Lorraine Howard

I am a full-time second year PhD student currently studying at the University of Stirling. I am just about to transfer to the University of Northumbria where my principal supervisor, Prof Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon, is Assistant Dean of the School of Psychology and Sports Sciences. My second supervisor, Dr Alex Gillespie is at the University of Stirling. My studies involve investigation of early language development. Sixty-four mothers and their infants between the ages of 9-11 months were recruited at the start of the study, and these continue to be followed for a total of 20 months to gauge their progress. The study focuses on different types of intervention, therefore dyads are allocated to different training provisions. There are 4 groups in total: Group 1 receiving training in enhanced gestural input, Group 2 in enhanced verbal input, Group 3 in enhanced play, and Group 4 receives no direct intervention but completes formal assessments. The aim is to compare the different intervention methods to ascertain whether some are more successful than others. I have set up a website www.babytalkscotland.co.uk which outlines some of the background to my investigations.

I have recently commenced a second snapshot study at Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Glasgow. This looks at interactions between children who have ENT conditions and their parents.

 

I previously studied at Aberdeen and Manchester Universities in the 1980s before becoming a teacher of Deaf children. In 2003 I gained a Post-Graduate Certificate in Sign Language Interpreting from Heriot-Watt University. Between 2005-2007 I undertook my undergraduate Psychology studies through the Open University where I was awarded a First Class degree. I gained an MSc in Psychological Research Methods from the University of Stirling in 2008. I'm a mature student, interested in many different areas of psychology but particularly areas of developmental psychology, including relationships between thought and gesture, theory of mind, socio-emotional development , and representation.

I enjoy different cultures and languages, including Deaf culture and BSL.

In December 2007 I undertook a small-scale study of culturally Deaf and non-signing hearing participants to investigate their comparative sensitivity to incremental changes in emotional facial expressions.

My MSc dissertation project, under the supervision of Dr Sarah-Jane Vick, focused on paired preschool children's interactions with animals and robots. This looked at social referencing, touch, posture, and the children's cognitive understandings of the stimuli involved. Results included that children continued to social reference to the adult rather than to a familiar peer, and that there were categorization difficulties for robots that had a mammalian-type appearance (fluffy, large round eyes, etc.).

 

'Does it bite?' a mixed methods study into interactions between children and animals (MSc dissertation).

'Early language development: what are the comparative merits of different intervention methods?'

I worked with 3 x 3rd yr groups whilst they develop their Developmental projects and am about to work as a lab demonstrator in March.