Dr Gillian Lake was a primary teacher in Ireland for many years before first undertaking an MSc in child development & education, and then being awarded the Talbot Scholarship to read a doctorate of philosophy in education at the University of Oxford, focusing on the early years. Her research comprised the design, development and evaluation of an oral language intervention targeting vocabulary and narrative development, of children aged three to four years. The results have been promising and she hopes to further investigate the possibility of introducing this intervention as a professional development tool for early years’ practitioners. She has an ongoing research interest in early childhood education, oral language interventions, narrative development, pretend play and emerging literacy. She leads child development 1 & 2 on early childhood studies and child development & learning on BA ITE.
