I am the director for the Swedish Institute for Disability Research and director of research at the Disability Research Division. I’m also part of a graduate school on early interventions in special education at Stockholm University (external link below). I have a few lines of research that can be summarized as cognitive prerequisites for communication.
Cognition and language
The first researcharea is about different types of cognition, more specifically working memory and executive functions, in people with intellectual disabilities. In this area, I wrote my dissertation in 2006 and has continued to publish articles. I have several international collaborations, such as Lucy Henry (external links below) and David Messer.
In this area, I am the main supervisor for three PhD students. Lisa Palmqvist examines planning abilities in children with intellectual disabilities. Karin Nilsson investigates language and cognitive predictors for reading in adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Hanna Lindström-Sandahl conducts interventions on reading and mathematics for children with difficulties in these areas.
Age-related hearing loss
Another research area is age-related hearing loss and the impact it has on cognition, social activities and communication. Here I often use advanced statistical techniques (structural equation modelling) to model the relationships between different variables. I collaborate with several researchers within Linnaeus Centre HEAD where I also have several international collaborations, for example with Kathy Pichora-Fuller (external link below).
I am part of the steering group for the large n200 study that collects longitudinal data on hearing, speech in noise and cognition. Within this project, I collaborate with Jerker Rönnberg, Victoria Stenbäck och Erik Marsja. I am co-supervising Rina Blomberg who investigates the effect of noise on attention and cognition in people with ADHD, which combines my two main research areas as described above.
Technology for people with disabilities
My third area is about technology for people with disabilities. Here I cooperate, among others, with Arne Jönsson on language technology solutions to simplify texts and is
co-supervisor to Maria Andreassen who has conducted an intervention study on calendar based reminders.
