FW: Research Fellow: Specific Language Impairment

[D.J.Messer]

Dear colleagues,

We would be grateful if you could circulate the information for this
two-year postdoctoral Research Fellow position at London South Bank
University. 

Many thanks,

Lucy Henry

Dr. Lucy Henry
Reader in Psychology
Department of Psychology
London South Bank University
103 Borough Road
London SE1 0AA
henrylc at lsbu.ac.uk




FACULTY OF ARTS & HUMAN SCIENCES
RESEARCH FELLOW: SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT & EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING
£30,478 - £35,808 PA - 2 YEAR FIXED TERM

We seek a talented individual for a project investigating Executive
Functioning abilities in young people with Specific Language
Impairment. The project has been funded by an ESRC award. 

You will have a higher degree in a relevant subject and have
experience of working with young people. For further informal
discussion and clarification of the role please contact Dr Lucy Henry
(henrylc at lsbu.ac.uk) or Professor David Messer
(d.j.messer at open.ac.uk).

For full details & application form, please visit
www.lsbu.ac.uk/humanres or send a stamped addressed envelope to HR,
LSBU, 103 Borough Road, London SE1 0AA. Please quote REF: X3064.
Closing date: 26 October. An Equal Opportunities Employer.


Start date: 1 January 2008


Further information about the project

This research investigates executive functioning (EF) abilities in
young people with specific language impairment (SLI).   SLI is a
common neurodevelopmental disorder marked by language delays that are
out of line with the young person's other abilities.  Executive
functioning refers to the higher order cognitive skills required for
novel tasks with no well-learned patterns of responding.  Recent
theoretical approaches have suggested that brain regions implicated in
EF show abnormalities in young people with SLI.  Therefore, the aim of
this research is to provide a thorough investigation of a broad range
of their EF skills.  In particular, the work will assess whether young
people with SLI have weaknesses in EF over and above their language
difficulties.  Carefully chosen matched measures of EF will either
involve tasks which are language based or do not involve language to
test this hypothesis.  Young people with SLI will be compared to
typical peers of similar non-verbal intellectual ability and age on
these two sets of EF measures, to determine whether they have
difficulties with either or both sets of EF tasks.  Further analyses
will examine detailed predictions concerning the precise links between
different aspects of EF skill and particular language weaknesses such
as poor vocabulary and grammatical impairments. 


Main Activities and Responsibilities

1.      To make final submissions for ethical approval.
2.      To negotiate with schools to ensure efficient recruitment of
appropriately matched samples of children with and without SLI.
3.      To timetable the recruitment and testing of children for the
research project.
4.      To administer standardised and non-standardised language
assessments, non-verbal ability and executive functioning tests (data
collection).
5.      To score and interpret these tests.
6.      To manage data sets.
7.      To have major responsibility for data analysis.
8.      To be involved in the writing up of findings and provision of
feedback to schools and relevant professionals.




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