Dr. Roberts is also a developmental psychologist and certified speech-language pathologist. Currently, Dr. Roberts teaches courses in language development, child language disorders, and literacy development and disorders. Her research focus is on the early identification and treatment of children at risk for persistent language impairments. She is also a member of a team of researchers engaged in a 16-year longitudinal study examining the cognitive and linguistic precursors of children at familial risk for dyslexia. As part of this research, she and her students have examined spontaneous language samples for evidence of a broader language impairment in the years prior to reading instruction.