School of Education
Childhood and Inclusive Education
The core activity of the Childhood and Inclusive Education team has traditionally been associated with Special Educational Needs. This aspect of education has long been a focus of interest and research strength in the School of Education and is associated with specialist programmes of study at Masters and doctoral levels.
Research Interests
Within the Special Educational Needs strand, research interests include learning difficulties, motor impairment/movement difficulties, deaf education, developmental disorders, childhood, inclusion and empowerment and reading and language disorders.
Research topics include:
- the characteristics of effective inclusive provision
- children with movement difficulties
- intervention using parents and teachers
- early intervention and family support
- home-school partnership
- pupil participation
- the deployment of teaching assistants
- sign bilingualism among deaf children
- childhood, inclusion and empowerment
- the arts, communication and well-being in children's lives
- reading and language disorders
- Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down Syndrome
Supervision of research students
Learning difficulties: Dr Mary Chambers, Dr Sue Pearson, Professor David Sugden
Motor impairment/movement difficulties: Prof David Sugden, Dr Mary Chambers
Deaf Education and Deaf studies: Dr Ruth Swanwick
Reading and language disorders, Autism Spectrun Disorder, Down Syndrome, school based interventions, training programmes for teaching assistants: Dr Paula Clarke
General topics in special educational needs and inclusive education: Dr Mary Chambers, Dr Sue Pearson, Professor David Sugden
Research Group Activities
All members of the Childhood and Inclusive Education team are actively involved in research activity. Recent and ongoing projects are referred to in the project section and publications are referred to in their individual web pages. A programme of research seminars in Childhood and Inclusive Education involves presentations by staff and research students as well as external speakers.