Children's Comprehension Problems in Oral and Written Language A Cognitive Perspective

Kate Cain, DPhil, is a Reader in the Department of Psychology at Lancaster University. Her research and publications focus on the development of language comprehension in children, with a particular interest in the skill deficits that lead to comprehension problems. Dr. Cain’s recent journal articles report investigations into the relations that exist between children’s reading comprehension and their inference-making skill, knowledge of narrative structure, interpretation of figurative language, vocabulary-learning mechanisms, and memory processes. She is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders and the Journal of Research in Reading.

Jane Oakhill, DPhil, is a Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex. Since completing her doctorate on the topic of children’s problems in reading comprehension, she has worked on various research projects--including deductive reasoning in children and adults, circadian variations in human performance, and adult language comprehension--but has always maintained a research interest in children’s reading comprehension, particularly individual differences. Dr. Oakhill has published widely on children’s reading comprehension. In 1991 she received the British Psychological Society’s Spearman Medal; she was elected to a Fellowship of the Society in 2005.