Contact Information

Office: Galvin 430A
Phone: 419-995-8650
Email: tompkins.73@osu.edu
Mailing address:
4240 Campus Dr.
Lima, OH 45804

Virginia Tompkins is an assistant professor at the Ohio State University at Lima. She completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Florida. She earned her B.S. in psychology in 2002, her M.S. in developmental psychology in 2007, and her Ph.D. in developmental psychology in 2009. She joined the Lima campus in the fall of 2009 where she teaches General Psychology, Introduction to Life Span Developmental Psychology, Psychology of Childhood, Psychology of the Adult Years, and Research Methods.

Dr. Tompkins’ research focuses on social cognitive development in early childhood. She is particularly interested in language, literacy, and theory of mind development. She is also interested in how these domains of development are promoted through social interaction with parents and teachers. Dr. Tompkins has worked with a variety of populations including language-impaired children and low-income children. She is currently examining how mother-child narrative interactions promote preschool-aged children’s literacy and theory of mind understanding, which are both important skills for school readiness.

Farrar, M. J., Johnson, B., Tompkins, V., Easters, M., Zilizi, A., & Benigno, J. P. (2009). Language and theory of mind in children with language disorders, Journal of Communication Disorders, 42, 428-441.

Tompkins, V. & Farrar, M. J. (2011). Mothers’ autobiographical memory and book narratives with children with specific language impairment, Journal of Communication Disorders, 44, 1-22.

Guo, Y., Justice, L. M., Sawyer, B., & Tompkins, V. (2011). Exploring factors related to preschool teachers’ self-efficacy. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 961-968.

Guo, Y., Connor, C. M., Tompkins. V., & Morrison, F. J. (2011). Classroom quality and student engagement: Contributions to third-grade reading skills. Frontiers in Educational Psychology, 2, 1-10.

Tompkins. V., Guo, Y., & Justice, L. M. (Under Review). Inference generation, story comprehension, and language in the preschool years.

Tompkins, V., Farrar, M. J., & Guo, Y. (Under Review). Siblings, language, and false belief in low-income preschoolers.

Tompkins, V., Justice, L. M., Binici, S., & Zucker, T. A. (Under Review). Inferential talk during teacher-child interactions in small group play.

Guo, Y., Justice, L. M., & Tompkins. V. (Under Review). Classroom composition and language development among at-risk preschoolers.

Justice, L. M., Logan, J., Kaderavek, J., Schmitt, M. B., Tompkins, V., & Bartlett, C. (Under Review). Profiling the early literacy skills of young children with language impairment.