She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Bucharest in 1996, where she studied psychology and philosophy. Following one year at the University of Oxford as a Soros visiting student, she completed her doctorate in Developmental Psychology at the University of Virginia in 2004. She was Assistant Professor at Boston University from 2007 until 2011, when she joined University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the social, linguistic, and representational aspects of young children's learning.