Cristina is Professor of Child Language Development & Disorders and a Senior Academic Research Leader at the Department of Education.
Before joining the Department and after a career as a Speech and Language Therapist, Cristina held academic positions at Newcastle University and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (Melbourne, Australia) where she continues to hold honorary positions. She was previously Editor in Chief for the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, the official journal of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
She leads interdisciplinary research with global reach which develops and evaluates public health and educational practices to promote robust language development for all children. Her work is conducted through partnerships with young people, parents, professionals and policymakers.
The promotion of equitable robust language and communication development is internationally recognised as a critical health and educational concern. Cristina’s research has made and continues to make significant contributions to theory, policy, and practice to address this important societal challenge.
In a recent co-edited book Language Development: Individual in a Social Context, with Professors James Law and Sheena Reilly, she brought together the work of more than 50 leading academics to summarise the current state of the science, define the concept of ‘child language in society’, and explored its place as a global policy priority (Law, Reilly, McKean 2022).
In recent position papers with her long-term collaborator Professor Sheena Reilly, Cristina outlined the current evidence regarding models of surveillance and preventative intervention for child language for young children. Drawing on her work characterising the nature and drivers of longitudinal trajectories of language development and on theory and methods from epidemiology, public health, life-course approaches, and systems thinking she proposed an evidence-based public health framework, described the processes for its implementation and set priorities for future research (McKean and Reilly, 2023; Reilly and McKean 2023).
She tackles these issues in the UK and internationally. The GCRF-funded study – Bulbul – led by Professor Ghada Khattab, where Cristina is Co-Investigator is developing methods to identify children at risk in several Arabic dialects and multilingual contexts; exploring language development in refugee communities; and characterising the barriers and enablers to the provision of high-quality ECEC to promote child language development in Lebanon.
In Australia, Cristina currently collaborates with an international team to follow the Early Language in Victoria Study participants into adulthood. This unique cohort has characterised language development from 8 months to 21 years. Measuring health literacy, health economics, and quality of life, she aims to understand the influence of language trajectories across childhood on the transition into adulthood.
She co-led the largest international survey of provision for children with Speech Language and Communication Needs, (5000 practitioners; 30 languages), triangulating with narrative vignettes to describe policy and provision in >38 countries (Law, McKean, Murphy, Thordardottir, 2019).
Cristina’s research addresses four key themes:
- The nature and drivers of individual differences in language trajectories: Her epidemiological work has identified factors that place children at risk of speech language and communication needs, pinpointed the age at which services can be confident that a child has persisting difficulties requiring specialist help and described the nature, extent, and emergence of the negative consequences of Speech Language and Communication Needs.
- Identification of children at risk: Often Speech Language and Communication Needs needs go unrecognised and opportunities to provide early interventions are missed. Cristina has conducted work to develop ‘risk assessment tools’ and models of surveillance to evaluate children’s risk of SLC needs. This includes development of the ELIM-I (Early Language Identification Measure and Intervention) currently being rolled out in Health Visiting teams across England; and current development of a suite of surveillance tools in Welsh and English for the Welsh Government.
- Development and evaluation of interventions: Cristina conducts intervention research at all stages of development and evaluation. Examples include the development of the intervention component of the ELIM-I (McKean et 2022); the development of models of collaboration with parents/caregivers (Klatte et al 2020); development of public health messages in partnership with the BBC; economic evaluation of ‘Happy Talk’ (Frizelle et al 2021); a randomised controlled trial comparing low-dosage early language interventions (McKean et al 2021); and systematic reviews to establish optimal intervention dosage (Frizelle et al 2021a; 2021b). In a recently funded project she is working with Dr Pauline Frizelle and an international team to develop consensus on reporting guidelines for child language intervention studies to enable, ready application to practice, meta-analyses and data pooling (TICLD).
- Equitable and effective service provision: Children’s services are complex ‘ecologies’, the precise nature of which emerges through interactions between current and historical policy, funding, geography, and inter-agency collaboration. Poorly designed systems can exacerbate inequalities. Cristina has examined Speech Language and Communication Needs policy and services across Europe (Law, McKean, Murphy, Thordardottir, 2019), and currently leads work in Lebanon to understand the nature of ECEC at systems, structure, and process levels. She has developed a model of effective cross-sector practice centring socio-relational dynamics and trust as vital to successful collaboration (McKean et al 2016). And, in her most recently funded study, PLACES (Promoting Local Access to Children’s Early Language and Communication Support) which she co-leads with Professor Lindsay Pennington, she will develop guidance for successful localised models of early intervention which bring equitable benefits for children.
Research
Books
Law, J., Reilly, S., & McKean, C. (2022). Language Development Individual Differences in a Social Context. Cambridge University Press.
Book chapters
Murphy, C.-A., Frizelle, P., & McKean, C. (2022). Developmental Language Disorder and the Assessment of Spoken Language. In The Handbook of Language Assessment Across Modalities (pp. 155-170). Oxford University Press (OUP).
McKean, C., Mensah, F., & Reilly, S. (2022). Language Trajectories in childhood: the nature and drivers of individual differences and their implications for intervention. In J. Law, C. McKean, & S. Reilly (Eds.), Language Development: Individual differences in a Social Context. Cambridge University Press.
Levickis, P., Patel, P., McKean, C., Smith, J., Hackworth, N., Law, J., Westrupp, L., & Reilly, S. (2022). Systematic review and narrative synthesis of randomised controlled trials aimed at the promotion of language development in early childhood. In J. Law, C. McKean, & S. Reilly (Eds.), Language Development: Individual differences in a Social Context. Cambridge University Press.
McKean, C. (2022). Language development in a social context. In J. Law, C. McKean, & S. Reilly (Eds.), Language Development Individual Differences in a Social Context. Cambridge University Press.
McKean, C., Gerrits, E., Tulip, J., & Tolonen, A. (2019). Service delivery for children with language disorders across europe and beyond. In Managing Children with Developmental Language Disorder: Theory and Practice across Europe and Beyond (pp. 84-109).
Journal articles
Trebacz, A., McKean, C., Stringer, H., & Pert, S. (2024). Piloting building early sentences therapy for pre-school children with low language abilities: An examination of efficacy and the role of sign as an active ingredient. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 59(3), 1128-1151.
Tamayo, N., Wareham, H., Franken, M.-C., McKean, C., Tiemeier, H., & Jansen, P. (2024). Bidirectional associations between mental health problems and language ability across 8 years of childhood. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 33(3), 787-797.
Jalali-Moghadam, N., Knudsen, H., Czaplewska, E., Nieva, S., Laasonen, M., Gerrits, E., McKean, C., & Law, J. (2024). The relationship between direct or indirect therapy and language profiles in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) across European countries. European Journal of Special Needs Education, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1-16.
Baker, J., Stringer, H., & McKean, C. (2024). Ensuring treatment fidelity in intervention studies: Developing a checklist and scoring system within a behaviour change paradigm. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 59(1), 379-395.
McKean, C., & Reilly, S. (2023). Creating the conditions for robust early language development for all: Part two: Evidence informed public health framework for child language in the early years. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 58(6), 2242-2264.
Reilly, S., & McKean, C. (2023). Creating the conditions for robust early language development for all-Part 1: Evidence-informed child language surveillance in the early years. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 58(6), 2222-2241.
Law, J., Charlton, J., Wilson, P., Rush, R., Gilroy, V., & McKean, C. (2023). The development and productivity of a measure for identifying low language abilities in children aged 24-36 months. BMC Pediatrics, 23(1), 495.
Frizelle, P., Buckley, A., Biancone, T., Ceroni, A., Dahly, D., Fletcher, P., Bishop, D., & McKean, C. (2023). How reliable is assessment of children’s sentence comprehension using a self-directed app? A comparison of supported versus independent use. Journal of Child Language, 1-29.
Levickis, P., Eadie, P., Mensah, F., McKean, C., Bavin, E., & Reilly, S. (2023). Associations between responsive parental behaviours in infancy and toddlerhood, and language outcomes at age 7 years in a population-based sample. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 58(4), 1098-1112.
Frizelle, P., McKean, C., Eadie, P., Ebbels, S., Fricke, S., Justice, L., Kunnari, S., Leitão, S., Morgan, A., Munro, N., Murphy, C.-A., Storkel, H., & Van Horne, A. (2023). Editorial Perspective: Maximising the benefits of intervention research for children and young people with developmental language disorder (DLD) - a call for international consensus on standards of reporting in intervention studies for children with and at risk for DLD. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 64(3), 474-479.
Khattab, G., Abdelwahab, A., Al-Shdifat, K., Alsiddiqi, Z., Floccia, C., Kouba Hreich, E., McKean, C., Messarra, C., Odeh, T., & Trebacz, A. (2023). Promoting early language development in the Arab world and Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, 10 and 17. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 25(1), 96-101.
Bright, R., Ashton, E., Mckean, C., & Wren, Y. (2023). The development of a digital story-retell elicitation and analysis tool through citizen science data collection, software development and machine learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 989499.
Kulkarni, A., Chadd, K., Lambert, S., Earl, G., Longhurst, L., McKean, C., Hulme, C., McGregor, K., Cunniff, A., Pagnamenta, E., Joffe, V., Ebbels, S., Bangera, S., Wallinger, J., & Norbury, C. (2022). Editorial Perspective: Speaking up for developmental language disorder - the top 10 priorities for research. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 63(8), 957-960.
van Eeden, S., Wren, Y., McKean, C., & Stringer, H. (2022). Early Communication Behaviors in Infants With Cleft Palate With and Without Robin Sequence: A Preliminary Study. The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal : Official Publication of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association, 59(8), 984-994.
Frizelle, P., & McKean, C. (2022). Using Theory to Drive Intervention Efficacy: The Role of Dose Form in Interventions for Children with DLD. Children (Basel, Switzerland), 9(6), 859.
Frizelle, P., Mckean, C., O’Shea, A., Horgan, A., & Murphy, A. (2022). Economic evaluation of the Happy Talk pilot effectiveness trial: A targeted selective speech, language and communication intervention for children from areas of social disadvantage. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 24(2), 200-211.
Barnett, S., Levickis, P., McKean, C., Letts, C., & Stringer, H. (2022). Validation of a measure of parental responsiveness: Comparison of the brief Parental Responsiveness Rating Scale with a detailed measure of responsive parental behaviours. Journal of Child Health Care : For Professionals Working With Children in the Hospital and Community, 26(1), 56-67.
McKean, C., Watson, R., Charlton, J., Roulstone, S., Holme, C., Gilroy, V., & Law, J. (2022). ’Making the most of together time’: development of a Health Visitor-led intervention to support children’s early language and communication development at the 2-2½-year-old review. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 8(1), 35.
Knudsen, H., Jalali-Moghadam, N., Nieva, S., Czaplewska, E., Laasonen, M., Gerrits, E., McKean, C., & Law, J. (2022). Allocation and funding of Speech and Language Therapy for children with Developmental Language Disorders across Europe and beyond. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 121, 104139.
Knudsen, H., Jalali-Moghadam, N., Nieva, S., Czaplewska, E., Laasonen, M., Gerrits, E., McKean, C., & Law, J. (2022). Retraction notice to "Allocation and funding of speech and language therapy for children with developmental language disorders across Europe and beyond" [RIDD 113 (2021) 103936]. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 121, 104146.
Eadie, P., Levickis, P., McKean, C., Westrupp, E., Bavin, E., Ware, R., Gerner, B., & Reilly, S. (2022). Developing Preschool Language Surveillance Models - Cumulative and Clustering Patterns of Early Life Factors in the Early Language in Victoria Study Cohort. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 10, 826817.
Wilson, P., Rush, R., Charlton, J., Gilroy, V., McKean, C., & Law, J. (2022). Universal language development screening: comparative performance of two questionnaires. BMJ Paediatrics Open, 6(1), e001324.
Frizelle, P., Mullane, E., O’Shea, A., Ceroni, A., Dahly, D., Horgan, A., Levickis, P., & Mckean, C. (2021). Happy Talk: A pilot effectiveness study of a targeted-selective speech-language and communication intervention for children from areas of social disadvantage. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 56(5), 954-974.
Frizelle, P., Tolonen, A.-K., Tulip, J., Murphy, C.-A., Saldana, D., & McKean, C. (2021). The Impact of Intervention Dose Form on Oral Language Outcomes for Children With Developmental Language Disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : JSLHR, 64(8), 3253-3288.
Knudsen, H., Jalali-Moghadam, N., Nieva, S., Czaplewska, E., Laasonen, M., Gerrits, E., McKean, C., & Law, J. (2021). RETRACTED: Allocation and funding of Speech and Language Therapy for children with Developmental Language Disorders across Europe and beyond. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 113, 103936.
Frizelle, P., Tolonen, A.-K., Tulip, J., Murphy, C.-A., Saldana, D., & McKean, C. (2021). The Influence of Quantitative Intervention Dosage on Oral Language Outcomes for Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 52(2), 738-754.
Le, H., Mensah, F., Eadie, P., McKean, C., Sciberras, E., Bavin, E., Reilly, S., & Gold, L. (2021). Health-related quality of life of children with low language from early childhood to adolescence: results from an Australian longitudinal population-based study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 62(3), 349-356.
Law, J., Tamayo, N., Mckean, C., & Rush, R. (2021). The Role of Social and Emotional Adjustment in Mediating the Relationship Between Early Experiences and Different Language Outcomes. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 654213.
Levickis, P., McKean, C., Wiles, A., & Law, J. (2020). Expectations and experiences of parents taking part in parent-child interaction programmes to promote child language: a qualitative interview study. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 55(4), 603-617.
Klatte, I., Lyons, R., Davies, K., Harding, S., Marshall, J., McKean, C., & Roulstone, S. (2020). Collaboration between parents and SLTs produces optimal outcomes for children attending speech and language therapy: Gathering the evidence. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 55(4), 618-628.
Hasselaar, J., Letts, C., & McKean, C. (2020). Verb morphology in German-speaking children with developmental language disorder and phonological impairment. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 34(7), 671-691.
Levickis, P., McKean, C., Walls, E., & Law, J. (2020). Training community health nurses to measure parent-child interaction: a mixed-methods study. European Journal of Public Health, 30(3), 426-431.
Westrupp, E., Reilly, S., McKean, C., Law, J., Mensah, F., & Nicholson, J. (2020). Vocabulary Development and Trajectories of Behavioral and Emotional Difficulties Via Academic Ability and Peer Problems. Child Development, 91(2), e365 - e382.
Forbes, J., McCartney, E., McKean, C., Laing, K., Cockerill, M., & Law, J. (2019). Co/productive practitioner relations for children with SLCN: an affect inflected agentic frame. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 40(6), 859-872.
McKean, C., & Bloch, S. (2019). The application of technology in speech and language therapy. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 54(2), 157-158.
Hasselaar, J., Letts, C., & McKean, C. (2019). Case marking in German-speaking children with specific language impairment and with phonological impairment. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 33(1-2), 117-134.
Tamási, K., McKean, C., Gafos, A., & Höhle, B. (2019). Children’s gradient sensitivity to phonological mismatch: considering the dynamics of looking behavior and pupil dilation. Journal of Child Language, 46(1), 1-23.
Eadie, P., Conway, L., Hallenstein, B., Mensah, F., McKean, C., & Reilly, S. (2018). Quality of life in children with developmental language disorder. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 53(4), 799-810.
Levickis, P., Sciberras, E., McKean, C., Conway, L., Pezic, A., Mensah, F., Bavin, E., Bretherton, L., Eadie, P., Prior, M., & Reilly, S. (2018). Language and social-emotional and behavioural wellbeing from 4 to 7 years: a community-based study. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27(7), 849-859.
Conway, L., Levickis, P., Mensah, F., McKean, C., Smith, K., & Reilly, S. (2017). Associations between expressive and receptive language and internalizing and externalizing behaviours in a community-based prospective study of slow-to-talk toddlers. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 52(6), 839-853.
McKean, C., Wraith, D., Eadie, P., Cook, F., Mensah, F., & Reilly, S. (2017). Subgroups in language trajectories from 4 to 11 years: the nature and predictors of stable, improving and decreasing language trajectory groups. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines, 58(10), 1081-1091.
McKean, C., Law, J., Laing, K., Cockerill, M., Allon-Smith, J., McCartney, E., & Forbes, J. (2017). A qualitative case study in the social capital of co-professional collaborative co-practice for children with speech, language and communication needs. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 52(4), 514-527.
McKean, C., Bloch, S., Hilari, K., & Botting, N. (2017). A letter of thanks to Professor Barbara Dodd. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 52(4), 391-391.
McKean, C., Reilly, S., Bavin, E., Bretherton, L., Cini, E., Conway, L., Cook, F., Eadie, P., Prior, M., Wake, M., & Mensah, F. (2017). Language Outcomes at 7 Years: Early Predictors and Co-Occurring Difficulties. Pediatrics, 139(3), e20161684.
Tamási, K., McKean, C., Gafos, A., Fritzsche, T., & Höhle, B. (2017). Pupillometry registers toddlers’ sensitivity to degrees of mispronunciation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 153, 140-148.
McKean, C., Law, J., Mensah, F., Cini, E., Eadie, P., Frazer, K., & Reilly, S. (2016). Predicting Meaningful Differences in School-Entry Language Skills from Child and Family Factors Measured at 12 months of Age. International Journal of Early Childhood, 48(3), 329-351.
Reilly, S., McKean, C., Morgan, A., & Wake, M. (2015). Identifying and managing common childhood language and speech impairments. BMJ (Clinical Research ed.), 350, h2318.
McKean, C., Mensah, F., Eadie, P., Bavin, E., Bretherton, L., Cini, E., & Reilly, S. (2015). Levers for Language Growth: Characteristics and Predictors of Language Trajectories between 4 and 7 Years. PloS One, 10(8), e0134251.
McKean, C., Letts, C., & Howard, D. (2014). Triggering word learning in children with Language Impairment: the effect of phonotactic probability and neighbourhood density. Journal of Child Language, 41(6), 1224-1248.
Reilly, S., Tomblin, B., Law, J., McKean, C., Mensah, F., Morgan, A., Goldfeld, S., Nicholson, J., & Wake, M. (2014). Specific language impairment: a convenient label for whom?. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 49(4), 416-451.
McKean, C., Letts, C., & Howard, D. (2013). Developmental change is key to understanding primary language impairment: the case of phonotactic probability and nonword repetition. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : JSLHR, 56(5), 1579-1594.
McKean, C., Letts, C., & Howard, D. (2013). Functional reorganization in the developing lexicon: separable and changing influences of lexical and phonological variables on children’s fast-mapping. Journal of Child Language, 40(2), 307-335.
