Position: Graduate student Office: Room 510, Main Building Birkbeck College, Malet Street Phone: 020 7631 6468 Fax: 020 7631 6312 Email: penrose.knowland@gmail.com

My cosy experimental niche in the dog-stabs-dog-in-the-back-then-eats-dog world of the developmental neurocognition lab is the cognitive basis of developmental language disorders. I have a particular interest in the ontological role of phonological processing difficulties in dyslexia.

One of the most significant debates in dyslexia research is the specificity of the underlying cognitive deficit, or deficits, and the possibility that multiple developmental pathways could lead to difficulties acquiring literacy at school.

With a view to illuminating the steps of one possible such pathway my first study aims to help make sense of some of the literature on low level sensory processing. Specifically I'll be considering the role of sensory integration during speech perception in children with phonological processing difficulties, which strongly correlate with literacy problems, or younger children at risk of such difficulties.

My work is ultimately concerned with helping understand language disorders at a level that is relevant to the development of new strategies for clinical intervention.

Publications

Thomas, M. S. C. & Knowland, V. C. P. (in press). Sensitive periods in brain development: Implications for education policy. European Psychiatric Review. Click here for PDF version (99K)

Nardini, M., Thomas, R. L., Knowland, V. C. P., Braddick, O. J., & Atkinson, J. (2009) A viewpoint-independent process for spatial reorientation. Cognition, 112, 241-248. Click here for PDF version (219K)

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