Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird, PhD

Bio

Dr. Elizabeth (Mandy) Kay-Raining Bird (PhD Madison, Wisconsin) is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Dalhousie University and a trained speech-language pathologist. Her areas of expertise are child language development and disorders, with a particular focus on bilingualism, Down syndrome, and Autism Spectrum Disorders. While she has provided research mentorship to over 70 students at the undergraduate and graduate level in the past, she is no longer supervising graduate students in their research.

Dr. Kay-Raining Bird has published and presented extensively on issues related to cultural and linguistic diversity, bilingualism, language and literacy development, and the effectiveness of speech, language and reading interventions funded through in-house, provincial, national and international grants.

Dr. Kay-Raining Bird has served her professional and academic communities in multiple ways over the years. She was the first university representative of the Speech-Language and Audiology Canada (SAC) Board, chaired the SAC advisory committee on Speech, Language and Hearing Services for First Nations, Métis and Inuit from 2009 to 2011, and served as president on the Nova Scotia Speech and Hearing Association from 2008 to 2010. She was the Editor of the Canadian Journal of Speech-language Pathology and Audiology (then JSLPA) from 1996 to 1999; Associate Editor of the Journal of Speech-Language and Hearing Research from 2012 – 2017, and a member of multiple other editorial boards.

At a community level, most recently Dr. Kay-Raining Bird has been very active on various anti-poverty initiatives, advocating for a livable Basic Income Guarantee as chair of Basic Income Nova Scotia and serving on the regional planning committee for Basic Income NOW Atlantic Canada and the national steering committee of Coalition Canada Basic Income-revenu de base. In the past she was instrumental in helping to create the TLC3 and TLC4 Early Language and Learning programs that supported Family Resource Centers throughout Nova Scotia. She also served for many years as a team member of the Earthspeak program which worked with educational and health programs in Ecuador to develop assessment and intervention services for people with cleft palate.

Education

• BA, Psychology, Queen’s University
• MA, Speech Pathology, Teachers College, Columbia University
• PhD, Communicative Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research interests

• Child language and literacy development and disorders
• Cultural and linguistic diversity
• Bilingualism
• Language assessment and intervention
• Down syndrome
• Autism Spectrum Disorders

Recent Grants

• Longitudinal development in narrative and conversational skills in bilingual children with Down syndrome. Canadian Academic Supervisors: Ana Maria Gonzalez-Barrero & Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird. International Academic Supervisors: Rebecca Ward & Eloi Puig-Mayenco. Intern: Yuko Matsuoka. MITACS Globalink Research Award, 2026 $6000
• Principal Investigator: Isabel Smith. Co-Investigator: Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird. Collaborators: Sabrina Jouneaux, Lisa Spinney-Hutton, & Suzanne Comeau. Promoting School Success for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): How do minority French-speaking families fare in Nova Scotia? SSHRC funded, 2018 – 2025, $25,000
• Academic achievement and language outcomes of French immersion and English education programs for students with different language learning experiences. Principal Investigator: Ann Sutton. Co-Investigators: Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird, Fred Genesee, Xi Becky Chen. SSHRC Funded, 2017 – 2021 $24,998
• The Discourse Skills of Monolingual and Bilingual School-aged Children. Principal Investigator: Patricia Cleave. Co-investigators: Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird, Ann Sutton, Natacha Trudeau, Becky Chen, Pierre Cormier, Andrea MacLeod, Nikolay Slavkov. Collaborator: Ann Nockerts. SSHRC Funded, 2016 – 2020, $365,096
• Academic achievement and language outcomes of French immersion and English education programs for students with different language learning experiences. Principal Investigator: Ann Sutton. Co-Investigators: Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird, Fred Genesee, Becky Xi Chen, & Ann Sutton. SSHRC Funded, 2018 – 2019, $24,998

Teaching

• CMSD 5150: Speech and Language Acquisition
  
• CMSD 6470: Language Disorders in School Age Children
  
• CMSD 6490: Advanced Language Disorders in Children

Selected publications

• Sutton, A., Kay-Raining Bird, E., Genesee, F., Chen, X., Oracheski, J., Pagan, S., & Sorenson Duncan, T. (2026). An Exploration of the Language Proficiency Profiles of Students in Early French Immersion. International Journal of Bilingualism, 14(2), 172 - 202. https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.23031.sut


• Sorenson Duncan, T., Sutton, A., Genesee, F., Chen, X., Kay-Raining Bird, E., Pagan, S., & Oracheski, J. (2025; first published online August 19, 2024). Academic achievement in English: Minority home language students in early French immersion. International Journal of Bilingualism, 29(5), 1219 - 1224. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069241267250


• Sutton, A., Genesee, F., Kay-Raining Bird, E., Chen, X., Sorenson Duncan, T., Pagan, S., & Oracheski, J. (2024). Academic achievement of minority home language students with special education needs in English language of instruction and French immersion programs. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, 12(1), 1-24.


• Burchell, D., Dobrin-De Grace, R., Kay-Raining Bird, E., & Chen, X. (2023). Overcoming barriers to success in French Immersion: special education needs and socioeconomic status. Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute Journal, 13, 337 - 365


• Burchell, D., Bourassa Bedard, V., Boyce, K., McLaren, J., Brandeker, M., Squires, B., Kay-Raining Bird, E., MacLeod, A. N., Rezzonico, S., Chen, X., Cleave, P., & FrEnDS-CAN (2022). Exploring the validity and reliability of online assessment for conversational, narrative and expository discourse measures in school-aged children. Frontiers in Communication, 7:798196. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2022.798196


• Squires, B. & Kay-Raining Bird, E. (2022). Self-Reported Listening Abilities in Educational Settings of Typically Hearing Children and Those Who Are Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/152574012210744


• Selvachandran, J., Kay-Raining Bird, E., DeSouza, J., & Chen, X. (2022). Special education needs in French Immersion: a parental perspective of supports and challenges, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25 (3), 1120-1136, DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2020.1742650


• Martin, S., Hodder, C., Merritt, E., Culliton, A., Pottie, E., & Kay-Raining Bird, E. (2021). Bilingual outcomes for an individual with Down syndrome in French Immersion. Journal of Immersion and Content-based Language Education. Published online: 13 April 2021, https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.20011.mar


• Kay-Raining Bird, E., Genesee, F., Sutton, A., Chen, X., Oracheski, J., Pagan, S., Squires, B., Burchell, D., Duncan, T. S. (2021). Access and outcomes of children with special education needs in early French Immersion. Journal of Immersion and Content-based Language Education, 9, 193 – 202. (Published on-line 9 November, 2020.) https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.20012.kay


• Cahill, P., Cleave, P., Asp, E., Squires, B., & Kay-Raining Bird, E. (2020). Measuring the complex syntax of school-aged children in language sample analysis: A known-groups validation study. International Journal of Language and Communication, 55, 765 – 776. Disorders, 55(5), 765–776. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12562


• Squires, B., Kay-Raining Bird, E., & Cahill, P. (2020). Un-dating and quarter-ponies: Comparing the use of derived words and compounds across discourse types and age groups. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools, 51, 761-777.


• Fitzpatrick, E. T., Squires, B., & Kay-Raining Bird, E. (2020). What’s that you say? Communication breakdowns and their repairs in children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 25(4), 490–504. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enaa010


• Kay-Raining Bird, E., Genesee, F., & Verhoeven, L. (2016). Bilingualism in children with Developmental Disorders: A narrative review. Journal of Communication Disorders, 63, 1 - 14.


• de Valenzuela, J., Kay-Raining Bird, E., Parkington, K., Mirenda, P., Cain, K., MacLeod, A. A., Segers, E. (2016).  Access to Opportunities for Bilingualism for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities: Key Informant Interviews. Journal of Communication Disorders, 63, 32 - 46.


• Pesco, D., MacLeod, A., Kay-Raining Bird, E., Cleave, P., Scherba de Valenzuela, J., Cain, K., Marinova-Todd, S., Colozzo, P., Stahl, H., Segers, E., & Verhoeven, L. (2016). A Multi-Site Review of Policies Affecting Opportunities for Children with Developmental Disabilities to Become Bilingual Journal of Communication Disorders, 63, 15 - 21.


• Marinova-Todd, S., Colozzo, P., Mirenda, P., Stahl, H., Kay-Raining Bird, E., Parkington, K., Cain, K., Scherba de Valenzuela, J., Segers, E., MacLeod, A., Genesee, F. (2016). Professional Practices and Opinions about Services Available to Bilingual Children with Developmental Disabilities: An International Study. Journal of Communication Disorders, 63, 47 - 62.


• Kay-Raining Bird, E., Trudeau, N., & Sutton, A. (2016). Pulling it all together: Maximizing bilingualism in children with developmental disabilities. Journal of Communication Disorders, 63, 63 - 78.


• Kay-Raining Bird, E., Joshi, N., & Cleave, P. (2016). Assessing the Reliability and Use of the Expository Scoring Scheme as a Measure of Developmental Change in Monolingual English and Bilingual French/English Children. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools, 47, 297 - 312.


• Kay-Raining Bird, E., & Cleave, P. L. (2015). Mothers’ talk to children with Down syndrome, Language Impairment, or typical development about familiar and unfamiliar nouns and verbs. Journal of Child Language, 43, 1072 - 1102.


• Kay-Raining Bird, E. (2014). A Resource Kit: To Assist Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists in providing informed services to First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, 38, 238 – 250.


• Cleave, P. Kay-Raining Bird, E., Trudeau, N., & Sutton, A. (2014). Syntactic Bootstrapping in Children with Down Syndrome: The Impact of Bilingualism. Journal of Communication Disorders, 49, 42 – 54.


• Dobbelsteyn, C., Kay-Raining Bird, E., Parker, J., Griffiths, C., Budden, A., Flood, K., & Stilsen, A. (2014). The Effectiveness of the Corrective Babbling® Speech Treatment Program for Children with a History of Cleft Palate or Velopharyngeal Dysfunction, The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, 51, 129 – 144.

Awards and honours

• 2008 and 2012, Editor’s Award for best journal article, Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Speech-Language and Audiology Canada.
  
• 2010, Eve Kassirer Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement, Speech-Language and Audiology Canada.
  
• 2010, Outstanding Graduate Student Research Advisor, 2010, Dalhousie University
• 2012 Visiting scholar, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• 2000, Visiting scholar, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia