Research news | Helen Arkell

BBC Inside Our Minds – Could you take part?

Chris Packham and the BBC are looking for people with dyslexia, for a programme they will be doing soon.

If you are over 18 and have a dyslexia diagnosis, they would like to hear from you.

Take a look at the short BBC video here and email dyslexia.insideourminds@bbc.com with your name and phone number or your own video if you wish.

Good luck!

By Helen Mortimer|2024-04-25T10:31:05+01:00April 23rd, 2024|Homepage featured, Latest news, Research news|0 Comments

University of Surrey needs dyslexia research advisory group volunteers

Dyslexia research volunteers needed

A group of researchers in the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey are interested in adolescents’ social and emotional experiences related to reading difficulties, so that they can better support them in the future.

They would like to involve you as a group of experts by experience to ensure their dyslexia research is relevant to adolescents with reading difficulties.

Volunteers for their dyslexia research advisory groups will give feedback on the design of the research project and recruitment materials to be used in the subsequent study itself: “Understanding the mechanisms underpinning poor mental health outcomes in children with reading disorders”.

The University of Surrey team are looking for volunteers to join 3 advisory groups:

The panels will meet online about 3 times during the year for approximately an hour.

You will be asked to read some materials before these meetings.

In the meetings, you will be asked to provide your thoughts on parts of the research.

Please contact Jovana Durica at UnRAP@surrey.ac.uk if you are interested in joining the group or if you would like more information.

By Helen Arkell|2024-04-24T09:29:34+01:00April 7th, 2024|Homepage featured, Latest news, Research news|0 Comments

New Spotlight: Assistive Technology: Practical Demonstrations

In January we ran a great Spotlight entitled Empowering Learning: The How of Assistive Technology. This Spotlight gave an overview of Assistive Technology and how it can be used to enhance learning outcomes for neurodiverse students.

People who attended this Spotlight let us know that they are also keen to see the Assistive Technology in action so, we have invited Myles Pilling and Julia Clouter back to do just this!

The Spotlight Assistive Technology: Practical Demonstrations will be held live online on Tuesday 23 April at 6 pm with a recording available afterwards. The live webinar will include a Q & A session. Tickets are £10.

You can find out more and book here: https://helenarkell.org.uk/events/spotlight-assistive-technology-practical-demonstrations/

See you there!

By Helen Mortimer|2024-04-24T09:29:43+01:00March 13th, 2024|Course news, Latest news, Research news|0 Comments

What are the research priorities for the dyslexia community? Help us to find out!

We are delighted to be working with our colleague, Dr Cathy Manning and her colleagues at the University of Reading, on a collaborative research project asking people with dyslexia, and those people who support them, what are their research priorities about dyslexia. This will help inform the direction of future research efforts and guide our focus to those areas that matter most to the dyslexia community.

We are looking for people who are aged 18 years or over who:

have a diagnosis of dyslexia, OR,
are a parent/caregiver/other family member of a person with a dyslexia diagnosis.

The nature of this practical research will include you completing a brief questionnaire and being invited to a focus group (online or face-to-face) with 5 to 7 others. You will be asked some questions about your views on dyslexia research and what you would like to be researched in the future. The session will last around an hour.

If you are interested in participating, or would like to find out more, please contact Dr Cathy Manning (c.a.manning@reading.ac.uk; 0118 378 3454), Raveen Rayat (r.rayat@student.reading.ac.uk), Ella Callus (e.m.callus@student.reading.ac.uk) or Dr Holly Joseph (h.joseph@reading.ac.uk). Please note, that by getting in touch to find out more, you are not committing to participate in the study.

We look forward to hearing from you!

By admin|2024-04-24T09:30:04+01:00February 10th, 2024|Latest news, Research news|0 Comments

Research into Augmented Reality for teaching reading

Martyn is a lecturer and Ph.D. student at the University of Greenwich, working within the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences with a focus on Video Games Development. He is currently researching reading and phonics and have developed an augmented reality application designed for phonics instruction. He is reaching out to schools in the hope of gaining expert opinions from teachers and additional learner support professionals regarding the application and its potential applications in teaching phonics.

Are you an education professional who can help with this study? Do you have experience using classroom-based tools and techniques for phonics instruction?

What does the research involve?

If you decide to participate in this research, you will be provided with a link to install an app. You will also be provided an associated booklet. You will use the app and consider how the app might function as phonics teaching tool. You can use the app as much, or as little as you like. There is no charge for the app or booklet, and you can keep booklet and app after the study. The app does not store or collect any personal data.
As a participant, you will be invited to join a series of interviews and/or focus groups. Attendance at all sessions is not mandatory; you can participate in the discussions either online or in person. The in-person focus groups will be held at the University of Greenwich, and each session will last no longer than one hour.
At this stage, no children are involved.

You can access the Participant Information Sheet here

You can find out more about the app and the study here

You can contact Martyn and join the study by emailing him at m.p.broadhead@greenwich.ac.uk

By Helen Mortimer|2024-04-24T09:30:05+01:00February 2nd, 2024|Homepage featured, Latest news, Research news|0 Comments

Can you help with dyslexia research?

Bayan is a third-year psychology student at Brunel University. She’s conducting a study on how people with dyslexia and different reading abilities process emotional faces. It involves completing a series of standard psychology questionnaires on your phonological processing and your general emotional state, this will be followed by two short tasks where you will classify a series of emotional faces.

Can you help with this research? It is anonymous and open to over 18s who do and do not have dyslexia.

Complete the questionnaire here.

By Helen Mortimer|2024-04-24T09:30:09+01:00January 26th, 2024|Homepage featured, Latest news, Research news|0 Comments

Calling university students with or without dyslexia

We are delighted to be able to share trainee clinical psychologist Holly’s further request for help with her research into dyslexia and emotions that she is conducting for her PhD from Royal Holloway University London. Many of you were kind enough to help Holly design her research process. Whether or not you helped with this, we would like you to take part in the research.

If you are an undergraduate university student with or without dyslexia, Holly would love you to answer a few questions. You will receive a £5 Amazon voucher as a thank you for taking part.

You can find out more below and you can take part here:

https://research.sc/participant/login/dynamic/0915B1FF-BD40-426A-9DC8-51AF1A163CA7

By Helen Mortimer|2024-04-24T09:30:19+01:00December 5th, 2023|Latest news, Research news|0 Comments

What are your dyslexia research priorities?

Are you an adult with dyslexia? Perhaps you are a parent or caregiver to a person with dyslexia. Our friends at University of Reading are keen to hear from you on what direction you think dyslexia research should take. What should the priorities be?

Please take their 5-minute survey here.

Thank you!

By Helen Mortimer|2024-04-24T09:30:28+01:00November 7th, 2023|Latest news, Research news|0 Comments

UK uni students wanted to answer quick questionnaire

Are you a UK uni student aged 18-23? Could you help Simon from Sunderland University with his MSc in Psychology? Simon is conducting interesting research into early versus late dyslexia diagnosis. No formal diagnosis is needed; if you have self-diagnosed or you are a student without dyslexia, we would love you to take part too.

The study is a 10-minute online questionnaire accessed below.

Thank you!

Take part here.

By Helen Mortimer|2024-04-24T09:32:54+01:00August 15th, 2023|Latest news, Research news|0 Comments

Research request: dyslexia and reading enjoyment

Hannah and her team Royal Holloway University are studying reading enjoyment in adults with dyslexia to see whether a person will wait to read more of a book and other reading behaviours (eg comprehension, reading anxiety) in those with and without dyslexia.

Could you take part? The online task takes around 30 minutes.

Hannah is looking for:

Those with dyslexia
Between ages 18-30
Without any other neurodevelopmental condition that could affect learning, including autism, ADHD, epilepsy, or genetic disorders.
Those who are native English speakers (defined as attending school in a majority English-speaking country from age 5).
With normal or corrected to normal vision and hearing
Please use a computer, laptop or tablet to complete the study rather than a mobile device.

Scan the QR code on the poster to go to the study, or click here.