Kate Nation | |
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Occupation | Professor of Experimental Psychology |
Awards |
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Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of York (BS, DPhil) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Psychologist |
Sub-discipline | Language development |
Institutions | St. John's College,Oxford |
Kate Nation is an experimental psychologist and expert on language and literacy development in school age children. [1] [2] She is Professor of Experimental Psychology and Fellow of St. John's College of the University of Oxford,where she directs the ReadOxford [3] project and the Language and Cognitive Development Research Group. [4]
Nation won the Spearman Medal in 2000,an award given by the British Psychological Society for outstanding published work by an early career psychologist. [5] Nation's Spearman Medal lecture focused on children with poor reading comprehension whose deficits in language processing often go unnoticed. [6]
Nation gave the 2007 Experimental Psychology Society Prize lecture on "Making connections between learning to read and reading to learn." [7] She was awarded the 2018 AJLD Eminent Researcher Award from Learning Difficulties Australia in recognition of her research on "how children learn to read words and comprehend text,and more generally,the relationship between spoken language and written language." [8]
Nation received her B.S. and DPhil in Psychology from the University of York. Her dissertation,focusing on children's spelling development,was completed in 1994. Her early research,supervised by Charles Hulme,focused on young children's ability to form analogies between a visually presented stimulus word and a similar sounding target word to be spelled. [9]
Nation worked as a research fellow at the University of York for five years before being appointed as Lecturer in Psychology in 1999. [4] As an early career researcher,Nation collaborated with Maggie Snowling on studies of individuals with reading difficulties,which distinguished the clinical profiles associated with dyslexia [10] and impaired reading comprehension. [11] Their collaborative work highlighted the importance of oral language skills in addition to phonological skills in the development of reading. [12]
Nation moved to the University of Oxford in 2002,where she teaches students in fields of psychology,psycholinguistics,and neuroscience. [4] Nation is an affiliated researcher at the ARC Center of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders at Macquarie University, [13] [14] where she has collaborated with Anne Castles on studies of orthographic processes in reading. [15] [16]
Nation's research has been supported by grants from the Economic and Social Research Council, [17] the Wellcome Trust,the Nuffield Foundation, [18] and the Leverhulme Trust. [19]
Nation's research program has focuses on the psychology of language and literacy,in typical children and in clinical populations such as children with autism spectrum disorder. [20] [21] Her work indicates that both phonological processing deficits and language comprehension deficits contribute to the development of reading difficulties. [22] [23] Such findings have implications for designing targeted interventions for children with poor reading comprehension skills.
Dyslexia,also known as reading disorder,is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words,reading quickly,writing words,"sounding out" words in the head,pronouncing words when reading aloud and understanding what one reads. Often these difficulties are first noticed at school. When someone who previously could read loses their ability,it is known as alexia. The difficulties are involuntary and people with this disorder have a normal desire to learn. People with dyslexia have higher rates of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),developmental language disorders,and difficulties with numbers.
In psychology,theory of mind refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them. This includes the knowledge that others' mental states may be different from one's own states and include beliefs,desires,intentions,emotions,and thoughts. Possessing a functional theory of mind is considered crucial for success in everyday human social interactions. People use such a theory when analyzing,judging,and inferring others' behaviors. The discovery and development of theory of mind primarily came from studies done with animals and infants. Factors including drug and alcohol consumption,language development,cognitive delays,age,and culture can affect a person's capacity to display theory of mind.
Mixed receptive-expressive language disorder is a communication disorder in which both the receptive and expressive areas of communication may be affected in any degree,from mild to severe. Children with this disorder have difficulty understanding words and sentences. This impairment is classified by deficiencies in expressive and receptive language development that is not attributed to sensory deficits,nonverbal intellectual deficits,a neurological condition,environmental deprivation or psychiatric impairments. Research illustrates that 2% to 4% of five year olds have mixed receptive-expressive language disorder. This distinction is made when children have issues in expressive language skills,the production of language,and when children also have issues in receptive language skills,the understanding of language. Those with mixed receptive-language disorder have a normal left-right anatomical asymmetry of the planum temporale and parietale. This is attributed to a reduced left hemisphere functional specialization for language. Taken from a measure of cerebral blood flow (SPECT) in phonemic discrimination tasks,children with mixed receptive-expressive language disorder do not exhibit the expected predominant left hemisphere activation. Mixed receptive-expressive language disorder is also known as receptive-expressive language impairment (RELI) or receptive language disorder.
Reading for special needs has become an area of interest as the understanding of reading has improved. Teaching children with special needs how to read was not historically pursued due to perspectives of a Reading Readiness model. This model assumes that a reader must learn to read in a hierarchical manner such that one skill must be mastered before learning the next skill. This approach often led to teaching sub-skills of reading in a decontextualized manner. This style of teaching made it difficult for children to master these early skills,and as a result,did not advance to more advanced literacy instruction and often continued to receive age-inappropriate instruction.
Phonological awareness is an individual's awareness of the phonological structure,or sound structure,of words. Phonological awareness is an important and reliable predictor of later reading ability and has,therefore,been the focus of much research.
Specific language impairment (SLI) is diagnosed when a child's language does not develop normally and the difficulties cannot be accounted for by generally slow development,physical abnormality of the speech apparatus,autism spectrum disorder,apraxia,acquired brain damage or hearing loss. Twin studies have shown that it is under genetic influence. Although language impairment can result from a single-gene mutation,this is unusual. More commonly SLI results from the combined influence of multiple genetic variants,each of which is found in the general population,as well as environmental influences.
A reading disability is a condition in which a person displays difficulty reading. Examples of reading disabilities include:developmental dyslexia,alexia,and hyperlexia.
Language disorders or language impairments are disorders that involve the processing of linguistic information. Problems that may be experienced can involve grammar,semantics (meaning),or other aspects of language. These problems may be receptive,expressive,or a combination of both. Examples include specific language impairment,better defined as developmental language disorder,or DLD,and aphasia,among others. Language disorders can affect both spoken and written language,and can also affect sign language;typically,all forms of language will be impaired.
Dame Uta Frith is a German-British developmental psychologist at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. She has pioneered much of the current research into autism and dyslexia. She has written several books on these subjects,arguing for autism to be seen as a mental condition rather than as one caused by parenting. Her Autism:Explaining the Enigma introduces the cognitive neuroscience of autism. She is credited with creating the Sally–Anne test along with fellow scientists Alan Leslie and Simon Baron-Cohen. She also pioneered the work on child dyslexia. Among students she has mentored are Tony Attwood,Maggie Snowling,Simon Baron-Cohen and Francesca Happé.
In psychology and neuroscience,executive dysfunction,or executive function deficit,is a disruption to the efficacy of the executive functions,which is a group of cognitive processes that regulate,control,and manage other cognitive processes. Executive dysfunction can refer to both neurocognitive deficits and behavioural symptoms. It is implicated in numerous psychopathologies and mental disorders,as well as short-term and long-term changes in non-clinical executive control.
Language-based learning disabilities or LBLD are "heterogeneous" neurological differences that can affect skills such as listening,reasoning,speaking,reading,writing,and math calculations. It is also associated with movement,coordination,and direct attention. LBLD is not usually identified until the child reaches school age. Most people with this disability find it hard to communicate,to express ideas efficiently and what they say may be ambiguous and hard to understand It is a neurological difference. It is often hereditary,and is frequently associated to specific language problems.
Dyslexia is a reading disorder wherein an individual experiences trouble with reading. Individuals with dyslexia have normal levels of intelligence but can exhibit difficulties with spelling,reading fluency,pronunciation,"sounding out" words,writing out words,and reading comprehension. The neurological nature and underlying causes of dyslexia are an active area of research. However,some experts believe that the distinction of dyslexia as a separate reading disorder and therefore recognized disability is a topic of some controversy.
Dyslexia is a complex,lifelong disorder involving difficulty in learning to read or interpret words,letters and other symbols. Dyslexia does not affect general intelligence,but is often co-diagnosed with ADHD. There are at least three sub-types of dyslexia that have been recognized by researchers:orthographic,or surface dyslexia,phonological dyslexia and mixed dyslexia where individuals exhibit symptoms of both orthographic and phonological dyslexia. Studies have shown that dyslexia is genetic and can be passed down through families,but it is important to note that,although a genetic disorder,there is no specific locus in the brain for reading and writing. The human brain does have language centers,but written language is a cultural artifact,and a very complex one requiring brain regions designed to recognize and interpret written symbols as representations of language in rapid synchronization. The complexity of the system and the lack of genetic predisposition for it is one possible explanation for the difficulty in acquiring and understanding written language.
Educational neuroscience is an emerging scientific field that brings together researchers in cognitive neuroscience,developmental cognitive neuroscience,educational psychology,educational technology,education theory and other related disciplines to explore the interactions between biological processes and education. Researchers in educational neuroscience investigate the neural mechanisms of reading,numerical cognition,attention and their attendant difficulties including dyslexia,dyscalculia and ADHD as they relate to education. Researchers in this area may link basic findings in cognitive neuroscience with educational technology to help in curriculum implementation for mathematics education and reading education. The aim of educational neuroscience is to generate basic and applied research that will provide a new transdisciplinary account of learning and teaching,which is capable of informing education. A major goal of educational neuroscience is to bridge the gap between the two fields through a direct dialogue between researchers and educators,avoiding the "middlemen of the brain-based learning industry". These middlemen have a vested commercial interest in the selling of "neuromyths" and their supposed remedies.
Margaret Jean Snowling is a British psychologist,and world-leading expert in language difficulties,including dyslexia. She is currently President of St John's College,Oxford and Professor in the Department of Experimental Psychology,University of Oxford. Snowling was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2016 for services to science and the understanding of dyslexia. She was born in South Shields.
Dorothy Vera Margaret Bishop is a British psychologist specialising in developmental disorders specifically,developmental language impairments. She is Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford,where she has been since 1998. Bishop is Principal Investigator for the Oxford Study of Children's Communication Impairments (OSCCI). She is a supernumary fellow of St John's College,Oxford.
Developmental language disorder (DLD) is identified when a child has problems with language development that continue into school age and beyond. The language problems have a significant impact on everyday social interactions or educational progress,and occur in the absence of autism spectrum disorder,intellectual disability or a known biomedical condition. The most obvious problems are difficulties in using words and sentences to express meanings,but for many children,understanding of language is also a challenge. This may not be evident unless the child is given a formal assessment.
Susan Ellis Weismer is a language and communication scientist known for her work on language development in children with specific language impairment and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). She is the Oros Family Chair and Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin–Madison,where she is a Principal Investigator and Director of the Language Processes Lab. She has also served as the Associate Dean for Research,College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD) - previously called semantic-pragmatic disorder (SPD) or pragmatic language impairment (PLI) - is a disorder in understanding pragmatic aspects of language. People with SCD have special challenges with the semantic aspect of language and the pragmatics of language. Individuals have difficulties with verbal and nonverbal social communication.
Jane Oakhill is a British cognitive psychologist and expert on the development of reading comprehension. She holds the position of Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex.