معرفی
Dr. Kirsten Abbot-Smith is a Reader in Developmental Psychology at the School of Psychology, University of Kent, where she also serves as the Research Excellence Framework Coordinator for Psychology. Her research focuses on child social communicative and oral language development, with a particular emphasis on children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). She has secured numerous research grants from prestigious organizations including the Leverhulme Trust, Nuffield Foundation, and ESRC.
Abbot-Smith's research primarily investigates child conversational ability, examining how factors such as cognitive flexibility, interest intensity, and language processing efficiency impact communication skills. Her work explores how social communication relates to social inclusion and how these skills can be promoted through classroom interventions in mainstream schools. She has published extensively on topics including irony interpretation, perspective-taking, topic maintenance in conversations, and the cognitive underpinnings of social communication in both autistic and neurotypical children.
Her recent publications (2020-2025) demonstrate a strong focus on conversational dynamics in autism, with particular attention to how cognitive processes like set-switching and flexibility affect language use. The research shows a clear trajectory toward developing evidence-based classroom interventions to improve conversation skills in primary schools, reflecting her commitment to translating theoretical findings into practical educational applications.
Abbot-Smith has been Associate Editor for First Language since 2017 and is a member of the ESRC Peer Review College. Her current research projects include a Leverhulme Trust-funded study on cognitive constraints in children's conversation management and a Nuffield Foundation project developing classroom interventions to improve conversation skills.
As a supervisor, she currently oversees PhD students Lauren McGuinness (ESRC-funded) and Chantel Smith (Leverhulme-funded), with past students including Louise Malkin (research on social use of language in autistic children) and Maria Zajaczkowska (cognitive underpinnings of irony interpretation). Her work bridges developmental psychology, linguistics, and educational practice, with significant implications for supporting children with communication differences in educational settings.
