Cricket

Hello! My name is Maria Cristina Limlingan but you can call me Cricket. 

I have over fourteen years of applied experience in early childhood education research. My research interests focus on improving the quality of educational experiences for linguistically and ethnically diverse young children in the United States and in low- and middle-income countries. I am particularly interested in the environmental and cultural influences on immigrant children’s experiences and interventions that can improve their school readiness outcomes.

Prior to working at Cultivate Learning, I completed a Postdoctoral fellowship in Classroom Intervention at the Developing Language and Literacy Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University. As part of my fellowship and work as a Bridging the Word Gap Emerging Research Scholar, I examined the impact of an online teacher professional development program focused on high-quality teaching strategies for promoting DLLs’ language skills in preschool and kindergarten.

During my doctoral studies, I worked on the Readiness for Integrated Science and Engineering (RISE) project, a National Science Foundation funded project where I led a team of 15 undergraduate and graduate research assistants in both quantitative and qualitative data collection efforts for three years. In addition, I facilitated meetings with teachers and parents for two years with the goal of learning and building on families’ assets and strengths as part of the project’s focus on home-school collaborations efforts.

My other experiences include working on Basa Pilipinas Project (Read Philippines) with Education Development Center, developing a research brief for the National Center on Hispanic Children and Families on integrated data systems with Abt Associates and leading qualitative data collection activities for programs serving children birth to three with the Herr Research Center for Children and Social Policy at the Erikson Institute.

In addition to my applied research work, I am also collaborating with two friends on Campfire Crates, a company that seeks to develop materials to help build children's cultural identity through stories and fun activities the whole family can do together.

Please feel free to connect with me if you are interested in learning more!