Profile

My Interview

• What topics do you work on?

  I did my PhD work on dyslexia and my masters on language development. I am currently running a project called tune time which was recently running in 11 classrooms in Bedford. It was investigating whether music and spoken rhymes can boost literacy in Year 1 classrooms.

  What methods do you use?

  Behavioural tests in the classroom.

  Who was your favourite teacher?

  Oh, that’s a hard one. I had lots and it was such a long time ago! I loved my music teacher which is maybe why I’m so interested in music and rhythm in speech now.

  Me and my work

  Hi! I’m a developmental psychologist. I am very interested in issues concerning early years development and I specialise in literacy development in 6-10 year olds. In my role at work I lecture undergraduate and masters university students and undertake my own research. I also tweet on matters of parenting and developmental science, you can follow me on @sarah_kuppen

  Typical day

  I’m writing a book on parenting at the moment so I do a lot of research for that. Mostly looking up what’s being published at the moment in regards to developmental science on the topics parents care about most. We are coming to the end of term so I’m not lecturing too much although I am supervising a lot of research projects at the moment.