People

Dr Cristina McKean

Dr. Cristina McKean is a speech and language therapist, senior lecturer and researcher based at Newcastle University. Her research is driven and informed by her many years as a practitioner. She is Primary Investigator for the LIVELY study.

The primary focus of her research is understanding child language development and disorders, specifically understanding individual differences in the drivers and processes of developmental change for individual children. She conducts intervention and service delivery research to understand how best to deliver therapy and educational provision to create the best language and communication outcomes for all children and creates and evaluates tools to identify those children who would benefit most from interventions.

She believes that high quality science can improve the lives of people with communication disorders and aims to support the speedy dissemination and application to practice of research through her role as Editor in Chief for the International Journal of Communication and Language Disorders. She is also Honorary Fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Adjunct Fellow at the Menzies Institute Griffith University.

Other research studies include

• ATLAS: - Automated Transcription and Language Analysis Software
• SEED: - Social InEquality and its Effects on child Development: A study of birth cohorts in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands
• COST Action IS1406 Enhancing children's oral language skills across Europe and beyond: a collaboration focusing on interventions for children with difficulties learning their first language
• Centre for Research Excellence in Child Language
• Identifying & Supporting Children's Early Language Needs