2 studentships available

[Mick Perkins]

 DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

TWO NEW FULL-TIME MPHIL/PHD STUDENTSHIPS AVAILABLE

ESRC COLLABORATIVE (CASE) STUDENTSHIP
Project: Adults with persisting childhood speech and language difficulties:
Life experiences and outcomes
Supervisors: Professor Joy Stackhouse (HCS) ; Dr Judy Clegg (HCS); Dr Jeff
Wardle (ICAN)

Project Outline: This project will investigate the cognitive, language and
psycho-social outcomes of 30 adults who were diagnosed with speech and
language difficulties in childhood. They all attended Dawn House School
(DHS), Nottinghamshire; a non-maintained special school managed by ICAN, the
charity that helps children with speech and language difficulties. To
develop their post 16 years service further DHS and ICAN are seeking to
identify what the needs of older adolescents and adults with speech and
language difficulties are with respect to on-going support and further
education. The project will contribute to the academic field by examining
the unfolding nature of developmental speech and language difficulties over
time. Its uniqueness lies in the comprehensive archive files of ex-pupils
held at DHS which include audio and video records and can be examined for
predictors of outcome in adulthood.  It will therefore not only provide
findings for ICAN and DHS to incorporate into their development plans, but
also contribute to theoretical understanding of the developing nature of
speech and language difficulties in children and adults.

UNIVERSITY STUDENTSHIP

Project: Social disadvantage, language, literacy and behaviour in secondary
school-age children

Supervisors: Dr Judy Clegg and Professor Joy Stackhouse

Project Outline: Children from areas of social disadvantage have
impoverished spoken and written language. Although the majority of studies
in this area have originated from the U.S.A (Brownlie et al., 2004), a
leading study carried out in Sheffield by HCS staff showed that 240 children
in nurseries in an area of socio-economic deprivation were significantly
below national norms on tests of speech and language but not cognition
(Locke et al., 2002). This disadvantage was more prevalent in boys than
girls.  This project aims to investigate the spoken/written language of
children in a mainstream secondary school in the same area of socio-economic
disadvantage where preliminary data suggest that a significant number of
adolescents are under-performing at school, particularly in language and
literacy.

Further Information: Both studentships will commence in September 2005 and
include the home tuition fee and the usual research council maintenance
grant. Applicants should have or be completing a Masters Degree in a
relevant area. For further information about the studentships please see the
HCS website http://www.shef.ac.uk/hcs  or contact Professor Joy Stackhouse
j.stackhouse at sheffield.ac.uk   Tel: 0114-222-2455/2429 or Dr Judy Clegg
j.clegg at sheffield.ac.uk . Tel: 0114-222-2450.
Closing date for applications: May 20th 2005