Sonia Cabell

Sonia Q. Cabell, Ph.D., is an associate professor of reading education in the School of Teacher Education and the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University. Her research focuses on early language and literacy instruction, with a particular emphasis on the prevention of reading difficulties and accelerating early reading and writing skills, especially for young children living in poverty. She is recognized as a leading expert in reading education and literacy and holds the R. Keith and Patricia Duggins Sigmon Endowed Professorship at Florida State University.

Cabell is the co‑author of Strive‑for‑Five Conversations: A Framework That Gets Kids Talking to Accelerate Their Language Comprehension and Literacy (The Science of Reading in Practice), which presents the Strive‑for‑Five framework for multi‑turn, back‑and‑forth conversations to build young children’s language comprehension and literacy skills. She has also co‑authored scholarly work on Strive‑for‑Five conversations in The Reading Teacher and contributes widely to the research literature on early literacy, including oral language development and early spelling.