We are delighted to welcome our keynote speakers, all of whom are leading authorities in dyslexia research. Please check back for updates as additional speakers are confirmed.
Charles Hulme, University of York
The theory and practice of reading intervention
Margaret Snowling, University of York
Risk factors for dyslexia: evidence from family risk studies
Brian Butterworth, University College London
Mathematics development and impairment
Julie Williams, Cardiff University
Dyslexia Genetics
Richard Olson, University of Colorado
Theoretical and Classroom Implications of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Dyslexia
Kate Cain, Lancaster University
Reading comprehension: what drives development and what leads to difficulties?
Marketa Caravolas, University of Bangor
Cross-linguistic perspectives on dyslexia
David Saldaña, University of Seville
Hyperlexia and Poor Comprehension in Autism
Joel Talcott (Conference Chair), Aston University
Beyond Boundaries
Charles Hulme, University of York
The theory and practice of reading intervention
There is considerable evidence that learning to read depends critically upon a child’s language and phonological skills. I will present evidence from a number of recent studies by our group showing that progress in learning to read aloud (decode) depends critically upon two foundation skills: access to phonemes in speech and knowledge of letter-sounds. Reading comprehension, in addition depends upon higher-level language skills including vocabulary knowledge and grammatical skills. These theoretical findings have implications for interventions to treat and prevent reading failure in children. Recent intervention studies by our group demonstrate that interventions that target phonemic skills and letter sound knowledge help to ameliorate decoding problems in children, while interventions to boost vocabulary and grammatical skills are also effective in boosting the language skills that are the foundation for reading comprehension skills. Charles Hulme is Professor of Psychology at the University of York where he co-directs the Centre for Reading and Language. Charles has broad research interests in reading, language and memory processes and their development and is an expert on randomized controlled trials in Education. He is a former Editor of the journal ‘Scientific Studies of Reading’ (2007-2009) and is currently Associate Editor of the Association of Psychological Science’s flagship journal, Psychological Science. In 2009 he published “Developmental disorders of language, learning and cognition” (Wiley-Blackwell; co-authored with Maggie Snowling).
Margaret Snowling, University of York
Risk factors for dyslexia: evidence from family risk studies
Abstract coming soon.
Maggie Snowling holds a personal Chair in the Department of Psychology at the University of York. She is also a chartered clinical psychologist. Maggie's research focuses on the interface between spoken and written language skills, with a particular emphasis on developmental disorders of reading and language. Maggie is Past-President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading; she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2008 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2009. She is one of the Joint Editors of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and she served as a member of Sir Jim Rose’s Expert Advisory Group on provision for Dyslexia (2009).
Brian Butterworth, University College London
Mathematics Development and Impairment
Coming soon
Julie Williams, Cardiff University
Dyslexia Genetics
Coming soon
Richard Olson, University of Colorado
Theoretical and Classroom Implications of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Dyslexia
Coming soon
Kate Cain, Lancaster University
Reading comprehension: what drives development and what leads to difficulties?
The product of successful reading comprehension is a coherent and accurate representation of the state of affairs described in the text, referred to as a situation model. To construct the situation model, the reader must go beyond the literal meaning of the text, and make links between ideas within the text and between the text and general knowledge. Reading comprehension could not take place without basic word reading ability. However, the identification of children with specific reading comprehension difficulties demonstrates that successful word reading is not sufficient for good reading comprehension. Comprehension is also supported by a range of skills and knowledge including: vocabulary and general knowledge, and the memory and discourse-level skills that support the construction of the situation model.
In this presentation, I will draw on recent research that identifies the skills that support comprehension development in young readers, sources of comprehension difficulty, and consequences of poor reading comprehension.
Marketa Caravolas, Bangor University
Cross-linguistic perspectives on dyslexia
Coming soon
David Saldaña, University of Seville
Hyperlexia and Poor Comprehension in Autism
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders often show a hyperlexic reading profile characterized by a discrepancy between good levels of word reading and poor performance on reading comprehension tasks. Outstanding word reading in autism has sometimes been explained as resulting from unusual visual learning of orthographic word forms in children with limitations in phonological processing. In this talk, I shall review relevant research that indicates that hyperlexic children may also rely on phonology during reading. This shows that a savant-level of word reading is not qualitatively different from reading in typically developing children. Poor comprehension, on the other hand, results from difficulties in text-level processes. Although previous studies found limitations in most inferences needed to comprehend written discourse, some more recent studies suggest that poor comprehenders with autism may be successful in producing some kinds of textual inferences, but not others. I shall be discussing the cognitive profiles of text comprehension in children with autism in view of these conflicting results.
Joel Talcott, Aston University
UK Dyslexia: Beyond Boundaries
Coming soon
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