Get a Grip - Evidence-Based Conversations for Parents and Educators

In this interview, Professor Courtenay Norbury talks with us about developmental language disorder (DLD), which she describes as a 'chronically understudied' topic. Find out about early signs and what impact it might have on children and young people's development. Professor Norbury provides numerous practical strategies for both parents to use at home and teachers to try in the classroom to help children with DLD have as good outcomes as possible.

Did you know that the ability to regulate our emotions well is connected to better mental health and wellbeing, academic achievement and stronger and more long lasting personal relationships? In this interview, Dr Erika Galea talks us through the most effective strategies for building the vital skill of emotional regulation which can be used in both the classroom and at home with children and young people of all ages.

In this interview, we talk with Dr Marina Bazhydai, Director of the Active Learning Lab (ALL) at Lancaster University, about nurturing children's sense of curiosity, wonder and creativity. We learn about her innovative and fascinating work which investigates active exploration and curiosity in very young children, find out more about the links between creativity and emotional literacy and discover how she is seeking to pinpoint the elusive concept of wonder. This is a great listen if you are keen to learn how to cultivate curiosity and innovative thinking in your child (or the children in your care).

Dr Emma Ross, former Head of Physiology at the English Institute of Sport and founder of The Well HQ, talks to us about her new book and all things related to women, girls and sport. We learn about the need to change the language often used to talk to girls about their bodies and give them the confidence to advocate for themselves, how to fuel girls' bodies adequately to provide them with the energy they need, the importance of well-fitting, comfortable sports bras and kit, the importance of menstrual cycle tracking and how to keep girls up girls' interest and enjoyment in sport. This wide ranging, practical interview is a must listen for anyone who supports women and girls and anyone who wants to know more about women's health, fitness and movement.

Maggie Johnson is a speech and language therapist specialising in childhood communication disorders and selective mutism, and the associated impact on families, schools and young people. She talks to us about her fantastic new book, 'The Selective Mutism Workbook for Parents and Professionals', which includes numerous activities and strategies organised around the daily routines of school and family life. This interview is longer than most and is packed with information and tips, so for ease of listening, we've broken it into two parts. This is part two. Enjoy!

Maggie Johnson is a speech and language therapist specialising in childhood communication disorders and selective mutism, and the associated impact on families, schools and young people. She talks to us about her fantastic new book, 'The Selective Mutism Workbook for Parents and Professionals', which includes numerous activities and strategies organised around the daily routines of school and family life. This interview is longer than most and is packed with information and tips, so for ease of listening, we've broken it into two parts. This is part one. Enjoy!

Our Researcher of the Month, Tanya Manchanda, has recently published a review which assesses existing friendship interventions and their impacts on the mental health outcomes of adolescents aged 12–24 years. In this interview, Tanya considers what we know about these interventions, for both the teen who is trained and their friends and reveals that surprisingly few interventions which utilise authentic social groups have been studied, despite their potential for strong results. She talks us through some of the interventions that do exist and outlines key things that schools might like to consider when developing and implementing friendship interventions designed to improve teens' mental health.

In this interview, we talk to cyberpsychologist Dr Danielle Paddock about her fascinating examination of how teens converse with each other about appearance on social media. We know that appearance-related concerns are very high among teens in the UK. We also know that visual social media platform design encourages both image creation/sharing and interactions about these images. Dr Paddock chats about key themes that have emerged in her work, fruitful ways to talk to teens about this issue, and the positive impact of a brief school-based intervention about appearance-based interactions on young people's body image.

In this interview, Professor Jessie Ricketts talks to us about her research into reading and language development in both teens and younger children. We explore early reading development, how reading ability continues to evolve into adolescence and discuss evidence-based ways to boost young people's motivation to read. Professor Ricketts also provides information on useful tools that can be used in the classroom.

Our Researcher of the Month, Professor Shana Carpenter, talks to English teacher and examiner, Patrick Cragg about the science behind two effective learning strategies: spacing and retrieval. She outlines how and why these simple practices can benefit learning and explores why so few students actually use them. Listen for top tips on how to integrate these strategies into the classroom or at home.