Research Overview

My research investigates the learning mechanisms of young children. In particular, I am interested in children who are late to talk. Late talkers generally improve to reach the same productive vocabulary range as their peers, but a small number develop more severe difficulties. Increasing evidence also suggests late talkers may perform worse than their counterparts on reading and language tasks later on. However, it remains difficult to distinguish between those who will struggle and those who will not, making any early detection or intervention problematic. My research investigates how late talkers learn language, how this changes over time, and the relationship between language skills and children’s understanding of non-verbal symbols and communication.

External Roles

Appointed Member, RCPSYCH Gatsby/Wellcome Trust Neuroscience Project Implementation Group (2016-2018)

Qualifications

Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology (MSc Dist), University College London

Healthcare Ethics and Law (MSc Dist), University of Manchester

Medicine (MBChB), University of Manchester

Web Links

http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/babylab/

http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/leverhulme-dsp/

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/traininpsychiatry/neuroscienceproject.aspx

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