Meet the team

Claudine is a Professor of Education in the School of Education, University of Sheffield. Claudine studied at the Dept of Psychology, University of York where she obtained her BSc in Psychology. She stayed at York to complete her PhD thesis which focused on the development of reading comprehension and inference generation in young children. Since finishing her PhD in 2003, her research has largely focused on the importance of language to literacy development. She has been particularly involved in research developing and evaluating evidence-based interventions for children at risk of literacy difficulties due to problems with oral language and for supporting children who have English as an additional language. She is currently involved in research focused on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on young children's language, socioemotional and educational outcomes.

Silke is a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery (Human Communication Sciences) at the University of Sheffield. Silke completed her SLT degree in Goettingen (Germany). After working a few years as an paediatric SLT, she moved to Sheffield to complete an MSc in Human Communication Sciences Research, followed by a joint-location PhD at the University of Sheffield and the University of Applied Sciences Fresenius Idstein (Germany). Since finishing her PhD in 2009, Silke’s research has largely focussed on (a) identifying factors that place a child at risk of literacy difficulties by investigating early speech, language, and literacy development and difficulties in mono- and multilingual children, (b) developing assessments to identify mono- and multilingual children with speech and/or language weaknesses, and (c) evaluating early speech, language and literacy interventions. 

During the initial phase of the RVS project, Frank was a senior lecturer at the English Department of the University of Chester. As an acoustic phonetician, he was particularly interested in speech-motor learning in first and second language acquisition contexts, (a-)typical language development, and sex differences in speech production (ResearchGate, Link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank-Herrmann-4). For the RVS project, Frank ensured that the recordings from our translators are of the best possible quality. Having left the UK in 2018, Frank is now an English and German language and literature teacher at Max-Eyth-Schule (Link: https://mes-dreieich.de), Dreieich, Germany. 

Twin is a research software engineer in the Research Software Engineering Sheffield group (RSES) within the Computer Science Department and is in the process of completing his PhD. He specialises in high-performance agent-based pedestrian simulation, GPU code optimisation, virtual reality, and deep learning. He currently provides consultancy, training and technical support for researchers on deep learning and other GPU related software engineering problems. 

Blanca completed her training as a state-approved speech and language therapist in 2000 at the School of Speech Therapy at Philipps University in Marburg. Between 2000 and 2004 she studied teaching and research speech therapy at the RWTH-Aachen while working in a speech and language therapy practice with a focus on children’s speech and language development. This was followed by a teaching position and a doctorate at the University of Sheffield (UK) on the topic of phonological awareness in preschool children. Between 2009 and 2010, she was a research assistant at Newcastle University (UK) and contributed to the revision and re-standardisation of the New Reynell Developmental Language Scales. This was followed by 2 years at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg as a professor focusing on the prevention and treatment of dyslexia and evidence-based practice. At the same time, she worked as a freelance speech and language therapist and seminar leader. Having returned to England, Blanca worked for two years as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on a project evaluating a preschool language support programme, then spent a year as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Chester. Between 2015 and 2018, she was a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield. In 2018, Blanca moved back to Germany with her family. She worked at a social paediatric centre in Frankfurt and in 2023, Blanca set up her own business as a freelance speech therapist and seminar leader. Her therapeutic focus is on the treatment of multilingual children with various speech, language and communication difficulties.