Meghan Enzinna, a Junior Communication Studies major at Longwood University, is currently working alongside Dr. Laura Farrell as a part of her research internship within the Communication Studies department.
The research that Meghan is conducting is specifically looking at nonverbal haptics, which for her research includes displays of affection and aggressive touch amongst children with disabilities and adults during their play time in the pool.
“I have always been around children with disabilities, so I want to learn more about that and I’ve always had a knack for non-verbal communication and understanding that, so we put them together,” Enzinna said.
Growing up, Meghan worked as a babysitter and found that a lot of the children she was taking care of had varying forms of disabilities that ranged from ADHD to Autism. Her experiences grew in to an interest and has helped her to try and learn more on the subject. Through her observations of play time, Meghan’s goal is to better understand what families can do to communicate more effectively with children who are disabled.
“I think this study will help adults see how they can better their communication towards their children so it’s not a hit and miss or a good day or a bad day because they’ll be able to know how to talk to their kids.”
– Meghan Enzinna
With Dr. Farrell’s guidance, Meghan has begun her observations and started collecting the data for her research. As Meghan’s advisor, Dr. Farrell is encouraging her intern to submit her work to a special column for undergraduate research that will get her study recognised amongst her peers. However, Meghan isn’t the only one of the two conducting research this year; Dr. Farrell is also set to begin a study of her own this summer.
Through the Office of Student Research, Dr. Farrell received a grant from the Summer Research Fund to complete her study. Dr. Farrell will be conducting a series of studies at the Unbridled Communication Research Centre that will look at the changes and patterns in verbal and nonverbal communication amongst people before, during, and after completing interaction tasks with horses.
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