Professor Kate Cain

Distinguished Professor

Research 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.

DSI: Modelling longitudinal reading comprehension in adolescence: Protective and risk factors
02/05/2023 → 29/02/2028
Research

DSI: Literacy Acceleration through Scaleable Research (LASeR)
01/06/2020 → 15/08/2021
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

Pilot: Developing a reading comprehension progress tool
01/03/2018 → 31/08/2018
Research

Language Specific and Language General Influences on Reading Comprehension Development: Comparisons Between and Alphabetic and Morphographic Script
01/10/2013 → 31/03/2015
Research

Understanding Reading Difficulties in Children with Rolandic Epilepsy
01/10/2013 → 31/12/2014
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

Opportunities for bilingualism in preschool and school age children with developmental disabilities
01/09/2012 → 29/03/2015
Research

Use of iPads for communication by children with special needs
01/02/2012 → …
Research

ESRC studentship Blything
01/10/2011 → 30/09/2015
Research

The Language Bases of Reading Comprehension
01/08/2010 → 31/07/2015
Research

Variability in child language
01/04/2007 → …
Other

  • DSI - Society
  • Language and Cognition