Vanessa Lloyd-Esenkaya

I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath.

My research explores the social skills of children who have Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). I am particularly interested in understanding the relationship between language development and other areas of functioning, such as emotional development.

A growing body of research shows that children with DLD often have challenges during interactions with their peers. This is concerning given the importance of social skills for children's academic outcomes and overall wellbeing. Currently little is known about the underlying reasons for social difficulties in children with DLD.

My research takes advantage of a range of qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore these issues. One aspect of my PhD involves developing and validating new experimental tasks which use animations to measure social understanding. I am currently involving primary school children around the UK in a new study which utilises these tools.