Tyler Choate

I am excited to join the ICD community as a first year doctoral student. I am bringing with me 10 years of experience as a speech-language pathologist and infant/early childhood mental health consultant. Before that, I completed undergraduate and graduate work close to home in culture rich Southwest Louisiana, a region called Acadiana. Prior to coming to Minnesota, I served children and families in Chicago and mentored clinicians and educators around the globe in relationship-based models of early childhood. 

My research interests revolve around early childhood adversity and resilience. I am particularly interested in macro systems level adversity related to racism, poverty, violence, and other harmful forms of othering that disproportionately affect marginalized communities. Additionally, my interests in applied linguistics and parent-child relationships have converged on the power of personal narratives and storytelling. I’m particularly interested in the co-construction of event-related stories between parents and children, sometimes referred to as joint reminiscence, and how it might provide a buffering effect for early stress and adversity. My goal is to study the effects of joint reminiscing as it occurs in and by marginalized communities.  

An intersecting interest lies in the field of reflective practice and its provision through infant/early childhood mental health consultation. I am especially interested in promoting reflective consultation for non-mental health clinicians. 

I am thrilled by the opportunity to explore these interests alongside various faculty members and laboratories by way of ICD’s community mentorship model.