The Developmental Psychology Research Group at Liverpool Hope University aims to advance our knowledge of how humans develop from early childhood to adulthood. We use a broad range of methods (eg laboratory-based experiments, surveys, interviews, ethnographic, longitudinal designs, cross-cultural studies, etc). The main objective is to understand the cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioural factors that promote positive psychological functioning and wellbeing across different populations (eg typically developing children, adolescents, and adults, as well as those with developmental disorders or mental health conditions).
Doctoral Studentship News
We are also pleased to announce an invitation for applications for Doctoral Studentships (Inclusive of a Part-time Demonstrator Role) in the field of Developmental Psychology supervised by members of the Research Group (closing date 6th February, 2022):
Project title: The development, reliability and validity of a psychometric neurodevelopmental measure of binding competence for use in educational and clinical settings.
Primary Supervisor: Dr Lorna Bourke - (bourkel@hope.ac.uk)
Co-Supervisors: Dr Simon Davies, Dr Jamie Lingwood
Project title: Co-sharing technology for language, literacy and mathematics in the Early Years home environment
Primary Supervisor: Dr Lorna Bourke (bourkel@hope.ac.uk)
Co-Supervisors: Dr Tom Gallagher-Mitchell, Dr Jamie Lingwood.
Group Members
Academic
Dr Belen Lopez-Perez (Coordinator)
Dr Lorna Bourke
Dr Jamie Lingwood
Dr Pinar Oztop - From the Department of Early Childhood
Student
Mrs Linda Kerr
Miss Shayne Polias
Latest externally funded project news
Creative Education Foundation
The Ruth B Noller Research Grant funds a project investigating creative problem solving in children aged 4-9 years. (Belen Lopez-Perez and Pinar Oztop).
Website: https://www.creativeeducationfoundation.org/
Economic and Social Research Council
The Road To Recovery COVID-19 Project funded by UKRI/ESRC is looking at the impact of, and recovery from COVID-19 on families with children and young people with a range of intellectual disabilities across the UK. (Dr Gallagher-Mitchell Co-I).
The Road to Recovery team has been extremely busy over the last six months and there are exciting findings to share with you. We have been working with a number of charities including Down Syndrome Association, Fragile X Society, Scottish Autism Society, Contact (Wandsworth/Battersea), Le Petit Extra (London), Future of Down's, and Wouldn't Change a Thing. It has been fantastic to work with so many engaged charities who have been sharing our work and encouraging families to take part in our project in order to share the experiences of families with children who have intellectual difficulties (ID).
Summaries of initial findings from this stage of the study can be located here. Please note this page is hosted by one of our grant partners the University of Edinburgh.
The project has collected some data about some parents’ experiences of lockdown. You can read more here.
Our survey is still ongoing, so there is still time for parents to share their experiences with us, but we would like to share some of the survey results with you thus far. We have had over 130 parents complete the online survey, half of which have a child with ID and half do not. Hearing from both groups of parents and carers offers a helpful comparison when assessing the impacts of the pandemic and lockdown on families.
The findings are very important and we are so grateful to all the parents that have shared their experiences with us thus far. However, we need to hear from more parents to build a clearer picture on how to best support families as we transition out of lockdown.
If any parents would like to take part, they can do so here.
Website: https://esrc.ukri.org/
Impact of COVID-19 on children and adolescents
The group is conducting different projects looking at the impact of COVID-19 in the lives of children and their families, as well as the implications for different contexts such as schooling.
Cognitive and Social-Emotional Processes, Language, Literacy, Numeracy
There are several different projects investigating children’s language, literacy and numeracy development from a number of different psychological perspectives using a range of research methodologies. The Group also investigates the impact of anxiety and disadvantage in learning, and the development of creativity and cross-cultural influences in teaching across the lifespan.
Projects include the following:
1. The impact of face coverings on language processing and emotion recognition in young children aged 4-8 years (experimental and survey methods)
2. Creativity, decision making and emotion in children aged 4-9 years (experimental and survey methods).
Further details for projects 1 and 2 can be found here.
3. The development, reliability and validity of a psychometric neurodevelopmental measure of binding competence for use in educational and clinical settings
4. Co-sharing technology for language, literacy and mathematics in the Early Years home environment (observation and survey methods)
5. What white working class boys, their teachers and parents have to say about learning to read in the Early Years Setting (visual ethnographic and interview methods)
6. The development and validation of a self-report scale for measuring cognitive and emotional components of the home numeracy environment in parents/carers. (survey and focus-group methods).
The Reader
Shared book reading and well-being
Recently, the group has also developed a new partnership with a local shared reading charity called The Reader. By working together, we are exploring the role that shared reading has on children’s wellbeing.
Website: https://www.thereader.org.uk/
Creative Education Foundation
Economic and Social Research Council
The Reader
The British Psychological Society