Research projects

Project

Resilience in Reading (RiR; 01-09-2022 - 31-10-2026)

Project description

This project aims to map the methodological and statistical preconditions for studying academic resilience effectively. This project provides important insights that help us in mapping cognitive and noncognitive factors that have a protective role in the literacy development of children with reading and/or spelling disabilities/dyslexia. Protective factors help these children (partly) bridge the gap to average readers and thus contribute to resilience (positive literacy outcomes in the face of adversity). 

Financing

Internal funding - Workload grant from Utrecht University (Education and Pedagogy)

Role

Principle investigator

Project members

Sanne Appels
Sara van Erp
Lisette Hornstra
Elise de Bree

Project

Orthographic learning (01.01.2017 - present)

Project description

This project focuses on the significance of orthographic learning for the development of reading fluency in three languages (English, Dutch, and Greek). Few studies have examined how component skills of reading fluency contribue to fluency development. We consider multiple conditions that can be of influence, including the transparency of the language, reading mode (silent or aloud), and change over time. 

Financing

External funding - grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC, RES0029061) to Prof. George K. Georgiou. 

Role

Principal investigator of the Dutch branch of the project

Project members

Prof. George K. Georgiou
Prof. Athanassios Protopapas
Prof. Peter F. de Jong
Prof. Rauno Parrila
Laoura Ziaka, MSc.
Dalia Martinez, MSc.

Project

Sentence reading fluency: Where word- and text-level processes meet (01.12.2018 - present)

Project description

The ability to read fluently and comprehend texts is essential in our literate society. However, how fluent word reading is involved in reading for meaning and vice versa is still unclear. This project is one of the first to investigate reading fluency of sentences and texts to assess what happens when lower-level word reading and higher-level comprehension processes meet. We specifically assess the unique and combined contributions of word- and text-level processes to reading fluency measures of varying complexity, how these contributions differ across phases of reading development (in intermediate and more advanced readers), and how this changes across languages with different levels of transparency. 

Financing

External funding - NWO Rubicon grant (019.181SG.013) and NWO corona compensation grant

Role

Principal investigator

Project members

Prof. Athanassios Protopapas
Prof. Peter F. de Jong
Dr. Angeliki Altani

Other projects

Several meta-analyses (internal funding - UvA, KU Leuven, UCLouvain, UiO)

Reading & IQ, in coll. with Dr. Jolijn Vanderauwera (01.03.2018)

Spelling & IQ, in coll. with Dr. Jolijn Vanderauwera and Prof. Elise H. de Bree (01.01.2019)

Reading & Spelling, in coll. with Dr. Jolijn Vanderauwera, Prof. Elise H. de Bree, and Prof. Peter F. de Jong (01.09.2020)