Professor Jenny Thomson
BMedSci, PhD, MRCSLT
Human Communication Sciences, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery
Speech and Language Therapist
+44 114 222 2440
Full contact details
Human Communication Sciences, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery
Room 303
362 Mushroom Lane
Sheffield
S10 2TS
- Profile
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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
- Erasmus+ Grant (2018-202): A is for App (https://www.aisforapp.eu/), with school, university and literacy organization partners in Belgium, the Netherlands and 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: http://ereadcost.eu/index.php/en/
- Publications
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Edited books
- Linguistic Rhythm and Literacy. John Benjamins.
Journal articles
- Evaluating the impact of vocabulary instruction on oral vocabulary, phonemic awareness and nonword reading. Reading and Writing.
- The relationship between developmental language disorder and dyslexia in European Portuguese school-aged children. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology.
- Can children's instructional gameplay activity be used as a predictive indicator of reading skills?. Learning and Instruction, 68. View this article in WRRO
- Evaluation of an explicit vocabulary teaching intervention for children learning English as an additional language in primary school. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. View this article in WRRO
- Language and reading development in children learning English as an additional language in primary school in England. Journal of Research in Reading. View this article in WRRO
- Phonology, morphology and speech processing development in Greek-speaking children. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. View this article in WRRO
- Developing a Visual Attention Assessment for Children at School Entry. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. View this article in WRRO
- The case for morphophonological intervention: Evidence from a Greek-speaking child with speech difficulties. Child Language Teaching & Therapy. 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. View this article in WRRO
- 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. View this article in WRRO
- Determining the Internal Validity of the Inventory of Reading Occupations: An Assessment Tool of Children’s Reading Participation. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 70, 7003220010p1-7003220010p9. 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.
- E-readers are more effective than paper for some with dyslexia.. PLoS One, 8(9), e75634. View this article in WRRO
- Shorter lines facilitate reading in those who struggle.. PLoS One, 8(8), e71161. View this article in WRRO
- 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.
- Does Sight Predominate Sound? Electrophysiological Evidence for Multisensory Mismatch Negativity Correlation. Neurophysiology, 45(5-6), 459-467.
- Links between early rhythm skills, musical training, and phonological awareness. Reading and Writing, 26(5), 739-769.
- Auditory processing interventions and developmental dyslexia: A comparison of phonemic and rhythmic approaches. Reading and Writing, 26(2), 139-161.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Rhythmic processing in children with developmental dyslexia: auditory and motor rhythms link to reading and spelling.. J Physiol Paris, 102(1-3), 120-129.
- 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.
- Evidence‐based support provided to struggling readers in later primary years in the UK: A scoping review. Journal of Research in Reading.
- Evaluating English-language morphological awareness assessments. First Language.
- Drawing attention to print or meaning: How parents read with their preschool‐aged children on paper and on screens. Journal of Research in Reading.
- 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.
- A
meta‐analysis of training effects on English phonological awareness and reading in native Chinese speakers. PsyCh Journal. - 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, 1-7.
- The Method of Surgical Lip Repair Affects Speech Outcomes in Children With Bilateral Cleft Lip and Palate. The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, 105566562095687-105566562095687.
Chapters
- Auditory processing and developmental dyslexia: throwing the baby out with the bathwater?, Contemporary Perspectives on Reading and Spelling (pp. 36-53). Routledge
- Chapter 9. Digitisation of reading assessment, Studies in Written Language and Literacy (pp. 205-224). John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Chapter 3. Cognitive processes and digital reading, Studies in Written Language and Literacy (pp. 57-90). John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Chapter 10. Learning to read in a digital world, Studies in Written Language and Literacy (pp. 225-238). John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Education and New Technologies Routledge
- Chapter 5. The Neural Basis of Speech Rhythm Perception, Linguistic Rhythm and Literacy (pp. 99-110). John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Contemporary Perspectives on Reading and Spelling Routledge
Conference proceedings papers
- Learner-Oriented Game Design: The Evolution of Cipher. 2024 IEEE Gaming, Entertainment, and Media Conference (GEM), Vol. 00 (pp 1-6), 5 June 2024 - 5 June 2024.
- Karaton: An Example of AI Integration Within a Literacy App (pp 91-96)
Preprints