Professor Danielle Matthews
School of Psychology
Professor of Psychology
+44 114 222 6548
Full contact details
School of Psychology
Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (ICOSS)
219 Portobello
º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½
S1 4DP
- Profile
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I research how children learn to talk, in particular how infants and young children learn from experience to use words and grammar in a communicatively effective way.
Video for parents: how do babies learn to communicate?
Babies communicate long before they say their first words. This video highlights some of the major steps on the path to language.
National Deaf Children's Society video series: Supporting communicative development for babies with any level of hearing loss
With the help of a large group of families, we made these videos to help parents to support communicative development from birth to two years. Find out more on the website.
We have also been supporting the development of the wonderful new resources at BBC Education's
If you would like to take part in studies with your child, please see the page and volunteer.
- Research interests
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Pragmatic development
Examples of pragmatic abilities that I have been interested in include children’s ability to:
- point and vocalise to direct another person’s attention
- repair failed communicative exchanges
- adapt referring expressions to their interlocutor’s perceptual state and the prior discourse
- produce speech that adheres to Greenfield’s Principle of Informativity
- manage given and new information in conversation
- produce narratives (talk about events removed in space and time)
- form referential pacts
- resolve anaphoric pronouns
- learn the function of plurifunctional words like ´the´ and `a´ (that are so hard for non native speakers of English to master)
- seek out contextual information to explain a speaker’s unexpected use of a given expression
- make global and local inferences when understanding a story book
- hold a conversation (work with )
My current research is concerned with the learning mechanisms that allow the development of a broad set of pragmatic abilities. We are interested in how conversational experience (that can differ as a function of, e.g., deafness) explains pragmatic development, and what the consequences are for later outcomes and social wellbeing.
Language development and deafness
The development of communication and language is at risk for most deaf babies and young children. We have been investigating how early interaction can support development. See our video series above!
Socio-economic circumstances and language development
Upon moving to º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½, I became interested in the relation between social disadvantages and language development. Although there are well established correlations, it is not well understood why this is so and there is relatively little evidence about what practical steps could be taken to promote preschool language development so all children arrive at school with the language skills that can help them to thrive. I'm interested in using properly controlled intervention studies to test causal hypotheses. We are currently working to answer questions such as:
To what extent are different measures of socio-economic circumstance correlated with measures of language learning?
How are different caregiver approaches to supporting language development associated with socio-economic circumstances?
Can we support early caregiver-child interaction and mitigate the risk of language delay associated with social disadvantage?
Do early interventions work and are they a good idea?
How do SEC differences in different cultures around the world compare?
Word learning
With former PhD students Ed Donnellan and , I have investigated how communicative skills in early infancy, namely gaze-coordinated vocalisations and gestures, combine with caregiver responses to predict individual differences in word learning.
The learnability of grammar
Part of my PhD and later work with was designed to contribute to the learnability debate in grammatical development. The aim here is to explain how the cognitive biases children bring to language acquisition interact with properties of the ambient language(s) to shape development.
- Publications
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Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
Journal articles
- . Journal of Clinical Medicine, 11(18).
- . Child Development.
- . Pediatrics, 146(Supplement 3), S262-S269.
- . Pediatrics, 146(Supplement 3), S310-S315.
- . Developmental Science, 23(1).
- . The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.
- . Language Learning and Development.
- . Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(10), 1122-1131.
- . Psychological Science, 28(7), 954-966.
- . Child Development, 88(1), 156-166.
- . IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, 5(3), 240-248.
- . Journal of Pragmatics, 59, 26-39.
- . Developmental Science, 15(6), 817-829.
- . Developmental Psychology, 46(4), 749-760.
- . Cognitive Science, 34(3), 465-488.
- . Psychological Science, 19(3), 241-248.
- . Child Development, 78(6), 1744-1759.
All publications
Books
- . John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Journal articles
- . Journal of Intellectual Disability Research.
- . First Language.
- . First Language, 014272372311726-014272372311726.
- . Journal of Clinical Medicine, 11(18).
- . JMIR Research Protocols, 11(7).
- . Nutrients, 13(10).
- . First Language.
- . Child Development.
- . Pediatrics, 146(Supplement 3), S262-S269.
- . Pediatrics, 146(Supplement 3), S310-S315.
- . Child Development.
- . Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 70.
- . Developmental Science, 23(1).
- . Journal of Child Language.
- . The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.
- . Language Learning and Development.
- . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 166, 178-189.
- . Journal of Child Language, 1-17.
- . Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(10), 1122-1131.
- . Psychological Science, 28(7), 954-966.
- . Child Development, 88(1), 156-166.
- . Nursery World, 2016(25), 17-20.
- . Journal of Environmental Psychology, 41, 74-80.
- . IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, 5(3), 240-248.
- . Applied Psycholinguistics, 1-28.
- . Journal of Pragmatics, 59, 26-39.
- . Topics in Cognitive Science, 4(2), 184-210.
- . Developmental Science, 15(6), 817-829.
- . Developmental Psychology, 46(4), 749-760.
- . Cognitive Science, 34(3), 465-488.
- . Journal of Child Language, 37(2), 465-470.
- . Journal of Child Language, 37(1), 222-228.
- . Language and Cognitive Processes, 25(1), 115-129.
- Langauage development: An introduction, 7th edition.. Journal of Child Language, 37(1), 222-228.
- . Cognitive Linguistics, 20(3), 599-626.
- . Psychological Science, 19(3), 241-248.
- . Child Development, 78(6), 1744-1759.
- . Journal of Child Language, 34(2), 381-409.
- . Journal of Child Language, 33(4), 910-916.
- . Cognitive Science, 30(6), 1027-1052.
- . Applied Psycholinguistics, 27(3), 403-422.
- . Cognitive Development, 20(1), 121-136.
- . Deafness & Education International, 1-18.
- . Frontiers in Psychology, 6.
- .
- . International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(8), 4107-4107.
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Chapters
- , The Curated Reference Collection in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology (pp. 38-50).
- First language acquisition, Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 389-409).
- , Language in Interaction (pp. 175-190). John Benjamins Publishing Company
- The communicative infant from 0-18 months: The social-cognitive foundations of pragmatic development. In Matthews D (Ed.), Pragmatic Development in First Language Acquisition John Benjamins
- Referential communication In Kempe V & Brooks P (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of Language Development Sage
- Two- and 3-year-olds’ linguistic generalizations are prudent adaptations to the language they hear. In Arnon I & Clark EV (Ed.), Experience, Variation and Generalization: Learning a first language. (pp. 153-166). John Benjamins Publishing Company
- Grammar. In Haith M & Benson J (Ed.), Language, Memory, and Cognition in Infancy and Early Childhood. (pp. 192-204). Academic Press Inc
- Grammar In Haith M & Benson J (Ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development. (pp. 38-50). Academic Press Inc
- , Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development, Three-Volume Set (pp. V2-38-V2-50).
Preprints
- , Center for Open Science.
- , JMIR Publications Inc..
- .
- .
- . Journal of Clinical Medicine, 11(18).
- Research group
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Current PhD students
Rosemary Wareham-O’Brien - How deaf infants learn to communicate during parent-infant interaction.
Current researchers
Gideon Salter - Do video materials help parents to support infant development? Testing effects on infant communication.
Kiera Solaiman - Research Assistant Do video materials help parents to support infant development?
Former PhD students
Emma Thornton
- Grants
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Funded projects
- BBC Education, D. Matthews (PI) and J. Pine 2021-2023. Evaluation of the Tiny Happy People programme.
- Leverhulme Trust, K. Abbott Smith (PI), Matthews, Leekham, (2020-23) The cognitive constraints on children’s ability to manage a conversation topic.
- UKRI GCRF L. Shapiro (PI), Farrow, Wadende, Matthews, Mooya & Koteng (2019-2022) A school closer to home: using mealtimes to foster language development, improve girls' nutrition and align home and school in rural Kenya and Zambia
- British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship, D. Matthews, (2018-19) Pragmatic Development: How children learn to use language in social interaction.
- University of º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ Legacy, D. Matthews (2018-19) Supporting communicative development in deaf babies with any level of hearing loss.
- ESRC, Large Grant to C. Rowland (PI) D. Matthews, J. Billington, R. Levy, T Cameron-Faulkner, A. Hesketh, C. Davies (co-PIs), (2015-2018) How to promote children's language development using family-based shared book reading.
- British Academy, Small Research Grant to D. Matthews & C. Bannard (co-PIs), (2014-2016) What role does statistical learning play in children’s pragmatic development?
- Nuffield Foundation to D. Matthews (PI), J. Herbert & J. Pine (2011-2012) Does promoting parents’ contingent talk with their infants benefit language development?
- British Academy, Small Research Grant: to D. Matthews (PI), J. Herbert & J. Pine (2011-2012) Does promoting parents’ engagement with their infants benefit language development?
- British Academy UK-Latin America and the Caribbean Link Scheme to D. Matthews (PI) & A. Carmiol (2010-2012) Communicative Development: A cross-linguistic, cross-cultural comparison.
- Teaching activities
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Teaching: Teaching: Undergraduate: Developmental Psychology (2nd year); Pragmatic Development (3rd year); BSc Research Project.
Postgraduate: Ethics; Current Issues in Psychological Research; MSc Research Project.
Admin: Research Cluster Lead for Cognition and Neuroscience
- PhD Opportunities
I am happy to receive applications for PhD study in my area of research.
We advertise PhD opportunities (Funded or Self-Funded) on
For further information, please see the department PhD Opportunities page.
Links