Professor Jenny Thomson
BMedSci, PhD, MRCSLT
School of Allied Health, Pharmacy, Nursing and Midwifery
Speech and Language Therapist
j.m.thomson@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2440
+44 114 222 2440
Room 303, 362 Mushroom Lane
Full contact details
Professor Jenny Thomson
School of Allied Health, Pharmacy, Nursing and Midwifery
Room 303
362 Mushroom Lane
Sheffield
S10 2TS
School of Allied Health, Pharmacy, Nursing and Midwifery
Room 303
362 Mushroom Lane
Sheffield
S10 2TS
- Profile
-
I joined the department in 2013. Trained as a Speech and Language Therapist, my research and clinical work have been focused on the intersection between language and literacy difficulties. I completed a PhD at the Institute of Child Health, University College London which explored causal mechanisms in developmental dyslexia using both neuroscientific and behavioural measures.
I then continued researching developmental dyslexia through a postdoc at the University of Cambridge (2004-06) and more latterly through Assistant and Associate Professor positions at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (2006-2013). I also hold a visiting position at the National Reading Centre, University of Stavanger, Norway.
- Research interests
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- Developmental dyslexia and digital literacies
- The neuroscience of specific learning disabilities
- Relationships between music, rhythm and literacy
Current Research Projects
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC; 2020-2027): Ensuring Full Literacy in a Multicultural and Digital World is a team of Canadian and international scholars and industry, community and outreach partners who are working to bridge the many dimensions of literacy acquisition in our multicultural and digitally-connected world.
- Erasmus+ Grant (2018-202): A is for App, with school, university and literacy organization partners in Belgium, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.
- Heather van der Lely Foundation (2018-2019): Digital assessment and Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
- Leverhulme Trust Research Grant (2015-2019): Evaluating the effect of exposure to digital text on early literacy development
- White Rose DTC ESRC Network (2015 – 2019): Understanding and enhancing reading and language skills in children learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) (Academic Lead: Anna Weighall (University of Leeds); Collaborators: Claudine Bowyer-Crane and Emma Marsden (University of York), Silke Fricke and Jenny Thomson (University of Sheffield), Anna Weighall and Hannah Nash (University of Leeds); Partners: Born in Bradford (BiB))
- COST E-Read (2014-18) Management Committee and Core Group member
- Publications
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Edited books
- Linguistic Rhythm and Literacy. John Benjamins.
Journal articles
- Enhancing reading through olfactory stimuli: a research agenda to support struggling readers. Reading Research Quarterly, 60(4). View this article in WRRO
- How the type and context of children's storybook reading relate to select empathy skills: a meta-analysis. Early Education and Development. View this article in WRRO
- Toward a consensus on dyslexia: findings from a Delphi study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 66(7), 1065-1076. View this article in WRRO
- Evaluating the impact of vocabulary instruction on oral vocabulary, phonemic awareness and nonword reading. Reading and Writing, 38(6), 1607-1633. View this article in WRRO
- School entry detection of struggling readers using gameplay data and machine learning. Frontiers in Education, 9. View this article in WRRO
- Evidence‐based support provided to struggling readers in later primary years in the UK: a scoping review. Journal of Research in Reading, 47(4), 626-647. View this article in WRRO
- Evaluating English-language morphological awareness assessments. First Language, 44(4), 327-344. View this article in WRRO
- Drawing attention to print or meaning: How parents read with their preschool‐aged children on paper and on screens. Journal of Research in Reading, 47(3), 412-428. View this article in WRRO
- The influence of segmental and suprasegmental phonological awareness on word and pseudoword reading—a comparison between native English speakers and native Chinese speakers of English. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. View this article in WRRO
- A meta-analysis of training effects on English phonological awareness and reading in native Chinese speakers. PsyCh Journal, 12(5), 599-617. View this article in WRRO
- Evidence for use of the Quick Interactive Language Screener (QUILS™) to measure the relationship between socioeconomic status and language development1. Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention, 16(2), 45-51.
- The relationship between developmental language disorder and dyslexia in European Portuguese school-aged children. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 43(1), 46-65.
- The Method of Surgical Lip Repair Affects Speech Outcomes in Children With Bilateral Cleft Lip and Palate. The Cleft Palate Craniofacial Journal, 58(4), 419-428.
- Language and reading development in children learning English as an additional language in primary school in England. Journal of Research in Reading, 43(3), 309-328. View this article in WRRO
- Can children's instructional gameplay activity be used as a predictive indicator of reading skills?. Learning and Instruction, 68, ---.
- Evaluation of an explicit vocabulary teaching intervention for children learning English as an additional language in primary school. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 36(2), 91-108. View this article in WRRO
- Phonology, morphology and speech processing development in Greek-speaking children. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 34(5), 431-452. View this article in WRRO
- The case for morphophonological intervention: Evidence from a Greek-speaking child with speech difficulties. Child Language Teaching & Therapy, 35(1), 5-23. View this article in WRRO
- Developing a Visual Attention Assessment for Children at School Entry. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. View this article in WRRO
- Children learning to read in a digital world. First Monday, 23(10). View this article in WRRO
- The Clinical and Classroom Utility of the Inventory of Reading Occupations: An Assessment Tool of Children’s Reading Participation. Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, 6(2). View this article in WRRO
- Rhythm production at school entry as a predictor of poor reading and spelling at the end of first grade. Reading and Writing, 31(1), 215-237. View this article in WRRO
- The effect of keyboard-based word processing on students with different working memory capacity during the process of academic writing. Written Communication, 34(3), 280-305. View this article in WRRO
- Engaging Struggling Adolescent Readers to Improve Reading Skills. Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3), 357-382.
- The Effects of Visual Attention Span and Phonological Decoding in Reading Comprehension in Dyslexia: A Path Analysis. Dyslexia, 22(4), 322-344. View this article in WRRO
- Immediate Memory and Electrophysiologic Effects of Prefrontal Cortex Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Neurotypical Individuals and Individuals with Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury: A Pilot Study.. International Journal of Neuroscience, 1-28.
- Determining the Internal Validity of the Inventory of Reading Occupations: An Assessment Tool of Children’s Reading Participation. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 70(3). View this article in WRRO
- Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Modulates Efficiency of Reading Processes. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9. View this article in WRRO
- Auditory Temporal Processing Skills in Musicians with Dyslexia. Dyslexia, 20(3), 261-279.
- Does Sight Predominate Sound? Electrophysiological Evidence for Multisensory Mismatch Negativity Correlation. Neurophysiology, 45(5-6), 459-467.
- E-readers are more effective than paper for some with dyslexia.. PLoS One, 8(9), e75634.
- Shorter lines facilitate reading in those who struggle.. PLoS One, 8(8), e71161.
- Links between early rhythm skills, musical training, and phonological awareness. Reading and Writing, 26(5), 739-769.
- Impaired non-speech auditory processing at a pre-reading age is a risk-factor for dyslexia but not a predictor: An ERP study. Cortex, 49(4), 1034-1045.
- Auditory processing interventions and developmental dyslexia: A comparison of phonemic and rhythmic approaches. Reading and Writing, 26(2), 139-161.
- Epilogue to journal of learning disabilities special edition "advances in the early detection of reading risk": Future advances in the early detection of reading risk: Subgroups, dynamic relations, and advanced methods. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 43(4), 383-386.
- Introduction: Advances in early detection of reading risk.. J Learn Disabil, 43(4), 291-293.
- Auditory processing and early literacy skills in a preschool and kindergarten population.. J Learn Disabil, 43(4), 369-382.
- Learning novel phonological representations in developmental dyslexia: Associations with basic auditory processing of rise time and phonological awareness. Reading and Writing, 23(5), 453-473.
- Common variance in amplitude envelope perception tasks and their impact on phoneme duration perception and reading and spelling in Finnish children with reading disabilities. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30(3), 511-530.
- Auditory discrimination and auditory sensory behaviours in autism spectrum disorders.. Neuropsychologia, 47(13), 2850-2858.
- The ERP signature of sound rise time changes.. Brain Res, 1254, 74-83.
- Sensitivity to rhythmic parameters in dyslexic children: a comparison of Hungarian and English. READING AND WRITING, 22(1), 41-56.
- Rhythmic processing in children with developmental dyslexia: auditory and motor rhythms link to reading and spelling.. J Physiol Paris, 102(1-3), 120-129.
- General auditory processing, Chinese tone processing, English phonemic processing and English reading skill: A comparison between Chinese-English and Korean-English bilingual children. Reading and Writing, 21(6), 627-644.
- Dynamic development and dynamic education.. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev, 72(3), 150-156.
- Auditory and motor rhythm awareness in adults with dyslexia. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, 29(3), 334-348.
- Phonological similarity neighborhoods and children's short-term memory: typical development and dyslexia.. Mem Cognit, 33(7), 1210-1219.
- Auditory processing skills and phonological representation in dyslexic children.. Dyslexia, 10(3), 215-233.
- Deficits in beat perception and dyslexia: Evidence from French. NeuroReport, 15(8), 1255-1259.
- Amplitude envelope onsets and developmental dyslexia: A new hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 99(16), 10911-10916.
Book chapters
- Digitisation of reading assessment, Studies in Written Language and Literacy (pp. 205-224). John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Cognitive processes and digital reading, Studies in Written Language and Literacy (pp. 57-90). John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Learning to read in a digital world, Studies in Written Language and Literacy (pp. 225-238). John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Chapter 5. The Neural Basis of Speech Rhythm Perception, Trends in Language Acquisition Research (pp. 99-110). John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Auditory processing and developmental dyslexia: throwing the baby out with the bathwater?, Contemporary Perspectives on Reading and Spelling (pp. 36-53). Routledge
- Education and New Technologies In Sheehy K & Holliman A (Ed.) Routledge
- Contemporary Perspectives on Reading and Spelling In Wood C & Connelly V (Ed.) Routledge
Conference proceedings
- Learner-oriented game design: the evolution of cipher. 2024 IEEE Gaming, Entertainment, and Media Conference (GEM), Vol. 2024 (pp 1-6). Turin, Italy, 5 June 2024 - 5 June 2024. View this article in WRRO
- Karaton: An Example of AI Integration Within a Literacy App (pp 91-96)
- Enhancing language learning for dyslexic learners: Integrating text-to-speech AI in CALL. CALL for Humanity - EuroCALL 2024 Short Papers, 10 September 2024 - 11 September 2024.
Preprints
- Linguistic Rhythm and Literacy. John Benjamins.