Using deafness as a model system to inform literary intervention and neurobiological models of language

Mairéad investigates how the brain processes language. She addresses this issue by primarily working with people who have a very different language and sensory experience compared to the rest of the population – those born profoundly deaf. Research with this group allows a unique perspective on how experience shapes the brain which cannot be gained from studying hearing people alone. This basic research can also inform evidence based practice. Deaf children typically find it very difficult to learn to read. In Mairéad’s current work she is testing a reading intervention for deaf children which is based on her past behavioural and neuroimaging research.