Writtle University College and ARU have merged. Writtle’s full range of college, degree, postgraduate and short courses will still be delivered on the Writtle campus. See our guide to finding Writtle information on this site.

Development and Lifespan Group

Smiling grandmother being being kissed on cheek by child

Members of the Development and Lifespan Group focus on childhood development of memory, language, social cognition, visual attention and multimodal integration.

We work with typically and atypically developing populations.

The Development and Lifespan Group is part of the ARU Centre for Mind and Behaviour.

We offer a Psychology PhD. We have also identified a range of innovative research project opportunities for postgraduate researchers.

For more information, contact Dr Ruth Ford at [email protected].

Members

Find out more about our group members on their profile pages.

Find out more about our group members on their profile pages.

Read more about read more about academic staff.

  • Syeda Asma
  • Doris Denon-West
  • Martina Finessi
  • Sara Gowers
  • Lilla Gyimes
  • Fiona Howe
  • Fathima Kodakkadan
  • Ann Pettit

  • Stefania Cangemi

Ford, R. M., & McLean, T. (in press). Self-processing and social functioning in autistic preschoolers. British Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Belcher, H. L., Uglik-Marucha, N., Vitoratou, S., Ford, R. M., & Morein-Zamir, S. (in press). Gender bias in autism screening: Measurement invariance of different model frameworks of the Autism Quotient. BJPsych Open.

Kuppen, S. (2023) 'Supporting Students in School. BACP Children, Young People and Families', British Association for Counselling Psychologists, June 2023, pp. 26-28.

Belcher, H. L., Morein-Zamir, S., Stagg, S. D., & Ford, R. M. (2023). Shining a light on a hidden population: Social functioning and mental health in women reporting autistic traits but lacking diagnosis. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53(8), 3118-3132.

Preston, C. and Kirk, E. (2022) 'Exploring the development of high-level contributions to body representation using the rubber hand illusion and the monkey hand illusion', Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 223, 105477. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105477

Crossland, A., Kirk, E. and Preston, C. (2022) 'Interoceptive sensibility and body satisfaction in pregnant and non-pregnant women with and without children', Scientific Reports, 12(1), 16138. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-20181-z

Kirk, E., Donnelly, S., Furman, R., Warmington, M., Glanville, J. and Eggleston, A. (2022) 'The relationship between infant pointing and language development: A meta-analytic review', Developmental Review, 64, 101023. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2022.101023

Kvavilashvili, L., & Ford, R. M. (2022). Metamemory for involuntary autobiographical memories and semantic mind-pops in 5-, 7- and 9-year-old children and young adults. Child Development, 93(5), e484-e500

Ryder, N., Kvavilashvili, L., & Ford, R. M. (2022). Effects of incidental reminders on activity-based prospective memory in 5- and 7-year-old children. Developmental Psychology58(5), 890-901. doi:10.1037/dev0001035.

Belcher, H., Morein-Zamir, S., Mandy, W. and Ford, R.M. (2021) 'Camouflaging intent, first impressions, and age of ASC diagnosis in autistic men and women', Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05221-3

Sakkalou, E., O’Reilly, M. A., Sakki, H., Springall, C., de Haan, M., Salt, A. T., & Dale, N. J. (2020). Mother-infant interactions with infants with congenital visual impairment and associations with longitudinal outcomes in cognition and language. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(6), 742-750.

Salt, A., O’Reilly, M. A., Sakkalou, E., & Dale, N. J. (2020). Detection vision development in infants and toddlers with congenital vision disorders and profound-sever visual impairment: Detection vision in infant vision disorders. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 62(8), 962-968.

Lambie, J., Sadek, S., & Lambie, H. J. (2020). “My child will actually say ‘I am upset’… Before all they would do was scream”: Teaching parents emotion validation in a social care setting. Child: Care, Health and Development, 46(5), 627-636.

Read more about read more about recent publications.