Newcastle University

Child Language Research

The group conducts research on typical and atypical speech and language development in monolingual and bilingual children. Areas of focus include screening technologies, mechanisms of language development, assessment, characterisation and treatment of developmental speech and language disorders, and relationships between language and phonological awareness abilities and literacy. Our research focuses heavily on cross-linguistic study of language development and disorders.

Projects

• Dynamic Assessment of Novel Sentence Learning by Children of Varying Spoken Language Abilities
  Project Leader(s): Nick Riches
• Developing a replicable model of partnership working to improve the communication skills and academic attainment of children in an area of social deprivation
  Project Leader(s): Helen Stringer
• Understanding what matters most: exploring trajectories and transitions in children’s development and learning from the Foundation Stage to formal education.
  Project Leader(s): Cristina McKean

Publications

• The Interaction between behaviour and Speech and Language Difficulties
• Childrens Language ability and Psychological development:
• Communication skills in a population of primary school aged children raised in an area of pronounced social disadvantage
• Childrens Language & Ability and literacy development
• Modelling developmental language difficulties from school entry into adulthood:

Staff

Child Language Research

Professor Gerard Docherty Professor of Phonetics & Dean of Research, Innovation & Business Development	Email: g.j.docherty@ncl.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 5844
Dr Ghada Khattab Lecturer	Email: ghada.khattab@ncl.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 6583
Professor James Law Professor of Speech & Language Sciences	Email: james.law@ncl.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 5250
Dr Carolyn Letts Senior Lecturer	Email: carolyn.letts@ncl.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 7390
Dr Cristina McKean Lecturer	Email: cristina.mckean@ncl.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 6528
Carol Moxam Literacy Clinic Director	Email: carol.moxam@ncl.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 5890
Dr Nick Riches Lecturer in Speech & Language Pathology	Email: nick.riches@ncl.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 8720
Dr Helen Stringer Lecturer/Speech and Language Therapist	Email: helen.stringer@ncl.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 5196

Students

Cecilia Mancini

Acquired speech, language, and cognitive disorders, focusing on aphasia, and the representation of language in the brain from a clinical linguistics perspective and their clinical implications.