Find out about the latest and ongoing research related to Development at our centre.
A list of projects by key contact
Key contact: Dr. Kate Rowley & Dr. Patrick Rosenburg
Language Comprehension in Deaf Children
This project focuses on developing a new tool that assesses deaf children's comprehension of text in British Sign Language (BSL) and standardising BSL Sentence Reproduction Test (BSL-SRT). These two assessment tools will enable us to examine the constellation of language comprehension skills in BSL and their effects on English, and vice versa.
Key contacts: Prof. Mairéad MacSweeney & Dr. Tyron Woolfe
Visual Communication and Reading
Reading research has focused on mappings between auditory representations of spoken language and written words. However, this is a limited view of language. Visual spoken language input (visual speech/ lipreading) is increasingly being recognized as important to language development and reading development not only in deaf children, but also in hearing children.
Key contact: Dr. Fiona Kyle & Dr. Kathryn Mason
Preschool language and literacy longitudinal study
The main aim of this project is to understand how preschool language and emerging literacy skills are related to later reading ability. Some hearing children and many deaf children find learning to read challenging. This means it is important to identify children who may struggle with reading BEFORE they start learning to read.