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Jenny Gibson

Jenny Gibson

Professor of Developmental Psychology

Qualifications

  • PhD School of Psychological Sciences University of Manchester
    MSt Healthcare Data: Informatics Innovation and Commercialization Wolfson College University of Cambridge
    MRes School of Psychological Sciences University of Manchester
    BSc (Hons) School of Psychological Sciences University of Manchester

Memberships/Professional Bodies

  • Certified Member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (Registration number: RC0019276)
  • Health and Care Professions Council (Registration number: SL24189)

Personal profile

Prof. Jenny Gibson is Professor of Neurodiversity and Developmental Psychology at the Faculty of Education University of Cambridge. Jenny leads the Play and Communication Lab research group. She is also a co-director of PEDAL the centre for research on Play in Education Development and Learning and a co-director of CHIA the Centre for Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence.

Jenny has long been fascinated by the connections between linguistic and social aspects of child development. Most of her research investigates this link usually with neurodivergence play and mental health as key topics. Jenny is also a qualified speech and language therapist specialising in autism and developmental language disorder.

Postgraduate

  • PhD supervisor/advisor
  • MPhil in Psychology and Education Route Co-ordinator
  • MPhil / MEd supervisor
  • MPhil/MEd (Psychology and Education) project supervision

Undergraduate

  • Education Tripos
    • Education Neuroscience and Society
    • Social and emotional development

Research

The PacLab team investigates human development flourishing and neurodiversity. We also conduct research about specific neurodivergent groups specialising in autism and developmental language disorder. Our work is rooted in developmental psychology and we have many interdisciplinary influences including; disability studies linguistics computer science psychiatry literary studies and education.

Play is a major research focus in the PacLab group. We are investigating how this ubiquitous yet often-overlooked aspect of human experience is linked to mental health wellbeing social development and linguistic development. We are especially interested in over-turning deficit focused narratives concerning neurodivergence and play.

Participatory research is a guiding value in our team. We aim to include and amplify the voices and perspectives of under-represented groups.

Principal and Recent Publications

Pritchard Rowe E. de Lemos C. Howard K. (2024). Autistic adults’ perspectives and experiences of diagnostic assessments that include play across the lifespan. Autism.

Kanders K. Stupple-Harris L. Smith L. and Gibson J. L. (2024). Perspectives on the impact of generative AI on early-childhood development and education. Infant & Child Development (in press preprint here).

Gibson J. L. and Toseeb U. (2024). Developmental Language Disorder and Social-Emotional Development. OUP: Oxford

Gibson J. L. and McNally S. (2024). Play in the Education and Care of Young Autistic Children. Pp 147-158 (11 pages). In Nikforidou Z. (Ed.) Resilience and wellbeing: children families and communities Routledge: London.

Hobson H. Toseeb U. and Gibson J. L. (2024). Developmental language disorder and neurodiversity: Surfacing contradictions tensions and unanswered questions. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. 1–12. (12 pages). https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.13009

Gréaux M. Gibson J.L. & Katsos N. (2024) `It's not just linguistically there's much more going on’: The experiences and practices of bilingual paediatric speech and language therapists in the UK. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.13027

Janik Blaskova L. & Gibson J. L. (2024). Exploring concepts of friendship formation in children with language disorder using a qualitative framework analysis. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 1–21. (21 pages). https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.13021

Howard K. B. Gibson J. L. Katsos N. (2024). Exploring Different Stakeholder Perspectives on Bilingualism in Autism. Languages. 9 66. (18 pages). https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9020066

Zhao Y. V. & Gibson J. L. (2023). Early home learning support and home mathematics environment as predictors of children's mathematical skills between age 4 and 6: A longitudinal analysis using video observations and survey data. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13971

Pritchard-Rowe E. de Lemos C. Howard K. and Gibson J. L. (2023). Diversity in Autistic Play: Autistic Adults' Experiences. Autism in Adulthood. http://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2023.0008

Sher D.A. & Gibson J.L. (2023). Pioneering prodigious and perspicacious: Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva’s life and to conceptualising autism and schizophrenia. European Child Adolescent Psychiatry. 32 475–490 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01875-7

St Clair M. Horsham J. Lloyd-Esenkaya V. Jackson E. Gibson J. Leitão S. et al. (2023) The Engage with Developmental Language Disorder (E-DLD) project: Cohort profile. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 58 929–943. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12835

Friedman S. Noble R. Archer S. Gibson J. & Hughes C. (2023). Respite and connection: Autistic adults’ reflections upon nature and well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic. Autism. (13 pages) https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231166462

Francis G. A. & Gibson J. L. (2023). A plausible role of imagination in pretend play counterfactual reasoning and executive functions. British Journal of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12650

Goodacre E. J. Fink E. Ramchandani P. & Gibson J. L. (2023). Building connections through play: Influences on children's connected talk with peers. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 41 203–226. (23 pages) https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12443

Blaskova L. J. & Gibson J. L. (2023). Children with language disorder as friends: Interviews with classroom peers to gather their perspectives. Child Language Teaching and Therapy 39(1) 39–57. (18 pages) https://doi.org/10.1177/02656590221139231

Zhao. V. Y. & Gibson J. L. (2022). Evidence for protective effects of peer play in the early years: better peer play ability at age 3 predicts lower risks of externalising and internalising problems at age 7 in a longitudinal cohort analysis. Child Psychiatry & Human Development.