I am interested in the factors influencing the reading skills of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and specific language impairments (SLI).

My PhD will focus on three main areas:
1) Whether children with ASD read via the same processes as typically developing children

2) Factors associated with reading comprehension and whether ‘special interests’ of children with ASD can aid comprehension of words

3) How children with ASD learn to read new words and develop understanding of the meaning of these words

I am supervised by Dr Courtenay Norbury and am part of the Literacy, Language and Communication (LiLaC) research group http://www.pc.rhul.ac.uk/sites/lilac/new_site/