Institute of Education London

Dr Yvonne Griffiths

• Qualifications and position:
  • BSc, PhD
  • Lecturer in Psychology and Special Education
• Faculty:
  • Faculty of Policy and Society
• Department:
  • Department of Psychology and Human Development
• Summary:
  • I have a long-standing research interest in the linguistic, cognitive and environmental predictors of individual variation in word reading and spelling difficulties (dyslexia). Other topics include: evidence-based practice (assessment and intervention for literacy learning difficulties); dyslexia in different writing systems; reading and spelling development in intellectual disabilities; spoken word recognition.
• Teaching:
  • Lecturer on the Special & Inclusive Education MA/MSc.
    Research Design & Methodology (module co-ordinator).
    Concepts & Contexts of Special and Inclusive Education.
    Inclusive Education: Theory & Practice.
    Language Development.
    Understanding SpLDs (dyslexia).
    Assessing SpLDs (dyslexia) (London and Cairo).
    Evidence- Practice for SpLDs (dyslexia).
    Introduction to Psychology I.
• Research Projects:
  • Current / recent research projects include:
    1. Implicit and explicit learning of gpc rules/knowledge in good and poor readers (unfunded). With Janet Vousden (Coventry), Morag Stuart (IOE) and Jackie Masterson (IOE).
    2. Reading comprehension, motivation and reading habits in secondary age pupils (with Sarah McGeown (Hull) and Lynne Duncan (Dundee), Sue Stothard/Secondary YARC team (York).
    3. Senior Research Officer working with Sir Jim Rose and DCSF (SEN and Disability division) on a review of provision for pupils with dyslexia (September 2008 - April 2009)
• Postgraduate Research:
  • I am interested in supervising PhD projects in the area of developmental disorders of literacy and language.
    Second supervisor to Aruna Rudra 'Cognitive correlates of poor and advanced reading abilities in children'. PhD completed (2005)
    Second supervisor to Catherine Lowe 'Possible causes of the good reader/poor speller type B spelling pattern in English adolescents'. PhD completed (2010)
    Second supervisor to Mary-Jane Budd 'Simulating children's picture naming and auditory repetition'. PhD completed (2010)
    First supervisor to Emily Colchester 'Can we improve children's spelling ability by teaching morphemes through text reading? An intervention study exploring the relationship between morphological awareness and literacy'. DEdPsy completed (2010)
• Professional Activities:
  • Member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading; Dyslexia Guild.
    External Examiner: BSc (Hons) Psychology with Sociology; BSc (Hons) Psychology with criminology; BSc (Hons) Psychology with sports science, NTU, (2010- )
    External panel member for accreditation of MA Applied Child Psychology (NTU, 2009) Member of Editorial Board: Child Language Teaching and Therapy (2011- )
    Reviewer for: Journal of Research in Reading, Cognition, Cognitive Neuropsychology, Applied Psycholinguistics, Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, Language and Cognitive Processes, Scientific Studies of Reading, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, British Journal of Developmental Psychology, British Journal of Educational Psychology, Brain and Language, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology; ESRC; Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)
• Conferences/presentations:
  • Lowe, C. Masterson, J. & Griffiths, Y.M. (2010). Predictors of irregular word and non-word spelling in 11-15 year old students, Poster presented at SSSR meeting, Berlin.
    
    Budd, M.J., Hanley, J.R. & Griffiths, Y.M. (2010). Models of speech errors - a developmental study. Paper presented at EPS, Liverpool
    
    Rose review of dyslexia. Invited keynote (representing IOE and DCSF) for UKTI Barcelona SEN seminar and UKTI Lisbon SEN, 2009.
    
    The evidence based informing the Rose review. University of Reading – workshop for dissemination of the recommendations from the Rose (2009) dyslexia review to teaching professionals. Oct 2009, Jan 2010.
    
    Griffiths, Y.M. & Caravolas, M.C. (2008). A developmental study of implicit sequence learning in good and poor spellers. Poster presented at the 7th International Conference of the British Dyslexia Association, Harrogate, UK.
    
    Lowe, C., Masterson, J., & Griffiths, Y.M. (2008) Potential causes of below average spelling ability in able readers. Paper presented at the EPS meeting, Cambridge.
    
    Budd, M.J., Hanley, J.R. & Griffiths, Y.M. (2008) Models of speech errors - a developmental study. Poster presented at New Directions in Word Learning workshop / EPS, York.
    
    Griffiths, Y.M. (2008). Individual differences in auditory word gating skills in poor readers. Paper presented at the CRL Summer Workshop, University of York.