Dr. Carla Abad

Dr. Carla Abad

Training

  • M.S., Psychology (Developmental Science), Florida International University, Miami, FL
  • B.A., Liberal Arts, New College of Flordia, Sarasota, FL
  • A.A., Psychology, Honors College at Miami-Dade College, Miami, FL

Research Interests

Carla studies how language influences sex differences in young children's spatial abilities. In 2014 she was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to support her research and education.

Publications

Costales, A., Abad, C., Odean, R., & Pruden, S.M (2015). Spatial activities and manipulatives for early education classrooms. In G. Scarlett (Ed.), Classroom Management: An A-to-Z Guide. Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage Publications.

Abad, C., & Pruden, S. M. (2013). Do storybooks really break children's gender stereotypes?. Frontiers in Psychology, 4.

Selected Presentations

Abad, C., Odean, R., & Pruden, S.M. (2016, August). Sex Differences in Spatial Skill Gains throughout Pre- Kindergarten. Presented at Spatial Cognition, Philadelphia, PA.

Abad, C., Odean, R., & Pruden, S.M. (2015, October). Exploring Sex Differences in Hispanic Pre-Kindergartners Spatial Skills. Presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for the Study of Human Development, Austin, TX.

Abad, C., Odean, R., Pruden, S.M. (2015, October). Sex Differences in Gains on Spatial Ability Throughout Pre- Kindergarten. Presented at the biennial meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Colombus, OH.

Alvarez, D., Abad, C., & Pruden, S.M. (2015, October). The Influence of Toy Preference on Early Mental Rotation Abilities. Poster presented at the FIU McNair Scholars Research Conference, Miami, FL.

Abad, C., Odean, R., Salazar, D., Lopez, M., & Pruden, S.M. (2014, November). Examining the gender gap: The role of spatial language on pre-kindergartners’ numeracy and spatial skills. Poster presented at the Science of Learning pre-conference at the 2014 International Mind, Brain, and Education Society, Forth Worth, TX.

Odean, R., Abad, C., Perez, L., Perez, L., & Pruden S.M. (2014, November). Up, up and away: How teachers’ spatial language influences children’s early numeracy and spatial skills. Poster presented at the 2014 International Mind, Brain, and Education Society, Forth Worth, TX

Abad, C., Odean, R., Lopez., M., Salazar, D., & Pruden, S.M. (2014, May). The role of educators’ language on pre-kindergarteners’ numeracy and spatial skills. Poster presented at the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA.

Abad, C., Odean, R., Costales, A. Barriga, T. & Pruden, S.M. (2013, June). Same classroom, different experience: Sex differences in preschoolers’ spatial reasoning. Poster presented at 2013 Workshop on Infant Language Development, San Sebastián, Spain.

Abad, C., Odean, R., Costales, A., Ferret, S. & Pruden, S.M. (2013, June). Influence of teachers’numeracy language on pre-kindergarteners’ spatial reasoning . Poster presented at 2013 Workshop on Infant Language Development, San Sebastián, Spain.

Abad, C., Odean, R., Costales, A., & Pruden, S.M. (2013, April). Pre-kindergarten educators'spatial language use in the classroom: Using LENA to examine sources of sex differences. Poster to be presented at 2013 LENA International Conference, Denver, CO.