Dr Hannah Nash

Profile

Hannah is a developmental psychologist studying the factors that contribute to typical language and literacy development and why some children experience challenges including DLD, dyslexia and having English as an Additional Language. She is also an advocate for early identification of potential difficulties and is working to develop dynamic assessment tools to help do this is an accurate and inclusive way. Hannah completed her BSc, MsC & PhD at the University of York (2007) and has since worked as a research fellow at Lancaster University, the University of York and most recently UCL, before joining the School of Psychology at Leeds in October 2013. Within the School, Hannah is a core member of the Leeds Developing Minds Lab and a founding member of the Reducing Inequalities Through Education interdisciplinary network.

Responsibilities

• Deputy Director of Research and Innovation

Research interests

Hannah’s research focuses on the experiences and abilities that are important for early reading development and how tools can be designed to best identify those children who are risk of later reading difficulties. She is also interested in the broader and longer term impacts of language and reading difficulties. Hannah regularly collaborates with colleagues in different schools and faculties, including Education, Linguistics and Philosophy. Current presearch projects include: Co-Designing a REading App To use in primary Education Project (CREATE) (funded by ESRC/IAA University of Leeds) project, a follow-on from the DART project in which we are devloping our dyanmic assessment of decoding. The God, Language and Diversity (GLaD) project, where she is exploring the interpretation of complex biblical metaphors in autistic and dyslexic. Vocabulary lteaching & earning in children who have EAL. An ongoing collaboration with Leeds Libraries Service exploring the role of libraries in young children’s reading journeys and their transition into school.

Templeton Foundation () God, Language, and Diversity: Spiritual Flourishing in Neurodiverse and Multilingual Communities. Co-Investigator. £1,541,749

UKRI ESRC (2020) The impact of COVID-19 related school closures on foundation skills in reception children. Principle Investigator. £150,755

The Nuffield Foundation (2018) Can experimental learning tasks identify children at risk of reading difficulties? Principle Investigator. £332,042

Professional memberships

• Voting member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading

Student education

Hannah Teachers an advanced module at level 3 and at Masters level. Her teaching focuses on language and literacy development.

Current postgraduate researchers

• Katy Grainger