual English and Chinese speakers with reading disabilities, and development and implementation of a response-to-intervention mathematics practice for teaching place value and number concepts to primary grade students in under-resourced urban school settings. Current research projects examine the influence of arts integration on school age students’ oral and written language in academic content area instructional settings. Recent publications include Arts Integration and Special Education, an edited volume connecting interdisciplinary frameworks in human development and linguistics, special education, and urban education with primary action research by special educators. Presentations have included papers at the American Educational Research Association, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, the Council for Exceptional Children, and VSA International/Kennedy Center.
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