Child Lab

Bangor University

About us

We conduct infant and child development research that helps improve early social and educational outcomes and wellbeing.

Our research spans language development, literacy, and social cognition, and uses a combination of behavioural assessment, neuroimaging, and computational modelling.

We work in close collaboration with NHS Wales and the Welsh Government.

Our impact

Impact in focus: CAL:ON Cymru

CAL:ON Cymru is a national, evidence-informed, bilingual literacy initiative led by Bangor University and funded by the Welsh Government.

The Centre for the Advancement of Literacy: research-led Outcomes and Nationwide change (CAL:ON) provides schools across Wales with access to high-quality, evidence-informed literacy programmes, assessments, and professional learning, designed for both primary and secondary settings, in Welsh and English.

Our goal is to support schools in strengthening their understanding and use of effective, evidence-informed approaches to teaching reading and writing, enabling all children, regardless of ability, to become confident, motivated, and successful readers and writers.

You can find out more about the CAL:ON here.

Impact in focus: The Welsh-English CDI

The Bangor University Welsh-English bilingual communicative development inventory (BU WEB-CDI) is a questionnaire that caregivers can fill in to tell us about a child’s language and communicative development. Led By Prof. Debbie Mills, the Bangor University WEB-CDI was developed expressly to meet a local need for suitable early years bilingual language assessment tools, and in response to a number of Welsh Government agendas (e.g., Talk with me: Speech language and communication delivery plan). A recent report commissioned by the Welsh Government identified the WEB-CDI as one of only two tools currently suitable for screening early language development in Welsh-English speaking children. The second tool identified, the UK Bilingual Toddlers Assessment Tool (UKBTAT), uses Bangor University WEB-CDI data. You can find out more about the BU WEB-CDI here.

Project in focus: WRENA

The Waterloo Foundation Report into Effective Neurodevelopmental Assessment

The Child Lab is currently working in collaboration with local paediatricians to develop an entirely new method of assessment that is better suited to assessing children with complex needs, and children whose home language differs from their language of assessment. Our aim in this research programme is to develop a new type of developmental assessment which meets the following key criteria:

It should be deliverable by multiple parties (e.g., educators, clinicians).
Users should be able to be trained on the assessment within half a day.
It should be deployable in multiple language contexts.
It should deliver a profile of the child on which caregivers can act.

Meeting these aims would allow us to address severe waiting times for neurodevelopmental assessments and get children with complex needs and their families the support they require.

Comments:

Dr Samuel Jones: "Our new initiative, funded by the Waterloo Foundation, will strengthen our close partnerships with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board through the appointment of a clinical academic. Crucially, this project will deliver an authoritative UK-wide practitioner statement on designing effective neurodevelopmental assessments for children with complex needs."

Consultant Clinical Psychologist Dr Leah Jones: "This is a very exciting development. Not only will this project strengthen the links between high quality research conducted at Bangor University and front-line clinical practice but will also, more importantly, be instrumental in developing new ways of working with young people with neurodevelopmental differences, to understand their needs and develop appropriate support interventions."

Visit us

The Department of Psychology at Bangor University houses high-spec eye-tracking, audiology, EEG, TMS, fNIRS and fMRI research facilities, as well as supercomputing resources.

To learn more about the work we do, please contact: childlab@bangor.ac.uk.

Click here to learn more about studying developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience at Bangor University.

Tir na n-Og: Daycare and Child Research Centre

Tir na n-Og was established in 1990 as a childcare and child research facility by the Department of Psychology at Bangor University, and has been offering exceptionally high standards of childcare and education for over 30 years.

Tir na n-Og provides a safe, happy and stimulating environment for infants and children from three months to four years of age to be free to explore, learn, and play whilst in the hands of experienced, qualified and enthusiastic staff.

Research conducted at Tir na n-Og has generated more than 30 peer-reviewed publications in child development, health, and behavioural journals, and has been presented at more than 100 national and international conferences.

To find out more click here.

The North Wales Speech and Language Exchange (NWSLE) is a joint initiative between Bangor University, Wrexham University, and the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

The NWSLE has been established to foster engagement between clinicians and researchers with an interest in speech, language, and communication needs, with the goal of improving clinical assessment, intervention, and rehabilitation across North Wales. Our focus is broad, and incorporates communication, speech and language needs across the lifespan. We are guided by a number of government agendas including the Talk with me: Speech language and communication delivery plan, the Well-being of Future Generations Act, and the Healthy child Wales programme, which aims to ensure that all children in Wales meet key developmental milestones and are school ready. The Exchange aims to foster collaboration via ongoing communication and an annual conference. Contact us at NWSLE@bangor.ac.uk

Selected recent publications

Bazhydai, M., Wong, M. K., Altmann, E. C., Jones, S. D., & Westermann, G. (2026). No Evidence for Curiosity‐Driven Information Selection Advantage in Infants’ Novel Word Learning. Developmental Science, 29(1), e70101. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.70101
Jones, S. D., Rauwolf, P., & Westermann, G. (2025). Computational rationality and developmental neurodivergence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 29(4), 314-317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.01.006
Jones, S. D., Jones, M. W., Koldewyn, K., & Westermann, G. (2025). Perception and cognitive control in rationally inattentive child behaviour. Developmental Science, 28(1), e13587. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13587
Downing, C., Evans-Jones, G., Calabrich, S. L., Wynne, C., Cartin, R., Dunton, J., ... & Jones, M. (2024). Literacy instruction from afar: evidence for the effectiveness of a remotely delivered language-rich reading programme. Reading and Writing, 1-15. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11145-023-10502-7
Jones, S. D., Jones, M., Koldewyn, K., & Westermann, G. (2024). Rational inattention: A new theory of neurodivergent information seeking. Developmental Science, e13492. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13492
Jones, S. D., Stewart, H. J., & Westermann, G. (2024). A maturational frequency discrimination deficit may explain developmental language disorder. Psychological Review, 131(3), 695–715. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000436
Walbrin, J., Almeida, J., & Koldewyn, K. (2023). Alternative brain connectivity underscores age-related differences in the processing of interactive biological motion. Journal of Neuroscience, 43(20), 3666-3674. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2109-22.2023

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