PERSONAL INFORMATION
After taking my
B.A. in Natural
Sciences at Trinity
College Dublin in
1976, I moved to
London where I
gained an MSc in
Child Development at
the Institute of
Education. For the
next six years
I remained at the
Institute working
with Dr Chris
Kiernan as a
research officer at
the Thomas Coram
Research Unit
studying non-vocal systems
of communication in
children with severe
learning
disabilities. From
1983 to 1985 I was
an ESRC-funded PhD
student at the
Thomas Coram Unit,
working on the role
of memory in
learning-disabled
children’s use of
non-vocal
communication
systems. I then
joined the Medical
Research Council’s
Social Psychiatry
Unit at the
Institute of
Psychiatry. There, I
worked with Dr Lorna Wing
as a post-doctoral
scientist
investigating social
impairment in
Asperger’s
syndrome. In 1990 I joined City
University as
Lecturer in
Psychology. I am
currently Reader in
Developmental
Psychology and have
been head of
department since
August 1999.
In 1997 I was
Invited Professor at
the Universities of
Caen (France) and
Fribourg
(Switzerland) and in
1998 was Visiting
Professor at McGill
University, Montreal
as well as at the
Université de
Montréal.
