Dr Susan Foster-Cohen

Susan regularly teaches a course in language acquisition at the University of Canterbury and supervises masters and doctoral students.  In collaboration with her early intervention colleagues at the Champion Centre she is developing a range of training materials for parents and professionals working with children with disabilities, including for managing challenging behaviour, engaging in musical play for early intervention, and supporting children to access the curriculum through using visual support.

• Qualitative research
• Evaluations
• Research supervision
• Consultancy

• B.A. (Linguistics and English, 2:1), University of Lancaster, 1975
• Post-Graduate Certificate of Education, St. Martin's College of Further Education, Lancaster, 1976
• PhD (Linguistics and Psychology) University of Lancaster, 1980
• Post-doctoral study, Department of Speech and Language Therapy, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2002-2004.

Susan is currently undertaking a longitudinal study of the language and communication development of children attending early intervention in the period leading up to school entry using parent report. The focus is on determining individual variation in the trajectories of development in vocabulary, syntax and pragmatics and on the effect of transition to school of communication trajectories.

Recent Articles

Foster-Cohen, S., van Bysterveldt, A. K. and Papp, V. (under review) The roles of language use and vocabulary size in the emergence of word-combining in children with complex neurodevelopmental disabilities. (Submitted to the Journal of Child Language).

Foster-Cohen, S. and van Bysterveldt, A.K.  (in press) Pragmatic competence in Down syndrome. To appear in Handbook of Developmental and Clinical Pragmatics, De Gruyter Mouton.

Foster-Cohen, S. (2017) "Making the most of MOGUL: Reflections on interlanguage in childhood language disorders." International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 55.4 (2017): 349-364.

Foster-Cohen, S. and Wong, T.P. (2017) “Early intervention at the interface: Semantic-Pragmatic Strategies for facilitating conversation with children with developmental disabilities” in I. Depraetere & R. Salkie (eds) Semantics and Pragmatics: Drawing a Line. Logic, Argumentation and Reasoning 11. P.163-181. Springer International Publishing Switzerland.

Foster-Cohen, S. and van Bysterveldt, A. K. (2016) Early Childhood Inclusion in Aotearoa New Zealand.  Infants and Young Children, 29(3), 214-222.

Foster-Cohen and van Bysterveldt, A. K. (2016) Assessing the communication development of children with language delay through parent multi-questionnaire reporting. Speech, Language and Hearing. 19:2, 79-86, DOI: 10.1080/2050571X.2015.1108067

Foster-Cohen, S. “Relevance theory and second language learning” (Dec 16, 2015) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. C. Chapelle (editor). Wiley Online Library. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal1473

Foster-Cohen, S. and Mirfin-Veitch, B. (2015) Evidence for the effectiveness of visual supports in helping children with disabilities access the mainstream primary school curriculum. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs. (March 2015) DOI: 10.1111/1471-3802.12105

van Bysterveldt, A., Gillon, G. and Foster-Cohen, S. (2014) A phonological awareness intervention case study of a child with Down syndrome. Speech, Language, and Hearing 17(1): 25-36.

van Bysterveldt, A., Foster-Cohen, S. and Gillon, G.T. (2013) Engaging Families in Promoting Emerging Literacy for Children with Down Syndrome. In H. Kreider, M. Caspe, and D.B. Hiatt-Michael (Ed.), Promising Practices for Engaging Families in Literacy: 29-41. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Wylie, J. & Foster-Cohen, S. (2013) Musical play as therapy in an early intervention programme. Approaches: Music Therapy and Special Music Education 5(1) 34-42.

Books

Foster-Cohen, S. (ed.) (2009) Advances in Language Acquisition. Palgrave MacMillan publishers. Series editor Christopher Candlin

Foster-Cohen, S., Medved Krajnovic, M. and Mihaljevic Djigunovic, J (eds.) (2006) European Second Language Association Yearbook 6 John Benjamins: Amsterdam.

Foster-Cohen, S., Garcia Mayo, M. P., and Cenoz, J. (eds) (2005) European Second Language Association Yearbook 5 John Benjamins: Amsterdam.

Foster-Cohen, S., Sharwood Smith, M., Sorace, A. and Ota, M. (eds) (2004) European Second Language Association Yearbook 4 John Benjamins: Amsterdam.

Foster-Cohen, S., Pekarek Doehler, S. (eds) (2003) European Second Language Association Yearbook 3 John Benjamins: Amsterdam.

Foster-Cohen, S., Ruthenberg, T. and Poschen, M-L. (eds) (2002) European Second Language Association Yearbook 2  John Benjamins: Amsterdam

Foster-Cohen, S., and Nizegorodcew, A. (eds) (2001)  European Second Language Association Yearbook 1 John Benjamins: Amsterdam.

Foster-Cohen, S. (1999) An Introduction to Child Language Development. In series: Learning About Language.  Addison Wesley/Longman UK: London, 1999. (Japanese translation, 2001. Chinese English language edition 2002.)

Foster, S. (1990) The Communicative Competence of Young Children: A Modular Approach. In series: Studies in Language and Linguistics. Longman: London, New York, Available in on-demand version from 2003.