We welcome applications for a PhD CASE studentship funded by the ESRC and DownsEd International to study “Precursors to speech and language development in infants with Down syndrome”. The 3-year studentship is available from 1st October 2009, and will be supervised by Dr Vesna Stojanovik & Dr Carmel Houston-Price at the University of Reading, and Dr Michèle Pettinato at Down Syndrome Education International. The focus of the project is how infants with Down syndrome acquire language and specifically, which cognitive factors best predict language outcomes.

The University of Reading is one of the leading research institutions in the UK and is strongly committed to providing postgraduate research training of the highest standard. At the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, we have a thriving research community, dedicated research laboratories, a state of the art Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics. More information on our research strengths may be obtained by visiting our web site

http://www.reading.ac.uk/pcls

The candidate will join the Child Development Research Group

http://www.reading.ac.uk/psychology/research/child-development/cognitive-perceptual-subgroup.asp

which focuses on investigations of typical and atypical development of cognitive and perceptual skills.

Minimal requirement for application is a good (1st or 2:1 class or equivalent) BA/BSc Degree in Linguistics, Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, Neuroscience or a related field and a distinction or merit from an ESRC recognised MA/MSc degree in the fields mentioned above. The candidate should also have some experience of working with children, a clean driving license and competence with using statistical packages for data analysis and experience of assessing human behaviour. The studentship is for 3 years, covers tuition fees and provides a maintenance fund to students who have a relevant connection to the UK. See eligibility criteria (page 11):

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/GUIDANCE%20MARK%202_tcm6-7186.pdf

Applications Deadline: 01-Jun-2009

Mailing Address for Applications:

Attn: Dr Vesna Stojanovik
School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences
University of Reading
Reading RG6 6AL
United Kingdom

Contact Information:

Dr Vesna Stojanovik
v.stojanovik@reading.ac.uk
Phone:+44 (0)118 3787456

Please kindly mention Scholarshiponline.info when applying for this scholarship