Hande Ilgaz
Graduate Student
hai205@lehigh.edu
Academic History
Bogazici University
B.A. 2000, Counseling Psychology & Guidance
Bogazici University
M.A. 2004, Developmental Psychology
Honors
Lehigh University, Dean’s Fellowship 2005
Research Interests
My research interests include play, narrative and theory of mind development in preschool children from a cognitive-developmental perspective. I am specifically interested in children’s developing abilities of comprehension and production of alternative realities as manifested in symbolic play, false belief understanding and narrative competence. My current research aims to discern and investigate the cognitive components of solitary and sociodramatic play abilities and focuses on the direction of effect between symbolic play and narrative competence.
Selected Publications
Ilgaz, H. & Aksu-Koc, A. (2005). Episodic development in preschool children’s play-prompted and direct-elicited narratives. Cognitive Development, 20, 526-544.
Nicolopoulou, A., de Sa, A., Ilgaz, H., & Brockmeyer, C. (under review). Using the transformative power of play to educate hearts and minds. Mind, Culture, and Activity (for a Special Issue on "Playworlds of Children and Adults: Cross Cultural Perspectives on Play Pedagogy").
Conference Presentations
Nicolopoulou, A., Brockmeyer, C., Schnabel-Cortina, K., Ilgaz, H., & de Sa, A. (2008). Using play and narrative to promote low-income preschoolers' language, literacy, and social competence. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association (New York, NY: March 24-28, 2008).
Nicolopoulou, A., de Sa, A., Ilgaz, H., Schnabel-Cortina, K., & Brockmeyer, C. (2008). Can storytelling and story-acting by low-income preschoolers promote school readiness? Poster to be presented at Ninth National Head Start's conference (Washington, DC: June 23-25, 2008).
Nicolopoulou, A., Ilgaz, H., de Sa, A., Brockmeyer, C., & Schnabel-Cortina, K. (2008). Promoting narrative competence among low-income preschool children. Poster to be presented at the International Association of the Study of Child Language (Edinburgh, Scotland: July 28-August 1, 2008).
Brockmeyer, C., Nicolopoulou, A., de Sa, A., & Ilgaz, H. (2008). Multitasking: The best way to assess preschoolers narrative competence? Paper to be presented at the International Association of Child Language (Edinburgh, Scotland: July 28-August 1, 2008).
Nicolopoulou, A., Ilgaz, H., de Sa, A., Brockmeyer, C., & Schnabel-Cortina, K. (2008). Promoting narrative competence among low-income preschool children. Poster to be presented at the International Association of Child Language (Edinburgh Scotland: July 28-August 1, 2008).
Ilgaz, H., & Nicolopoulou, A. (2007). Effects of a play- & narrative-based intervention program on the pretend play abilities of low-income preschool children. Poster presented at the Jean Piaget Conference (Amsterdam, the Netherlands: May 31-June 2, 2007).
Ilgaz, H. (2007). Effects of a play & narrative intervention programs on pretend play abilities of preschool children. Poster presented at the 7th Annual Cross-University Collaborative Mentoring Conference.
Nicolopoulou, A., & Ilgaz, H. (2006). The effect of genres on young children's development of main character. Paper presented at the Jean Piaget Conference (Baltimore, MD: June 3, 2006).
Ilgaz, H. & Aksu-Koc, A (2005). Episodic development in preschool children’s play-prompted and direct-elicited narratives. Poster presented at the X. International Congress for the Study of Child Language (Berlin, Germany: July 25-29, 2005)
