Causal models of developmental disorders

The examples used will come from studies of children’s reading and language disorders. In studies of such disorders we can probably never practically or ethically manipulate the ultimate causes (genes and environments) of a disorder. Professor Hulme will argue, however, that identifying causes at the Cognitive Level of explanation is crucial for planning effective treatments/interventions for these disorders. Furthermore, if interventions are successful we may, using mediation analyses, get close to identifying the proximal causes for different disorder.

About the speaker:
Charles Hulme is Professor of Psychology and Education at the University of Oxford and is a William Golding Senior Research Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford. Charles has broad research interests in reading, language and memory processes and their development and is an expert on randomized controlled trials in Education. Publications include a number of assessment materials including the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (2009), the Phonological Abilities Test (1997), Sound Linkage (2014) and The Test of Basic Arithmetic and Numeracy Skills (2015) as well as several books dealing with various aspects of reading development. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the journal ‘Scientific Studies of Reading’ (2007-2009) and is currently a Senior Editor of the Association of Psychological Science’s flagship journal, Psychological Science. In 2009 he published “Developmental disorders of language, learning and cognition” (Wiley-Blackwell; co-authored with Maggie Snowling). He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Oslo (2014) and is a member of Academia Europea and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He received the Feitelson Research Award from the International Reading Association (1998) and the Marion Welchman International Award for Contributions to the study of Dyslexia from the British Dyslexia Association (2016). He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2017.