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Dr. Kiren Khan is an Associate Professor of Psychology with research interests spanning developmental psychology and early childhood education. Her program of research investigates the mechanisms that support narrative development in young children and utilizes this knowledge to design and test the effectiveness of novel narrative instructional strategies. In addition to directing the Language and Literacy Lab aRhodes, she also directs a summer kindergarten readiness program serving children with little to no early childhood education experience in Memphis.

Selected Publications

Khan, K. S., Logan, J., Justice, L. M., Bowles, R. P., & Piasta, S. B. (2021). The contribution of vocabulary, grammar, and phonological awareness across a continuum of narrative ability levels in young children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64(9), 3489-3503.

Khan, K.S. & Justice, L.M. (2020). Continuities between early language development and reading comprehension. In E. B. Moje, P. Afflerback, P. Enciso, & N. K. Lesaux (Eds.) Handbook of Reading Research (Vol. V), pp. 197-215. Routledge.

Bowles, R. P., Justice, L. M., Khan, K. S., Piasta, S. B., Skibbe, L. E., & Foster, T. D. (2020). Development of the Narrative Assessment Protocol-2: A Tool for Examining Young Children's Narrative Skill. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 51(2), 390-404.

Nelson, K.E. & Khan, K.S. (2019). New frontiers in facilitating narrative skills in children and adolescents: A dynamic systems account. In E. Veneziano & A. Nicolopoulou (Eds.) Narrative, literacy and other skills: Studies in intervention (Vol. 25), pp. 173-200. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Piasta, S. B., Groom, L. J., Khan, K. S., Skibbe, L. E., & Bowles, R. P. (2018). Young children’s narrative skill: concurrent and predictive associations with emergent literacy and early word reading skills. Reading and Writing, 31(7), 1479-1498.

Khan, K. S., Purtell, K. M., Logan, J., Ansari, A., & Justice, L. M. (2017). Association between television viewing and parent-child reading in the early home environment. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 38(7), 521-527.

Khan, K. S., Gugiu, M. R., Justice, L. M., Bowles, R. P., Skibbe, L. E., & Piasta, S. B. (2016). Age-Related Progressions in Story Structure in Young Children's Narratives. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59(6), 1395-1408.

Khan, K.S., Nelson, K.E., & Vance Trup, E.M. (2014). Children Choose Their Own Stories: The Impact of Choice on Children’s Learning of New Narrative Skills, Journal of Child Language, 41(4), 949-962. DOI: