Associate Member
I am a psycholinguist focusing on gesture learning and multimodal communication in hearing and hearing-impaired populations. I came to academia after several years of working as an Italian Sign Language interpreter and a school-based educator. I am currently a PhD student in Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Potsdam (Germany) and Macquarie University (Australia) within the IDEALAB PhD program, under the joint supervision of Prof. Outi Tuomainen, Prof. Mridula Sharma, Prof. Natalie Boll-Avetisyan, and Dr. Amanda Saksida.
My PhD research investigates whether statistical learning mechanisms, well-established in spoken word learning, also apply to language expressed in the visual modality, with a specific focus on symbolic gestures. To address this question, I study gesture learning across development using EEG and eye-tracking measures.
About
University of Potsdam
colombani@uni-potsdam.de
Selected Publications
Saksida A., Rebesco R., Scuderi M., Colombani A., Messineo I., Pavani F., Orzan E., Pintonello S., (2025). The role of symbolic gestures in the path towards auditory rehabilitation of infants with hearing loss: a feasibility study. Deafness & Education International, https://doi.org/10.1080/14643154.2025.2541433
Colombani, A., Peter V., Quian, Y.M., Saksida A., Boll-Avetisyan N., Tuomainen O., Sharma, M. (2025), Cross-situational learning of sign-like gestures in children and adults: a behavioural and event-related potential study. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2025.2539136
Rebesco, R., Colombani, A., Handjaras, G., Bottari, D. & Orzan, E. (2024). Early assessment of communicative competence in children with hearing loss using the Child-Caregiver Communication Assessment through Rebesco’s Evaluation (CC-CARE) method. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. 111927. https://10.1016/j.ijporl.2024.111927
Saksida, A., Rebesco, R., Colombani, A., Pintonello, S., Tonon, E., Santoro, AM. and Orzan, E. (2024) The timeline of non-vocal and vocal communicative skills in infants with hearing loss. Front. Pediatr.11:1209754. https://doi:10.3389/fped.2023.1209754
Colombani, A., Saksida, A., Pavani, F., & Orzan, E. (2022). Symbolic and deictic gestures as a tool to promote parent-child communication in the context of hearing loss: a systematic review. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology,165 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2022.111421