Maggie Snowling

Margaret Snowling
CBE FBA FMedSci
Born (1955-07-15) 15 July 1955 (age 71)
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Bristol, University College London
Academic work
DisciplinePsychology

Margaret Jean Snowling CBE FBA FMedSci is a British psychologist and expert in language difficulties, including dyslexia. From 2012 to 2022 she was President of St John's College, Oxford and Professor in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. Snowling was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2016 for services to science and the understanding of dyslexia. She is a Fellow of the British Academy (elected 2009), Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (elected 2008), Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and Honorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Education

Snowling studied psychology at the University of Bristol, entering the university in 1973 and graduating with a BSc in Psychology in 1976. She undertook doctoral research at University College London under the supervision of psychologist Uta Frith, receiving a PhD in 1979. She later qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1988.

Career

Snowling was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at National Hospitals College of Speech Sciences (1979–1992), Professor of Psychology and Head of Department at Newcastle University (1992–1994), and Professor of Psychology at the University of York (1994–2012).

She has been awarded honorary doctorates by Goldsmiths, University of London (2007), University College London (2014), the University of Warwick (2016), and the University of Bristol (2019).

She served as President of St John's College, Oxford from 2012 to 2022.

Research interests

Snowling's main research interests are in the development of language and literacy skills. In particular, her research looks at underlying causes of difficulties in language and literacy skills, and what interventions are effective in treating them. A central focus of her research is dyslexia, and the effect of oral language difficulties on educational attainment. Her research established a cognitive-developmental account of dyslexia, characterising it as primarily a deficit in phonological processing that disrupts the acquisition of correspondences between graphemes and phonemes.

Her work with Dorothy Bishop demonstrated that dyslexia and Specific Language Impairment (SLI), now Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) are related disorders sharing a common deficit in phonological processing, while differing in the breadth of language impairment. Her longitudinal studies have mapped the developmental outcomes of children with each disorder and those with comorbid presentations.

In addition, Snowling's research has considered the prominent role of women and mothers – in academia, advocacy movements and teaching – in provision for children with dyslexia and other special educational needs. Principally, this has been through her work on the history of dyslexia.

The Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) is a structured oral language intervention developed by Snowling, Charles Hulme, and colleagues for children in their first year of formal schooling who show oral language weaknesses. It is the best-evidenced early language intervention available globally having been evaluated in a series of randomised controlled trials and independent evaluations funded by the Education Endowment Foundation. Following positive trial results, in 2020 NELI was rolled out nationally across England with support from the Department for Education.

Awards

Snowling's contributions to the study of dyslexia have been recognised with the Marion Welchman Award of the British Dyslexia Association in 1997, the British Psychological Society Presidents' Award in 2003, the Samuel T. Orton award of the International Dyslexia Association in 2005, and the Lady Radnor Prize of Dyslexia Action in 2013.

She is a fellow of the British Psychological Society (1992), Royal Society of Arts (2002), Academy of Medical Sciences (2008), and British Academy (2009). She was elected Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2003. Together with Charles Hulme, she received the 2024 Leverhulme Medal and Prize. She is a member of Academia Europaea and of the Reading Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Snowling is married to fellow psychologist Charles Hulme.

Selected published works

References

  1. 1 2 "The President of St John's". St John's College, Oxford. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Professor Maggie Snowling CBE, FBA, FMedSci". Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  3. ↑ "Margaret Snowling". Academia Europaea. Retrieved 8 September 2026.
  4. 1 2 "Professor Maggie Snowling". Archived from the original on 11 March 2014.
  5. ↑ UCL (11 September 2014). "UCL Honorary Graduands and Fellows 2014". UCL News. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  6. ↑ "List of all Honorary Graduates and Chancellor's Medallists". warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  7. ↑ Bristol, University of. "February: Honorary degrees Weds | News | University of Bristol". bristol.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  8. ↑ Snowling, M. J. (1989), "Developmental Dyslexia: A Cognitive Developmental Perspective", Reading and Writing Disorders in Different Orthographic Systems, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 1–23, ISBN 978-94-010-6960-1, retrieved 29 June 2026
  9. ↑ Snowling, Margaret J.; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.; Nash, Hannah M.; Hulme, Charles (2020). "Dyslexia and Developmental Language Disorder: comorbid disorders with distinct effects on reading comprehension". Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 61 (6): 672–680. doi:10.1111/jcpp.13140. ISSN 1469-7610. PMC 7317952. PMID 31631348.
  10. ↑ "History of dyslexia documented for first time". King's College London. 18 January 2023.
  11. ↑ "Welcome | The History of Dyslexia". dyslexiahistory.web.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  12. ↑ "Maggie Snowling: Why schools need to look beyond dyslexia | Tes". www.tes.com. Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  13. ↑ https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/news/neli-preschool-an-oral-language-programme-shown-to-improve-childrens-language-skills/
  14. ↑ "Professor Margaret J Snowling". British Academy. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
  15. ↑ "2024 Leverhulme Medal and Prize announced". Leverhulme Trust. 14 October 2024. Archived from the original on 14 December 2024. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  16. ↑ "Academy of Europe: Snowling Margaret". www.ae-info.org.
  17. ↑ "Maggie Snowling (Inducted 2013) | Reading Hall of Fame". www.readinghalloffame.org.
  18. ↑ "Human Verification". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  19. ↑ Clarke, Paula J.; Truelove, Emma; Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J. (21 October 2013). "Developing Reading Comprehension". Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781118606711 – via CrossRef.
  20. ↑ "Developing Language and Literacy: Effective Intervention in the Early Years | Wiley". Wiley.com.
  21. ↑ "Developmental Disorders of Language Learning and Cognition | Wiley". Wiley.com.
  22. ↑ "Dyslexia". blackwells.co.uk.
  23. ↑ "Dyslexia". blackwells.co.uk.