The ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Institute of Psychology Health & Society
Abstract
LuCiD's mission is to transform our understanding of how children learn to talk, and deliver the scientific evidence needed to design effective interventions in early years education and healthcare.
Learning to use language to communicate effectively is hugely important for society. Many children enter school without the language skills they need to succeed in the classroom, and these early weaknesses in language and communication are a major predictor of educational and social inequality in later life. To tackle this problem, we need to know the answers to a number of questions: How do children learn language from what they see and hear? What do measures of children's brain activity tell us about what they know at different ages? How do differences between children and differences in their environments affect how children learn to talk? Answering these questions is a major challenge for researchers, but, in the first phase of LuCiD, we have made great strides towards meeting this challenge by bringing together researchers from a range of different research backgrounds and with a range of different research skills.
In its next phase, LuCiD will build on this success by coordinating three research streams in the UK and abroad.
STREAM 1: FROM VARIATION TO EXPLANATION: will take what we have discovered about word learning and grammatical development and use it to explain development in children with Developmental Language Disorder.
STREAM 2: FROM SIMPLE TO COMPLEX: will take what we have discovered about communicative development and use it to understand how different groups of children learn to use language to communicate in the more complicated real-world situations that they will encounter when they enter school.
STREAM 3: BEYOND 0-5: will build on LuCiD's 0-5 project - a study of 80 children's language learning across the first 5 years - by a) using the 0-5 data to understand how children's curiosity-based exploration shapes their word learning; b) using the 0-5 data to build individualized computer models of how particular children perform across different experiments and across development; and c) following the 0-5 children into school and determining how their preschool language abilities impact on the beginnings of their literacy development.
In this research, we will seek to understand language learning using a range of different methods. We will observe and record children in natural interaction as well as studying their language in more controlled experiments and using behavioural measures and correlations with brain activity (EEG). Combining information collected using these different methods will constrain the types of explanations that can be proposed; and using computer models to understand our results will help us to create more accurate and comprehensive theories of how children learn.
The next phase of LuCiD will also include a COMMUNICATIONS AGENDA, a TECHNOLOGY AGENDA and a CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME.
In the COMMUNICATIONS AGENDA, we will work with our IMPACT CHAMPIONS to ensure that parents know how they can best help their children learn to talk, and to give healthcare and education professionals and policy-makers the information they need to create training and intervention programmes that are firmly rooted in the latest research findings.
In the TECHNOLOGY AGENDA, we will make the new tools and research designs that we have developed, and the new data that we have collected, available to other researchers and practitioners on an open access basis.
In the CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME, we will train new researchers in the range of different methods used across the Centre, and in how to communicate their findings to parents, educational professionals and policy makers. This will ensure the long-term future of language development research in the UK and of our approach to understanding how children learn to talk.
Learning to use language to communicate effectively is hugely important for society. Many children enter school without the language skills they need to succeed in the classroom, and these early weaknesses in language and communication are a major predictor of educational and social inequality in later life. To tackle this problem, we need to know the answers to a number of questions: How do children learn language from what they see and hear? What do measures of children's brain activity tell us about what they know at different ages? How do differences between children and differences in their environments affect how children learn to talk? Answering these questions is a major challenge for researchers, but, in the first phase of LuCiD, we have made great strides towards meeting this challenge by bringing together researchers from a range of different research backgrounds and with a range of different research skills.
In its next phase, LuCiD will build on this success by coordinating three research streams in the UK and abroad.
STREAM 1: FROM VARIATION TO EXPLANATION: will take what we have discovered about word learning and grammatical development and use it to explain development in children with Developmental Language Disorder.
STREAM 2: FROM SIMPLE TO COMPLEX: will take what we have discovered about communicative development and use it to understand how different groups of children learn to use language to communicate in the more complicated real-world situations that they will encounter when they enter school.
STREAM 3: BEYOND 0-5: will build on LuCiD's 0-5 project - a study of 80 children's language learning across the first 5 years - by a) using the 0-5 data to understand how children's curiosity-based exploration shapes their word learning; b) using the 0-5 data to build individualized computer models of how particular children perform across different experiments and across development; and c) following the 0-5 children into school and determining how their preschool language abilities impact on the beginnings of their literacy development.
In this research, we will seek to understand language learning using a range of different methods. We will observe and record children in natural interaction as well as studying their language in more controlled experiments and using behavioural measures and correlations with brain activity (EEG). Combining information collected using these different methods will constrain the types of explanations that can be proposed; and using computer models to understand our results will help us to create more accurate and comprehensive theories of how children learn.
The next phase of LuCiD will also include a COMMUNICATIONS AGENDA, a TECHNOLOGY AGENDA and a CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME.
In the COMMUNICATIONS AGENDA, we will work with our IMPACT CHAMPIONS to ensure that parents know how they can best help their children learn to talk, and to give healthcare and education professionals and policy-makers the information they need to create training and intervention programmes that are firmly rooted in the latest research findings.
In the TECHNOLOGY AGENDA, we will make the new tools and research designs that we have developed, and the new data that we have collected, available to other researchers and practitioners on an open access basis.
In the CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME, we will train new researchers in the range of different methods used across the Centre, and in how to communicate their findings to parents, educational professionals and policy makers. This will ensure the long-term future of language development research in the UK and of our approach to understanding how children learn to talk.
Planned Impact
WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS RESEARCH?
Acquiring effective skills in language and communication in children's early years is critically important for life outcomes, and this is recognised as the first ambition of the DfE's 'Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential' Social Mobility Action Plan (2017).
LuCiD's research enhances the evidence base toward effective early years support for language and early literacy development. Our work thus addresses 3 ESRC Strategic priorities: Productivity, Mental Health and Innovation in Health and Social Care. Our research is beneficial to the following groups:
- Children, parents/caregivers, and organisations supporting language and literacy development;
- Practitioners in preschool and primary school education and health;
- Policy makers in early years provision of health and educational services;
- Cultural organisations and broadcasters engaged with events and presentations for children;
- Developers of technology and publishers of materials and tests to support training and evaluation of children's communicative skills.
HOW WILL THEY BENEFIT FROM THIS RESEARCH?
Children, parents/caregivers, charities and third-sector organisations, and practitioners will benefit through our Communications Agenda. We will deliver LANGUAGE FOR LIFE, our public outreach programme of activities and resources for parents/caregivers, the general public and practitioners to increase awareness of the importance of promoting early language, understanding typical and atypical language development, constructing optimal environments for language development, and the importance of applying effective interventions.
Practitioners in education and health, cultural and broadcasting services, and policy makers will benefit through our evidence-based advice on design of training for promoting language development and early literacy, as part of our Communications Agenda. We focus on three areas of influence: (1) MONITORING, we will work with our partners to develop effective and accessible progression tools for language development for use by early years practitioners, and we will communicate the importance of effective monitoring to policy makers; (2) TRAINING, we will work with our partners to provide access to evidence-based training programmes for parents/caregivers, early years practitioners in health and education, and primary school educators. We will communicate the importance of early years training to commissioners and policy makers, both regionally and nationally to influence and advise on policy; (3) EVALUATION, we will support practitioners and policy makers in selecting effective training and intervention programmes, and provide advice to organisations on effective methods for intervention assessments.
Businesses and practitioners will benefit from our Technology Agenda. We will collaborate with our partners to develop online monitoring tools for children's language development, and to generate automatic transcription software for child and adult speech, placing accessible tools in the hands of those who stand to use them on a daily basis.
Our User Advisory Board and Impact Strategy Group will comprise representatives from each of the constituencies that will benefit from our research, to ensure that our research communications are accessible, relevant, and responsive to the needs of parents/caregivers, practitioners, and policy makers. Our Impact and Outreach Officer will lead LANGUAGE FOR LIFE events organisation, provide regular contact with our partner organisations, and develop blogs and briefings for users of our research. Our Centre Manager will: liaise with our User Advisory Board and Impact Strategy Group; link with the Business, Media and Knowledge Exchange offices at Lancaster, Liverpool, and Manchester Universities; and supervise the activities of the Impact and Outreach Officer, in order to optimise the reach and effectiveness of the impact of our research.
Acquiring effective skills in language and communication in children's early years is critically important for life outcomes, and this is recognised as the first ambition of the DfE's 'Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential' Social Mobility Action Plan (2017).
LuCiD's research enhances the evidence base toward effective early years support for language and early literacy development. Our work thus addresses 3 ESRC Strategic priorities: Productivity, Mental Health and Innovation in Health and Social Care. Our research is beneficial to the following groups:
- Children, parents/caregivers, and organisations supporting language and literacy development;
- Practitioners in preschool and primary school education and health;
- Policy makers in early years provision of health and educational services;
- Cultural organisations and broadcasters engaged with events and presentations for children;
- Developers of technology and publishers of materials and tests to support training and evaluation of children's communicative skills.
HOW WILL THEY BENEFIT FROM THIS RESEARCH?
Children, parents/caregivers, charities and third-sector organisations, and practitioners will benefit through our Communications Agenda. We will deliver LANGUAGE FOR LIFE, our public outreach programme of activities and resources for parents/caregivers, the general public and practitioners to increase awareness of the importance of promoting early language, understanding typical and atypical language development, constructing optimal environments for language development, and the importance of applying effective interventions.
Practitioners in education and health, cultural and broadcasting services, and policy makers will benefit through our evidence-based advice on design of training for promoting language development and early literacy, as part of our Communications Agenda. We focus on three areas of influence: (1) MONITORING, we will work with our partners to develop effective and accessible progression tools for language development for use by early years practitioners, and we will communicate the importance of effective monitoring to policy makers; (2) TRAINING, we will work with our partners to provide access to evidence-based training programmes for parents/caregivers, early years practitioners in health and education, and primary school educators. We will communicate the importance of early years training to commissioners and policy makers, both regionally and nationally to influence and advise on policy; (3) EVALUATION, we will support practitioners and policy makers in selecting effective training and intervention programmes, and provide advice to organisations on effective methods for intervention assessments.
Businesses and practitioners will benefit from our Technology Agenda. We will collaborate with our partners to develop online monitoring tools for children's language development, and to generate automatic transcription software for child and adult speech, placing accessible tools in the hands of those who stand to use them on a daily basis.
Our User Advisory Board and Impact Strategy Group will comprise representatives from each of the constituencies that will benefit from our research, to ensure that our research communications are accessible, relevant, and responsive to the needs of parents/caregivers, practitioners, and policy makers. Our Impact and Outreach Officer will lead LANGUAGE FOR LIFE events organisation, provide regular contact with our partner organisations, and develop blogs and briefings for users of our research. Our Centre Manager will: liaise with our User Advisory Board and Impact Strategy Group; link with the Business, Media and Knowledge Exchange offices at Lancaster, Liverpool, and Manchester Universities; and supervise the activities of the Impact and Outreach Officer, in order to optimise the reach and effectiveness of the impact of our research.
Publications
AMBRIDGE B
(2020)
Teaching the unlearnable: a training study of complex yes/no questions
in Language and Cognition
Ambridge B
(2021)
Testing a computational model of causative overgeneralizations: Child judgment and production data from English, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese and K'iche'
in Open Research Europe
Ambridge B
(2021)
Disentangling syntactic, semantic and pragmatic impairments in ASD: Elicited production of passives.
in Journal of child language
Ambridge B
(2020)
Abstractions made of exemplars or 'You're all right, and I've changed my mind': Response to commentators
in First Language
Ambridge B
(2019)
Against stored abstractions: A radical exemplar model of language acquisition
in First Language
Description | 2023/24-: Steering Group member for 'Prosiect Pengwin' - Theakston |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | An introduction to Bayesian Data Analysis in R seminar delivered by Sam Jones |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | Promoted improvement in statistical literacy and practice (contemporary Bayesian methods) across Lancaster University Department of Psychology. |
URL | https://osf.io/2wfvq/ |
Description | Education Committee APPG evidence on screen time and children's development - Monaghan |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
URL | https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/203/education-committee/ |
Description | Input to Speech Language & Communication Training for Health Visitors, Wales - Theakston |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | Invited to provide input to and feedback on content around children's early gestures in SLC training for health visitors in Wales. Material incorporated into 'Talk with Me SLC Training for SCPHN workforce' slides. |
Description | Member of Advisory Board of ASLAN (ASLAN Laboratory of Excellence: Advanced Studies on LANguage Complexity), Lyon, France - Lieven |
Geographic Reach | Europe |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Impact | Development of future projects |
Description | Member of Review Panel, Swiss National Science Foundation - Lieven |
Geographic Reach | Europe |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Member of Strategic Steering Group for Wales Early Language Screening Review - Theakston |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | Member, Advisory Board, Centre for Psychological Research, Oxford Brookes University, Gert Westermann |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | RCSLT Clinical Excellence Panel - Twomey |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | Influenced clinical practice |
Description | RSCLT NW Practice Educators workshop - Twomey |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | The Zoom webinar looked at non-NHS placements, placement grading for the struggling student and supporting the neurodivergent student. |
Description | (TRAINCREASE) - From Social Interaction to Abstract Concepts and Words: Towards Human-centered Technology Development |
Amount | € 899,639 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 952324 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2021 |
End | 12/2023 |
Description | An Investigation of the Physiological Basis of Curiosity in Young Children and Adults - X Chen - Postdoctoral Fellowship |
Amount | £120,453 (GBP) |
Organisation | NorthWest ESRC Doctoral Training Centre |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2024 |
End | 12/2024 |
Description | Can digital parenting interventions benefit early language development. Julian Pine Co-applicant with Danielle Matthews, Silke Fricke, Colin Bannard, Penny Levickis, Cristina McKean and Gideon Salter. |
Amount | £400,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Nuffield Foundation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start |
Description | Investigating the origins of the 'achievement gap': the effects of adversity during pregnancy on later child outcomes - Westermann |
Amount | £239,330 (GBP) |
Organisation | Nuffield Foundation |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2023 |
End | 03/2025 |
Description | PhD studentship - Westermann supervisor |
Amount | £70,002 (GBP) |
Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2023 |
End | 09/2026 |
Description | Senior Leader Apprenticeship - Kaduk |
Amount | £14,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Lancaster University |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2022 |
End | 07/2025 |
Description | The Origins of Infant Word Learning. Brusini. Co-applicant with Lany and Ferry. |
Amount | £447,050 (GBP) |
Organisation | The Leverhulme Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2024 |
End | 06/2028 |
Description | The role of prediction in language development: perspectives from neuroscience |
Amount | £93,911 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ES/V012223/1 |
Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2020 |
End | 10/2022 |
Description | Embodied approaches to early communicative development |
Organisation | University of Manchester |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Collaboration established with Prof Angelo Cangelosi (Computer Science, University of Manchester), Dr. Thea Cameron Faulkner (Linguistics, University of Manchester) to investigate embodied approaches to early communicative development. Standard ESRC grant submitted in late 2019, but unsuccessful. (PI: Twomey, Co-Is: Cangelosi and Cameron-Faulkner) |
Collaborator Contribution | Cangelosi and Cameron-Faulkner contributed to theoretical discussions and made methodological recommendations during the proposal writing process. Had the proposal been successful, Cangelosi would have supervised a postdoc, and Cameron-Faulkner would have supervised a research assistant. |
Impact | Submission of interdisciplinary (developmental psychology and developmental robotics) ESRC Standard Grant. Book chapter (Twomey & Cangelosi, 2020). |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Function words knowledge in toddlers - Brusini |
Organisation | University of Milano-Bicocca |
Country | Italy |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | EEG analysis |
Collaborator Contribution | Testing of Italian toddlers |
Impact | Provided EEG testing and analysis of italian toddlers |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Star words - Katie Alcock |
Organisation | University of Warsaw |
Country | Poland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Katie Alcock is responsible for the UK English assessment as part of this large multilingual project |
Collaborator Contribution | Partners have been responsible for study design, Polish assessment and Norwegian assessment |
Impact | None as yet |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Understanding the changing needs of autistic children in speech and language therapy services: exploring child's priorities and preferences alongside current practice - Twomey |
Organisation | University of Manchester |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Preparation of an NIHR Research for Patient Benefit grant application for a project exploring autistic children's perspectives on the speech and language therapy services they receive |
Collaborator Contribution | PI conceptualised and drafted proposal, liaised with NHS colleagues; Co-Is (University of Sheffield, NHS Manchester Foundation Trust, UoM) consulted on design, assisted with writing |
Impact | n/a |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | 'Introduction to how adults and children understand pronouns' blog for LuCiD website - Liam Blything |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Blog titled 'Introduction to how adults and children understand pronouns'. Introduced topic of researching pronouns, and some reasons for why it is interesting. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | http://www.lucid.ac.uk/news-events-blog/blogs/how-children-and-adults-understand-pronouns/ |
Description | Article published in the Bulletin of Speech and anguager Therapists - Jones and Westermann |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Article published in the Bulletin of Speech and anguager Therapists: Jones, S., & Westermann, G. (2021) Learning the meanings of words: The state of the art. Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Bulletin, Spring 2021, 40-42 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | http://www.lucid.ac.uk/media/2234/40-42-jones-west-3.pdf |
Description | Better Health Start for life, DfE and BBC. Contributor to Home Learning Webinar - Pine |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Julian Pine was a contributor to Home Learning Webinar September 2023 (450 strategic leaders on the call from LAs across the UK) for Better Health Start for life, DfE and BBC. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Chair, organizing committee of the LCICD 2023 - Westermann |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Our aim for this conference is to provide an opportunity for infant and child development researchers (prenatal - 4 years old) with a broad range of interests and methodologies, and at various stages of their career, to come together in a welcoming and research-focused environment. LCICD is single-track, with dedicated poster sessions including 'no-results-yet' posters for early-career researchers, and is characterized by a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/lcicd/ |
Description | Conference presentation. 3rd Joint Meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology & European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Milan, Italy - Altmann, Bazhydai, Westermann |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Altmann, E. C., Bazhydai, M., Westermann, G. (2022, July 19-22). "Let me see that!": Self-directed Exploration in Infants & Adults tested in the context of a new theoretical framework [Conference presentation]. 3rd Joint Meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology & European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Milan, Italy |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://espp-spp-2022.com/program/ |
Description | Conference presentation. 7th Lancaster International Conference on Infant and Early Child Development, Lancaster, UK - Westermann |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Westermann, G., Altmann, E. C., Bazhydai, M. (2022, August 24-26). Curiosity-based exploration as in-the-moment learning progress maximisation [Conference presentation]. 7th Lancaster International Conference on Infant and Early Child Development, Lancaster, UK. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/lcicd/files/2022/08/LCICD2022_ProgrammeBooklet_19-08-2022.pdf |
Description | Conference presentation. 8th Lancaster International Conference on Infant and Early Child Development, Lancaster, UK - Jones |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Presentation given on 'A maturational frequency discrimination deficit may explain developmental language disorder.' The conference was on 23-24 Aug 2023 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/lcicd/ |
Description | Consultancy - Keep Carden School Thriving - Twomey |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Expert opinion provided to campaign not to reduce class sizes at Carden Primary School, Brighton |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://keepcarden2form.school |
Description | Consultancy, Damn Fine Media/BBC Tiny Happy People |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | COnsultancy on script development for BBC's national Tiny Happy People campaign |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/science-and-facts |
Description | Consultant for revision of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds - Cain |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Provided export guidance on the development of materials to support vocabulary development for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds-Revised |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Cross-linguistic differences in mental-state language and Theory of Mind development. Talk presented at Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning 6th - Brandt |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning Workshop (X-PPL) brings together the growing community of researchers working to expand the diversity of languages in the scope of experimental or corpus research on adults or language acquisition. This research is driven by the recognition that structural/typological and socio-cultural diversity represents different opportunities to see processing and learning mechanisms at work. The bulk of processing and acquisition research represents only a small fraction of linguistic diversity, and this risks skewing both our theories and research questions. The Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning Workshop (X-PPL) aims to fill this gap and provide a platform for cross-linguistic research on language processing and learning. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.comparativelinguistics.uzh.ch/en/events/x-ppl2023.html |
Description | External advisor for University of Virginia to develop a survey of teacher knowledge, perceptions, and practices related to early literacy instruction - Cain |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Interview with Live Science, online popular science magazine |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.livescience.com/why-are-humans-curious.html |
Description | External consultant for Education Endowment Fund - Cain |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Provided support and feedback on drafts of the Education Endowment Fund on Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2: Guidance Report (2nd Edition) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/eef-guidance-reports/literacy-ks2/EEF-Improving-literacy-in-ke... |
Description | Facebook group for participant families - Jago |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | We had a Facebook group connecting families of the chidren who took part in the Language 0-7 project. We updated them on the project progression as well as sharing blogs and news articles on language and literacy development |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Fact-checing consultancy for BBC - Twomey |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Fact-checking scripts for videos for BBC Tiny Happy People, which was sharing information for parents. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people |
Description | Filming of a series of parent-focussed videos for the BBC Tiny Happy People website - Ambridge |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Filming of a series of parent-focussed videos for the BBC Tiny Happy People website |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/news/ben-ambridge-presents-a-series-of-short-films... |
Description | How children think - Child Study Centre |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We organised a family fun day ' How Children Think' at the Manchester Central Library as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2019. The event shared research on how children think about the social world, how they learn to reason and cooperate with friends. The event was attend by approx 80 caregivers and babies. Attendees were fascinated to discover more about the way children learn. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://twitter.com/UoM_ChildStudy/status/1184101243435794433/photo/1 |
Description | Input to Welsh Government 'Talk with me' campaign - content featured in social media - Theakston |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Top performing post for 'Talk With Me' campaign in September 2022, reached over 40,000 with over 1000 engagements in English & Welsh versions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.facebook.com/talkwithmewales/ |
Description | Interview - Live Science - Twomey |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interview with Live Science, online popular science magazine |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.livescience.com/why-are-humans-curious.html |
Description | Interview with BBC Tiny Happy people - Westermann |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Article on BBC Tiny Happy People |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/lets-talk-babbling/z89mdp3/ |
Description | Interview with TES, the Times Educational Supplement. May 2022. Featured in the article How to boost low levels of language and attention in EYFS (early years foundation stage) by Megan Dixon. - Jones |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Article in national newspaper |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Invited lecture to linguistics students of Copenhagen University - Lieven |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Lieven, Elena (2022) .Children's learning of noun and verb morphology in Polish, Finnish and Estonian: Experimental and Modelling studies. In this talk I assess the ways in which approaches to language development within the Universal Grammar framework have dealt with challenges from the usage-based approach. I will suggest that, while, of course, humans are evolutionarily adapted for complex learning, nativist proposals including those of innate principles and parameters and linking rules are unnecessary to solve the problem of how children learn their language(s). Many of the proposals coming from nativist approaches invoke learning and processing mechanisms that are similar to those of constructivist, usage-based theories but I will argue that they do not require the innate linguistic structures proposed. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Invited talk to the Linguistics Circle of Copenhagen - Lieven |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Lieven, Elena (2022). UG approaches to language development: How have they responded to challenges from the usage-based approach? In this talk I assess the ways in which approaches to language development within the Universal Grammar framework have dealt with challenges from the usage-based approach. I will suggest that, while, of course, humans are evolutionarily adapted for complex learning, nativist proposals including those of innate principles and parameters and linking rules are unnecessary to solve the problem of how children learn their language(s). Many of the proposals coming from nativist approaches invoke learning and processing mechanisms that are similar to those of constructivist, usage-based theories but I will argue that they do not require the innate linguistic structures proposed. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | LuCiD EDI workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Three sessions on conducting research with special populations (autistic people, d/Deaf people and children with DLD). Follow-up Q&A session |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | LuCiD Seminar April 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Dr Sharon Unsworth (Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands) gave an online talk about Predicting cross-linguistic influence, structural priming and primeability in bilingual children. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/seminar-series/predicting-cross-linguistic-influen... |
Description | LuCiD Seminar December 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Dr Chi-hsin Chen (University of Liverpool) gave a talk about The Dynamics of Early Word Learning |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/seminar-series/the-dynamics-of-early-word-learning... |
Description | LuCiD Seminar February 2024 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Dr Catherine Laing (University of York) gave a talk about Exploring systematicity in the developing lexicon with phonological networks. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/seminar-series/exploring-systematicity-in-the-deve... |
Description | LuCiD Seminar January 2024 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Dr Chiara Gambi (University of Warwick) gave a talk about The generality of expectation violation as a mechanism for language learning. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/seminar-series/the-generality-of-expectation-viola... |
Description | LuCiD Seminar June 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Prof Arielle Borovsky (Purdue University) gave an online talk about Building semantic networks in the early lexicon. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/seminar-series/lucid-online-seminar-building-seman... |
Description | LuCiD Seminar March 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Prof Vsevolod Kapatsinski (University of Oregon) gave a talk about Investigating learning mechanisms with miniature artificial language learning. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/seminar-series/lucid-seminar-investigating-learnin... |
Description | LuCiD Seminar March 2024 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Dr Teodora Gliga (University of East Anglia) gave an online talk about Understanding the Interplay Between Early Conceptual and Vocabulary Learning. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/seminar-series/understanding-the-interplay-between... |
Description | LuCiD Seminar November 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Dr. Claire Monroy (Keele University) gave a talk about Visual habituation in deaf infants and its connections to language. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/seminar-series/visual-habituation-in-deaf-infants-... |
Description | LuCiD Summer conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The annual conference aims to help early career researchers present their work in a friendly environment, and to facilitate greater knowledge sharing between LuCiD sites regarding ongoing projects. The conference sparked lots of questions and discussion. Presentations were given by LuCiD post-docs on the current research and keynotes were given by visiting international co-investigators. The 2021 conference was online and the 2022 and 2023 conferences were held at Lancaster University. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022,2023 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/news/lucid-summer-meeting-2023/ |
Description | LuCiD seminar May 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Prof Tamar Keren-Portnoy (University of York) gave a talk about Infant-led intervention to encourage vocalisations and facilitate word learning. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/seminar-series/an-infant-led-intervention-to-encou... |
Description | LuCiD stall at Manchester Central Library - Zhao |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Engaged with families visiting the library during the half term holiday. Provided activities for the children while talking about the LuCiD research with the parents/carers. New sign-ups to the Manchester Child Study Centre database for families that wanted to take part in LuCiD research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | LuCiD stall at Manchester at Manchester Museum for British Science Week event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | 2023 British Science week event at Manchester Museum. At the Science Fair we showcased our research to school children (over 600 at the event over 2 days) and to members of the public who also attended. The main aim of this programme of activities was to enthuse and inspire young people about science, technology, engineering, and maths and increase their desire to study it to A-level and beyond. It was also a good opportunities to engage with families about our research |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://twitter.com/UoM_ChildStudy/status/1635659809713266689 |
Description | LuCiD stall at Mother and Baby - Lieven |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Public engagement event over 3 days at the Baby and Toddler Show. To share the details of the research projects taking part at LuCiD. Families signed up to the Manchester Child Study Centre database to be involved in future research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://babyandtoddlershow.co.uk/ |
Description | LuCiD workshop on Eye-Tracking and Pupillometry |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Xiaoyun Chen gave the workshop to LuCiD affiliated staff, Post-Docs and PhD students on eye-tracking and pupillometry, covering the following: Design and set up for an eye-tracking study Preferential-looking time data in R Pupillometry and study design Handling pupillary data in R Saccades data in R |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | LuCiD workshop on registered reports |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The workshop run by Judit Fazekas was open to researchers in LuCiD and the wider research community. During the workshop we discussed what registered reports are, what to expect when writing one and the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. There was an interactive exercise about how our future projects could work as registered reports. This workshop was useful to those who were not yet familiar with this approach and for those who already wrote registered reports who shared their experiences. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Monaghan BBC Radio Merseyside 27/4/21 - Impact of lockdown on language development |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Prof Padraic Monaghan gave an interview on BBC Radio Merseyside regarding the impact of the national lockdowns on children's language development. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Organiser and session chair of the paper symposium: Integrating Morphosyntactic and Discourse Cues to Process Sentences: Insights from Turkish, Cantonese, and English] - Chan |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Chan, K. C. J.,Theakston, A.,& Brandt, S. (2023, March). Putting lexical cues into discourse context: A corpus study of relative clauses in child-directed and child speech. Talk presented at the 2023 Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting (SRCD 2023), Salt Lake City, Utah. [Organiser and session chair of the paper symposium: Integrating Morphosyntactic and Discourse Cues to Process Sentences: Insights from Turkish, Cantonese, and English] |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Paper presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR), Newport Beach, California - Jago |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Jago, L., Cain, K., Alcock, K. & Monaghan P. (2022). The longitudinal effect of preschool vocabulary and grammar on school age word reading and reading comprehension: A meta-analysis. Paper presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR), Newport Beach, California "Purpose: This meta-analysis has established the size of the longitudinal effect of preschool oral vocabulary and grammar skills on early school-age word reading and reading comprehension. We build on previous work by examining the longitudinal relationship of vocabulary and grammar on both word reading and reading comprehension in the first years of school (Hjetland et al., 2020). Method: Following PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a pre-registered systematic review to identify all papers that included measures of (a) preschool oral language, and (b) school-age reading up to age 7 years. We screened abstracts of 11,704 unique records, and 274 of these were full-text screened. Results: A total of 71 studies with 88 unique samples, 23,623 participants and 465 effect sizes were included after full-text screening We found preschool vocabulary predicted later reading comprehension and word reading, with a larger effect for comprehension. We found preschool grammar predicted both later word reading and reading comprehension with similar effect sizes. The size of these effects was not impacted by: the use of receptive or productive preschool language measures, the interval between preschool and school assessments, the use of word or non-word measures, or the onset of formal literacy instruction. Conclusions: We found children's preschool vocabulary and grammar skills predicted their school-age word reading and reading comprehension. Comparing vocabulary and grammar, the size of the effect between vocabulary and reading comprehension was larger than that between grammar and both word reading and reading comprehension showing the importance of examining both vocabulary and grammar individually." |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Podcast on language structures for Amplify Reading's 'Science of Reading' podcast - Cain |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Guest on The Science of Reading podcast produced by Amplify Science which delivers insignts from researchers and practitioners in early reading. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://amplify.com/science-of-reading-the-podcast/ |
Description | Poster at LCICD Conference Lancaster - Durrant |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Durrant, S., Kampengele, M., Turnbull, H., Westermann, G., & Twomey, K. (2022). The relationship between curiosity-driven motor exploration and language development. LCICD. Lancaster. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Poster presented at 8th Lancaster International Conference on Infant and Early Child Development, Lancaster, UK - Brandt |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Chan, K. C. J., Theakston, A., & Brandt, S. (2023, August). The Influence of Embedded Noun Phrase Type and Givenness on Young Children's Processing of Relative Clauses. Poster presented at the 8th Lancaster Conference on Infant and Early Child Development (LCICD 2023), Lancaster, UK. Preliminary data and findings were presented at the conference. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/lcicd/ |
Description | Poster presented at SRCD 2023 Biennial Meeting March 23 - 25, 2023, Salt Lake City, USA - Chen |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Chen, S., Ferry, A. & Theakston, A. (2023). The Effect of Partner-Initiated and Infant-Initiated Joint Attention on Word Learning. Poster presented at SRCD 2023 Biennial Meeting March 23 - 25, 2023, Salt Lake City, USA. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/srcd/srcd23/index.php?cmd=Prepare+Online+Program&program_foc... |
Description | Poster presented at the 6th Lancaster Conference on Infant and Early Child Development (LCICD 2021), Lancaster, UK - Kademirci, Theakston and Brandt |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kandemirci, B., Theakston, A., Boeg Thomsen, D. & Brandt, S (2021). Turkish- and English-speaking Children's False-Belief Understanding: The Role of Evidentiality and Source Monitoring. Poster presented at the 6th Lancaster Conference on Infant and Early Child Development (LCICD 2021), Lancaster, UK. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Poster presented at the 7th Lancaster Conference on Infant and Early Child Development, Lancaster, UK - Chan |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Chan, K. C. J., Theakston, A., & Brandt, S. (2022, August). Putting lexical cues into discourse context: A corpus study of relative clauses in child-directed and child speech. Poster presented at the 7th Lancaster Conference on Infant and Early Child Development, Lancaster, UK. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Poster presented at the EPS Keele meeting - Jago |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Jago, L.S., Monaghan, P., Cain, K., Alcock, K., Donnelly, S., Rowland, C., Frost, R., Peter, M., Durrant, S. & Bidgood A. (2022). Grammar but not vocabulary learning at 17 months predicts language skills at 54 months. Poster presented at the EPS Keele meeting. This study determined the extent to which measures of infants' language learning at 17 months old could predict developing language skills at 54 months. We tested 71 children on an artificial language learning task where both vocabulary and grammar learning were assessed. We then determined the extent to which performance on these learning tasks related to multiple measures of natural language vocabulary and grammar at 54 months, just before children began school. Using structural equation modelling, we found that grammar learning, but not vocabulary learning, at 17 months predicted language skills at 54 months, and this relation was general across both later vocabulary and grammar skills. The results were surprising given that a previous study on the same group showed that artificial language vocabulary learning predicted children's vocabulary development up to 30 months (Frost et al., 2020, Cognitive Psychology). Grammar learning thus comes to predict children's language skills at a later stage of maturation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Presentation at Lancaster University for DLD Awareness Day, aimed at parents and practitioners - Jones |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
Results and Impact | Gave a talk entitled 'Practical and theoretical advances in developmental language disorder research'. I focussed on open science initiatives and how they are improving the evidence base in DLD. I also spoke about recent theoretical advances, including my own work on working memory, attention, and predictive processing in DLD. Recieved good feedback from primary school teachers and local speech language therapists (SLTs), one of whom commented that it was great to have an update on the research, because SLTs are often so busy/overwhelmed that they don't often have time to delve into the data and theory behind the tools they use. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/events/developmental-language-disorder-awareness-event |
Description | RCSLT Bulletin magazine article - 'Learning the meaning of words: The state of the art' - Jones |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Article in national magazine for speech language therapists |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.rcslt.org/about-us/bulletin-overview/ |
Description | Report produced for Oldham Council evaluating their 'Real Beginnings' programme run as part of the government's Opportunity Area Programme, and as part of their broader 'Making it REAL' programme - Theakston |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Report produced for Oldham Council evaluating their 'Real Beginnings' programme run as part of the government's Opportunity Area Programme, and as part of their broader 'Making it REAL' programme. Full report here https://oldhamopportunityarea.co.uk/2022/06/27/an-evaluation-of-the-oldham-0-2-real-beginnings-project/ Case study here: http://www.lucid.ac.uk/media/2298/case-study-oldham-real-beginnings.pdf |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | http://www.lucid.ac.uk/resources/for-policy-makers/case-studies/ |
Description | SLT North West forum - Twomey |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Research talk for SLT practitioners |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Seminar Series March 2021 - March 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | We held 17 seminars during this reporting period (March 2021 - March 2023) as part of our Language Development Seminar Series. 3 were held in person and 14 were online (due to the pandemic). These were all well attended with 20-50 people at our in-person seminars and 60-100 at our online seminars. The series has hosted high profile speakers and attracted a wide ranging audience from early years practitioners, speech and language therapists, UG and PG students, academics/ researchers and third sector organisations. Moving the seminars online has allowed a larger audience to attend and to watch the seminars back later. One of our seminars had around 400 views following the seminar and was attended live by around 100 people, greatly increasing our reach. Overall the series has been successful in bringing different stakeholders together and expanding our network and profile. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022,2023 |
URL | http://lucid.ac.uk/resources/for-researchers/lucid-seminar-series/ |
Description | Seminar Series Nov 2019 - Feb 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | We held 9 seminars during this reporting period (Nov 2019 - March 2021) as part of our Language Development Seminar Series. 3 were held in person and 6 were online (due to the pandemic). These were all well attended with 20-50 people at our in-person seminars and 60-100 at our online seminars. The series has hosted high profile speakers and attracted a wide ranging audience from early years practitioners, speech and language therapists, UG and PG students, academics/ researchers and third sector organisations. Moving the seminars online has allowed a larger audience to attend and to watch the seminars back later. One of our seminars had around 400 views following the seminar and was attended live by around 100 people, greatly increasing our reach. Overall the series has been successful in bringing different stakeholders together and expanding our network and profile. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020,2021 |
URL | http://lucid.ac.uk/resources/for-researchers/lucid-seminar-series/ |
Description | Seminar on verbal reasoning for Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network series to celebrate Scarborough's Reading Rope - Cain |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Gave a seminar on the role verbal reasoning in reading comprehension at the 20th celebration of Hollis Scarborough's Reading Rope hosted by the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://pattan.padlet.org/pamkastner/n2ss9artyqc840r |
Description | Talk presented at SRCD 2023 Biennial Meeting March 23 - 25, 2023, Salt Lake City, USA - Chan |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Chan, K. C. J., Theakston, A., & Brandt, S. (2023). Putting Lexical Cues into Discourse: Corpus Study of Relative Clauses in Child-Directed and Child Speech. Talk presented at SRCD 2023 Biennial Meeting March 23 - 25, 2023, Salt Lake City, USA. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/srcd/srcd23/index.php?cmd=Prepare+Online+Program&program_foc... |
Description | Talk presented at the Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD) Mini-Conference 2022, Lancaster, UK - Chan |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Chan, K. C. J., Theakston, A., & Brandt, S. (2022, June). The influence of lexical cues and discourse context on young children's processing of relative clauses. Talk presented at the Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD) Mini-Conference 2022, Lancaster, UK. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Talk to Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Institut für Linguistik - Lieven |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Lieven, Elena (2022). Children's learning of noun and verb morphology in Polish, Finnish and Estonian: Experimental and Modelling studies. In this talk, I will first outline the challenge of understanding how children learn the morphology of their surrounding language, given the huge range of typological variation in inflectional morphology. I will discuss the methods available to explore this learning and the advantages and disadvantages of each method. I will then turn to our experimental and modelling studies of the development of nominal and verbal inflection in Polish, Finnish and Estonian, concentrating on the effects of surface-form frequency, phonological neighbourhood density and class size. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Talk to new parents as part of Wai Yin Society first 1000 days project - Cameron-Faulkner |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presented information on language development and ways to boost language skills in the early years. The audience comprised of new mothers from a range of ethnic minority households. The discussion following the talk was very engaged with many mothers mentioning the helpfulness of the content and their greater awareness of their role in their children's language development following the talk. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | The sound of silence - LuCiD blog post - Westermann and Chan |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Blog post written for the LuCiD website written in an accessible format for members of the public, practitioners and researchers |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/blogs/the-sound-of-silence/ |
Description | Training workshops 2022-2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | We have organised 5 workshops in 2022-23. These workshops address the specific needs of our network of language development researchers, including workshops on Grant writing, Blog writing, Demystifying Bayesian statistics, Online testing with Gorilla and Power Analysis. The workshops have been open to researchers in LuCiD and the wider research community. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
URL | http://lucid.ac.uk/who-we-are/governance/knowledge-exchange-training-forum/ |
Description | Ways to support bilingual development at preschool for Pint of Science 2022 (Manchester) - Chan |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presented research on early bilingual development to ~50 people of the general public who is interested in Linguistics. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/lost-in-linguistics |
Description | Welsh Government 'Talk with me' Speech, Language and Communication Study Day webinar - Theakston |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Over 200 early years professionals attended a National CPD webinar - Speech Language and Communication Study Day as part of the Welsh Government's 'Talk with me' agenda. I delivered a talk focused on complex sentence acquisition, goal to share knowledge and influence practice with supporting families |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.exchangewales.org/talk-with-me-speech-language-and-communication-slc/ |
Description | What role does language play on taking others' perspectives? - LuCiD blog post |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Blog post written to provide research information in an accessible format for members of the public as well as for practitioners and researchers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.lucid.ac.uk/seminars-news-events-blog/blogs/what-role-does-language-play-on-taking-other... |
Description | Whitworth Art Gallery sessions to support minority families, July-Aug 2023, Theakston |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 8 family-focussed play sessions were run in the Whitworth Art Gallery as part of a wider pilot project to examine how to promote language learning opportunities for minority refugee/asylum-seeker families. Our expert input was requested to observe the sessions and provide feedback for the development of a potential longer term project with cultural institutions funded by Nesta |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.nesta.org.uk/project/supporting-parents-and-families-through-playful-museum-intervention... |