Donna Thal

9.6k total citations · 2 hit papers
47 papers, 6.5k citations indexed

About

Donna Thal is a scholar working on Developmental and Educational Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience and Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health. According to data from OpenAlex, Donna Thal has authored 47 papers receiving a total of 6.5k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 37 papers in Developmental and Educational Psychology, 8 papers in Cognitive Neuroscience and 5 papers in Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health. Recurrent topics in Donna Thal's work include Language Development and Disorders (33 papers), Reading and Literacy Development (17 papers) and Child and Animal Learning Development (11 papers). Donna Thal is often cited by papers focused on Language Development and Disorders (33 papers), Reading and Literacy Development (17 papers) and Child and Animal Learning Development (11 papers). Donna Thal collaborates with scholars based in United States, Mexico and Canada. Donna Thal's co-authors include Elizabeth Bates, Larry Fenson, Philip S. Dale, J. Steven Reznick, Virginia A. Marchman, Carolyn Β. Mervis, Joan Stiles, Michael Tomasello, Deborah K. Morrison and Donna Jackson‐Maldonado and has published in prestigious journals such as Child Development, Scientific Reports and Developmental Psychology.

In The Last Decade

Donna Thal

42 papers receiving 6.1k citations

Hit Papers

align trajectories

What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

Variability in Early Communicative Development

1994 2.0k citations Larry Fenson, Philip S. Dale et al. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development profile →
Variability in early communicative development.

1994 715 citations Larry Fenson, Philip S. Dale et al. profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name	h						Papers	Cites
Donna Thal United States	31	5.5k	2.0k	977	807	754	47	6.5k
Larry Fenson United States	23	5.1k 0.9×	1.6k 0.8×	1.0k 1.0×	1.2k 1.4×	776 1.0×	34	6.2k
Marc E. Fey United States	34	5.3k 1.0×	1.9k 0.9×	1.5k 1.5×	1.3k 1.6×	385 0.5×	83	6.0k
D. Kimbrough Oller United States	43	6.2k 1.1×	2.5k 1.2×	877 0.9×	906 1.1×	2.1k 2.8×	166	8.3k
Susan Ellis Weismer United States	45	5.6k 1.0×	3.9k 1.9×	1.3k 1.3×	982 1.2×	406 0.5×	113	6.8k
Nicola Botting United Kingdom	41	4.6k 0.8×	2.5k 1.2×	1.6k 1.6×	711 0.9×	306 0.4×	109	6.4k
Courtenay Norbury United Kingdom	40	4.8k 0.9×	3.8k 1.9×	1.3k 1.3×	963 1.2×	532 0.7×	101	6.3k
Laurence B. Leonard United States	55	11.4k 2.1×	6.2k 3.1×	1.0k 1.1×	545 0.7×	1.9k 2.5×	271	12.5k
Jon F. Miller United States	29	2.9k 0.5×	933 0.5×	773 0.8×	483 0.6×	306 0.4×	58	3.4k
Barbara Dodd Australia	35	3.3k 0.6×	1.7k 0.8×	655 0.7×	416 0.5×	1.8k 2.3×	115	4.6k
Elena Plante United States	44	4.4k 0.8×	4.0k 2.0×	579 0.6×	277 0.3×	707 0.9×	143	6.6k

Countries citing papers authored by Donna Thal

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Donna Thal's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Donna Thal with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Donna Thal more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Donna Thal

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Donna Thal. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Donna Thal. The network helps show where Donna Thal may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Donna Thal

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Donna Thal. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Donna Thal based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Donna Thal. Donna Thal is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

Sort: Min cites: Since: Top N: Style:

20 of 20 papers shown

Borovsky, Arielle, et al.. (2025). Modeling Longitudinal Trajectories of Word Production With the CDI. Developmental Science. 28(4). e70036–e70036.

Borovsky, Arielle, Donna Thal, & Laurence B. Leonard. (2021). Moving towards accurate and early prediction of language delay with network science and machine learning approaches. Scientific Reports. 11(1). 8136–8136. 15 indexed citations

Tobey, Emily A., Donna Thal, John K. Niparko, et al.. (2013). Influence of implantation age on school-age language performance in pediatric cochlear implant users. International Journal of Audiology. 52(4). 219–229. 150 indexed citations

Eisenberg, Laurie S., Judith E. Widen, Christine Yoshinaga‐Itano, et al.. (2007). Current State of Knowledge: Implications for Developmental Research—Key Issues. Ear and Hearing. 28(6). 773–777. 28 indexed citations

Conboy, Barbara T. & Donna Thal. (2006). Ties Between the Lexicon and Grammar: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Studies of Bilingual Toddlers. Child Development. 77(3). 712–735. 133 indexed citations

Thal, Donna. (2004). Language development in children at risk for language impairment: Cross-population comparisons. Brain and Language. 88(2). 167–179. 41 indexed citations

Thal, Donna, et al.. (2001). Development of sentence interpretation strategies by typically developing and late-talking toddlers. Journal of Child Language. 28(1). 173–193. 20 indexed citations

Fenson, Larry, Elizabeth Bates, Philip S. Dale, et al.. (2000). Reply: Measuring Variability in Early Child Language: Don't Shoot the Messenger. Child Development. 71(2). 323–328. 154 indexed citations

Thal, Donna, et al.. (1999). Validity of a Parent Report Measure of Vocabulary and Syntax for Preschool Children With Language Impairment. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research. 42(2). 482–496. 150 indexed citations

10.

Jackson‐Maldonado, Donna, et al.. (1998). Language and gesture in lower income and middle class Spanish-speaking children: Can parental report be used?. Infant Behavior and Development. 21. 278–278.

11.

Gershkoff‐Stowe, Lisa, Donna Thal, Linda B. Smith, & Laura L. Namy. (1997). Categorization and Its Developmental Relation to Early Language. Child Development. 68(5). 843–859. 32 indexed citations

12.

Dale, Philip S., et al.. (1996). Assessment of communication and language. 93 indexed citations

13.

Thal, Donna, et al.. (1995). Phonological and lexical development in normal and late-talking toddlers. Applied Psycholinguistics. 16(4). 407–424. 67 indexed citations

14.

Bates, Elizabeth, Virginia A. Marchman, Donna Thal, et al.. (1994). Developmental and stylistic variation in the composition of early vocabulary. Journal of Child Language. 21(1). 85–123. 370 indexed citations

15.

Fenson, Larry, Philip S. Dale, J. Steven Reznick, et al.. (1994). Variability in Early Communicative Development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 59(5). i–i. 2050 indexed citations breakdown →

16.

Thal, Donna. (1991). Early lexical development in children with focal brain injury*1. Brain and Language. 40(4). 491–527. 180 indexed citations

17.

Thal, Donna. (1991). Language and cognition in normal and late-talking toddlers. Topics in Language Disorders. 11(4). 33–42. 34 indexed citations

18.

Bauer, Patricia J. & Donna Thal. (1990). Scripts or scraps: Reconsidering the development of sequential understanding. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 50(2). 287–304. 48 indexed citations

19.

Thal, Donna, et al.. (1989). Language and Communication In Early Childhood. Pediatric Annals. 18(5). 299–305. 11 indexed citations

20.

Thal, Donna, et al.. (1977). Temporal integration in dysphasic children. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 62(S1). S97–S98. 1 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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