For many researchers, earning an R01 award from the National Institutes of Health is a career-defining achievement. For Leala Holcomb, it came remarkably early.
Holcomb, a research assistant professor in the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has received an R01 award totaling $2.6 million from the NIH to advance research on language and literacy development among deaf children.
The R01 is NIH’s flagship award for independent investigators, and receiving one typically takes years of research and a strong scholarly record. Holcomb earned one on the first attempt as an early-stage investigator, a rare accomplishment and the first R01 of this scale awarded at CEHHS.
The achievement is also notable because Holcomb is an education-focused researcher receiving a major award from a health-focused federal agency. The work shows the important connection between education and health and the ways educational experiences can shape lifelong health outcomes.
Holcomb’s research examines how sign bilingual and multilingual educational environments can support language and literacy development among deaf children.
The questions behind that research are rooted in Holcomb’s own experiences as a deaf student.
“I graduated from the California School for the Deaf, Fremont and later from Gallaudet University,” says Holcomb, “both unique educational settings that provide sign bilingual education and recognize signed and written languages as viable languages for learning, critical thinking, and connecting with the world.”
The research asks what becomes possible when deaf children have access to rich, fully accessible language environments in school. Can deaf children learn to compose narratives, explanations, and arguments in signed language? How does that development relate to growth in written language?
Those skills matter well beyond the classroom. Many deaf people communicate through signing, writing, or both, and the same skills that help a child tell a story or build an argument later help an adult describe symptoms to a doctor, make sense of medical information, and weigh choices about care.
The R01 builds on an earlier R21 project, in which Holcomb explored whether existing evidence-based instructional methods could be applied to signed language contexts with deaf students in pre-K through third grade. Working closely with teachers, the team developed and refined instructional methods and resources, and tested them for efficacy in improving language outcomes.
The R01 will take that work further. Holcomb and the research team will follow deaf children across multiple years to examine how signed and written language abilities develop, how early language access relates to that growth, why children follow different developmental trajectories, and whether evidence-based instructional methods contribute to stronger outcomes.
The work also highlights the connection between education and public health.
According to Holcomb, deaf children have widely varying experiences with language access during early childhood. Many do not have consistent access to a fully accessible language from birth, and those experiences can depend on family circumstances, early intervention services, and access to peers and adults who use signed language.
Inadequate access to a first language can have lasting effects on language, cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional development.
Holcomb explains, “This is where education and public health come together in my work. Children arrive at school with very different histories of language access, and schools cannot change those early experiences. But schools, teachers, and interventionists can shape the kind of language environment, experiences, and support children receive once they enter educational settings.”
Now, as a deaf researcher and early-stage investigator, Holcomb is helping build the evidence base needed to give future generations of deaf children rich, fully accessible language and literacy opportunities.
The R01 is a significant milestone not only for Holcomb but for CEHHS, showcasing the quality and impact of education research and the powerful connections between education, health, and human development.