Professor Kate Cain
Distinguished ProfessorResearch Interests
My research concerns the different cognitive and language-related skills that underpin the development of reading and listening comprehension, both in atypical and typical populations. To date, this work has identified several higher-level skill weaknesses that may be causally linked to poor comprehension, including the ability to generate inferences, knowledge and use of reading strategies, and the ability to construct coherent and integrated narratives. My work has shown that these skills (assessed as oral language skills in preschool and as oral and written language skills in the early school years) predict reading comprehension development. Current projects are examining (a) preschool predictors of early reading acquisition, (b) the structure and predictors of reading comprehension in adolescence, (c) the similarities and differences in reading and learning from print and digital, and (d) engagement and learning from digital reading supplements.
External Roles
President, Society of the Scientific Study of Reading, 1 January 2022 - present
Elected member governing board of Society for Text and Discourse, 2018 - present
Editor of Scientific Studies of Reading, the journal of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, 1 March 2012 - 28 February 2015
PhD Supervision Interests
I am keen to supervise students in the general area of reading and listening comprehension development and difficulties. Current and recently completed PhDs supervised by me have examined a range of topics on language and literacy development including: the role of vocabulary and memory in children's inference making; the role of reader and text characteristics in children's comprehension monitoring; the factors that underpin understanding and production of temporal connectives; the development of oral narrative skills and their relation to later reading ability; how characteristics of readers and text affect comprehension of pronouns and relative clauses.
Boost Reading Efficacy: Evaluating the impact of a widely-used, supplemental, digital reading program on elementary school literacy
01/09/2024 → 31/08/2029
Research
Boost Reading Efficacy: Year Two Income Only
01/09/2024 → 31/08/2029
Research
DSI: Modelling longitudinal reading comprehension in adolescence: Protective and risk factors
02/05/2023 → 29/02/2028
Research
The Effects of Story-based Activities on Early Language and Literacy in South African Pre-schools
18/11/2019 → 30/11/2023
Research
MC: Early Language Development in the Digital Age (e-LADDA)
01/11/2019 → 29/02/2024
Research
The ESRC International Centre for Language
01/11/2019 → 31/10/2025
Research
Monolingual and Bilingual Reading Comprehension in Middle School Students
01/09/2018 → 31/05/2024
Research
Reading Comprehension in Monolingual and Bilingual Children
01/08/2018 → 31/07/2019
Research
CASS ESRC Transition Funding
01/04/2018 → 31/01/2024
Research
ESRC centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science - CASS
31/03/2013 → 30/03/2018
Research
Developing reading comprehension in the classroom: analysis and assessment of methods and best practice.
01/01/2013 → 31/03/2015
Research
READ-IT: Tools for understanding and supporting children's reading development
01/01/1900 → …
Research
Evidence to Reading for Pleasure - Committees - UK Parliament
Government
Reconstructing reading
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Reading for meaning: Examining the components that support the development of reading comprehension
Invited talk
AIM Roundtable
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Hollis Scarborough Award: Acceptance Presentation
Invited talk
Making and conveying meaning:Why Structured Literacy integrates comprehension and composition
Invited talk
Children’s reading comprehension: Beyond decoding”
Invited talk
Beyond decoding: The dynamics of reading for meaning
Invited talk
Reading comprehension skills in L1 and L2: The challenges we face
Invited talk
8th International Summer School on Literacy Research
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Scientific Studies of Reading (Journal)
Editorial activity
Samuel Torrey Orton Award
Prize (including medals and awards)
Governing Board Member
Election to learned society
Senior Ambassador for POWER (Providing Opportunities for Women in Education Research
Other distinction
Vice President/President Elect for the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading
Election to learned society
President for the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading
Election to learned society
AIM Academy Hollis Scarborough Award 2025
Prize (including medals and awards)
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- DSI - Society