Psychology student wins 'Best Overall Conference Presentation' award at 2022 BPS Scottish Undergraduate Research Conference

The conference is attended by university students from across Scotland and provides final-year psychology undergraduates with the opportunity to share their thesis research with their peers.

At the conference Orestis presented the findings from his research dissertation, "Early-Life Environmental Risk Factors for Childhood Reading and Speech Difficulties". Under the supervision of Dr Michelle Luciano, Orestis’ research aimed to identify the factors in children’s environments that might affect their risk of experiencing difficulties with reading or speech.

The study’s results suggest that boys and children who were born preterm went on to face more reading and speech difficulties, while children of parents who read often, received better education, and had greater income, tended to have better reading ability. Overall, the study found that reading ability is under stronger influence from the social environment, while speech abilities are more biologically based.

Winning was quite the surprise, and it really validated all the hours I’d spent looking up weird coding errors! I’m very glad to have had a supervisor who encouraged me to take part, and friends who were more excited about it than I was!

Orestis Michaelides

I was so pleased to hear of Orestis’ BPS prize. It was so deserved given the complexity of the statistical methods used, a ‘latent class analysis’ of longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study, and the clarity with which he described his research.

Dr Michelle Luciano

About the BPS

The British Psychological Society is a registered charity which acts as the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK, and is responsible for the promotion of excellence and ethical practice in the science, education, and application of the discipline.

Related links:

• British Psychological Society
• Dr Michelle Luciano