Vonda Jump

Vonda Jump is an Associate Professor in the Social Work department at Utah State University's College of Arts & Sciences, based in the USU Brigham Region (Brigham City, Kaysville, Tremonton). Her work bridges social work and early childhood development, emphasizing practical interventions for family support.

Vonda Jump’s research focuses on parent-child interaction, home visiting programs, and language development. She specializes in creating and validating tools like the PICCOLO (Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes) and HOVRS-A+ (Home Visit Rating Scales—Adapted and Extended to Excellence) to assess and improve parenting behaviors and home visit quality. Her studies often target low-income and migrant families, including Latino communities, to address disparities in child outcomes.

Her recent work highlights trauma-informed instruction for student resilience and technology-based design for inclusive education, particularly with deaf/hard of hearing populations. She has contributed to understanding how maternal warmth, responsiveness, and structured activities like family bookmaking enhance child attachment, vocabulary, and self-regulation. Her research spans longitudinal analyses of parenting stress, temperament, and maternal language strategies in early childhood settings.