A mother and young daughter sitting in a hanging chair on a mezzanine, reading a picture book together. Also visible are a well-filled bookcase and a balastrude.

Families, Education and Development

Early care and education lay the foundations for children’s development. Our research group comprises psychologists, sport and exercise scientists, and vision scientists. We investigate factors shaping physical and psychological development, and we devise and evaluate interventions aimed at helping children to flourish.

Children’s development is influenced profoundly by the adults in their lives who care for them and guide their learning. Our psychologists conduct research on families, education and children’s social, emotional and cognitive development, methods of identifying children facing developmental challenges, and how to provide support. Our research projects include the study of parent-child interaction, children’s pro-social behaviour, child and youth mental health, developmental outcomes of children with early acquired brain injury, and the maturation of memory and thinking skills.

Our staff are also involved in interventions to improve outcomes for infants born very preterm, children with visual impairment, and children growing up in areas of socio-economic deprivation, as well as applying findings from cognitive neuroscience to improve educational practices.

Our sport and exercise scientists evaluate techniques of sports coaching for different age groups, carry out performance analysis of sport, and study student transition to higher education.

Finally, our vision scientists seek to improve the detection of abnormal vision development in children, address the needs of children and adults with visual impairment and evaluate the effectiveness of innovative low vision aids.

If you would like to find out more about what we do, please email [email protected]

Our people

  • Martina Finessi: Cascade project: Parent-led social skills intervention for children with visual impairment (Supervisor: Dr Elena Sakkalou)
  • Shannon Mann: The role of gesture for children with Developmental Language Disorder (Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Kirk)
  • Pamela Muya: Developing a culturally sensitive intervention in DR Congo for improving teaching practices for children with ASD (Supervisor: Dr Ruth Ford)
  • Apoorva Pozhamangalath: Learning about pro-social behaviour from digital media (Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Kirk)

We collaborate with researchers from many other universities in the UK and overseas, the NHS, and charities. We provide consultancy for early years and school readiness services and participate regularly in public science festivals. We are keen to apply our research expertise to tackling real-world problems relating to children’s development. If you are interested in working with us, please email [email protected]

  • LEAP into Learning: An early intervention to improve the school readiness of preschoolers from socio-economically disadvantaged homes.
  • Little Thinkers: A metacognitive approach to using picture books to improve preschoolers’ executive functions.
  • My First Emotions: A multisensory resource for helping young children learn to understand and manage their emotions.
  • Cascade project: Parent-led social skills training for children with ASD.
  • Parental responsiveness to infant cues (gesture, crying).
  • Using MRI to explore the neural correlates of language, memory and executive functions in children with early acquired brain injury.
  • Using digital media to teach children pro-social behaviour.
  • Applying findings from cognitive neuroscience to education.

Geva, S., Hoskote, A., Saini, M., Clark, C. A., Banks, T., Kling Chong, W. K., Baldeweg, T., de Haan, M. and Vargha‐Khadem, F. (2024) 'Cognitive outcome and its neural correlates after cardiorespiratory arrest in childhood', Developmental Science. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13501

Ford, R. M., Stets, M., Redsell, S., D'Amore, A. and Johnson, S. (2025) 'Lending a helping hand to preterm infants: Randomized controlled trial of the impact of 'sticky mittens' on exploratory behavior and later development', Early Human Development, 202, 106215.

Timmis, M. A., Hibbs, A., Polman, R., Hayman, R. and Stephens, D. (2024) 'Previous education experience impacts student expectation and initial experience of transitioning into higher education', Frontiers in Education, 9, 1479546.

Timmis, M. A., Humphrey, K., Strongman, C., Scruton, A., Winnard, Y. and Cavallerio, F. (2024) '“You've already, kind of, got the wheels moving a little bit”; Students' value of pre-arrival support in transitioning into higher education', Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 35, 100521.

Dale, N., Sakkalou, E., Eriksson, M. H. and Salt, A. (2024) 'Modification and validation of an autism observational assessment including ADOS-2® for use with children with visual impairment', Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 56(1), pp. 83-99. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06514-z

Stephens, D., Stodter, A. and Timmis, M. (2024) 'Who Coaches the Coaches? Exploring the Biographies of Novice Athletics Coach Education Tutors', International Sport Coaching Journal, 12(2), pp. 169-179. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2022-0112

Timmis, M. A., Pexton, S. and Cavallerio, F. (2022) 'Student transition into higher education: Time for a rethink within the subject of sport and exercise science?', Frontiers in Education, 7, 1049672.

Sakkalou, E., O’Reilly, M. A., Sakki, H., Springall, C., de Haan, M., Salt, A. T. and Dale, N. J. (2021) 'Mother–infant interactions with infants with congenital visual impairment and associations with longitudinal outcomes in cognition and language', Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 62(6), pp. 742-750.

Geva, S. and Fernyhough, C. (2019) 'A penny for your thoughts: Children's inner speech and its neuro-development'. Frontiers in Psychology. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01708

Kvavilashvili, L. and Ford, R. M. (2022) 'Metamemory for involuntary autobiographical memories and semantic mind-pops in 5-, 7- and 9-year-old children and young adults', Child Development, 93(5), e484-e500. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13794

Ford, R. M. and Lobao, S. N. (2019) 'Exploring individual differences in self-reference effects for agency and ownership in 5- to 7-year-olds', British Journal Developmental Psychology, 37(2), pp. 168-183. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12265

Macnaughton, J. and Latham, K. (2017) 'Assessment of central visual functions in patients with low vision: a review of commonly used tests and strategies', Optometry in Practice, 18(2), pp. 63-72.

Geva, S., Cooper, J. M., Gadian, D. G., Mishkin, M. and Vargha-Khadem, F. (2016) 'Impairment on a self-ordered working memory task in patients with early-acquired hippocampal atrophy', Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2016.06.001

Lalor, S. J. H., Formankiewicz, M. A. and Waugh, S. J. (2016) 'Crowding and visual acuity measured in adults using paediatric test letters, pictures and symbols', Vision Research, 121, pp. 31-38.