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Research

In 2008 I started my PhD at the research institute of Child Development and Education at the University of Amsterdam. My PhD research concerns the development of reading and reading difficulties. I  investigate the development of reading and related cognitive skills in children born into families with and without a history of dyslexia. Since there is a substantial genetic influence on reading ability, about one third of the children at-risk for dyslexia will indeed develop the disorder. Why do they become dyslexic while the other at-risk children do not? Does the latter group do as well as children from control families? What are the precursors of reading? We attempt to address these types of questions by following the progress of children from infancy to 9 years of age, when we can assess who has developed dyslexia and who has not. Subsequently, we can look back in time and see howwell they did on likely precursors of reading before they started to learn to read.

My research is part of the Dutch Dyslexia Programme. This is a national multidisciplinary research programme. My daily supervisor is dr. Peter F. de Jong. In addition, I’m supervised by prof.dr. Aryan van der Leij and prof.dr. Frans Oort. In autumn 2011 I visited prof.dr. Maggie Snowling's group at the University of York, UK, for 1.5 months.

Furthermore, together with dr. Titia van Zuijen, dr. Peter de Jong en dr. Simon Fisher I conduct a study at the science museum in Amsterdam (NEMO) to investigate the aetiology of reading ability.

Links:

Media

My research in the media:

Press release of van Bergen et al., JCPP (in Dutch, June '11)

Press release of van Bergen et al., JCPP (in English, June '11)

Psychologie Magazine (in Dutch, Sep 11)

NEMO study in NRC (in Dutch, Dec '11)

Press report of the NEMO study (in Dutch, Dec '11)

Press report of the NEMO study (in English, Dec '11)

TV programme about Dyslexia (in Dutch, March '12)

Education

• 2002-2006 - B.Sc. & M.Sc. Human Movement Sciences (both cum laude), VU University Amsterdam
• During and after my undergraduates Itook extra courses in Psychology, Statistics, Neurosciences, Pedagogy, and Romanian (at the universities in Amsterdam, Aberdeen, and Nijmegen)
• 2001-2002 - Science and Innovation Management (first year), University Utrecht

Publications

• van Bergen, E., de Jong, P.F., Plakas, A., Maassen, B., & van der Leij, A. (2012). Child and parental literacy levels within families with a history of dyslexia. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(1), 28-36. 
• Torppa, M., Eklund, K., van Bergen, E., & Lyytinen, H. (2011). Parental literacy predicts children's literacy: A longitudinal family-risk study. Dyslexia, 17(4), 339-355.
• van Bergen, E., de Jong, P.F., Regtvoort, A., Oort, F., S. van Otterloo, & van der Leij, A. (2011). Dutch children at family risk of dyslexia: Precursors, readingdevelopment, and parental effects. Dyslexia, 17(1), 2-18.
• van Swieten, L.M., van Bergen, E., Williams, J.H.G., Wilson, A.D., Plumb, M.S., Kent, S.W., & Mon-Williams, M.A. (2010). A test of motor (not executive) planning in developmental coordination disorder and autism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 36(2), 493-499.
• van Bergen, E., van Swieten, L.M., Williams, J.H.G., & Mon-Williams, M. (2007). The effect of orientation on prehension movement time. Experimental Brain Research, 178(2), 180-193.

Links:

van Bergen et al. (2012). JCPP

Torppa et al. (2011). Dyslexia

van Bergen et al. (2011). Dyslexia

van Swieten et al. (2010). JEP: HPP

van Bergen et al. (2007). EBR

Presentations

Conference Presentations

• Child and parental literacy levels within families with a history of dyslexia (2011). Paper presented at the BDA (British Dyslexia Association), Harrogate, UK.
  
• Examining the association between children’s reading outcome and parents’ literacy levels within families with a background of dyslexia (2010). Poster presented at the SSSR (Society for the Scientific Study of Reading), Berlin, Germany.
• Development of reading in children at family risk of dyslexia (2009). Poster presented at the SSSR, Boston, USA.
• Grasp selection in children with and without neurodevelopmental disorders (DCD and ASD) (2007). Poster presented at the European Workshop on Movement Science, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Selection of Other Presentations

• A longitudinal study of children at familial risk of dyslexia (2011). Paper presented in York, Oxford, and Leeds, UK.
• Child and parental literacy levels within families with a history of dyslexia (2010). Paper presented at the ISED Research Day, Leiden, the Netherlands
• Reading development of children with a familiar risk of dyslexia (2010). Paper presented at the department of Child Language and Learning, University of Oslo, Norway.
• Reading development of children at family-risk of dyslexia (2009). Paper presented at the ISED Research Day, Leiden, the Netherlands

Teaching Experience

In 2011 I took my teaching degree(BKO).
My teaching experience at the University of Amsterdam (2008 –present) includes:

• Guest lecture on Psychology: development, personality, and learning (1st yearBachelor, 2011)
  
• Guest lecture on Methods and statistics (TMLS, 2nd year Bachelor, 2010, 2011)
• Supervisor of a Master student's research internship (2011)
• Teaching assistant on Longitudinal data-analysis (research Master,2010)
• Guest lecture on Learning and social-emotional disorders in educational context (research Master, 2010, 2011)
• Teaching assistant on Methods and statistics in educational research (research Master, 2008)

At the VU University Amsterdam I was a teaching assistant (2004 – 2008) in the courses Mathematics, Statistics, and Neurosciences.

Free Time

In my free time I enjoy doing acrobatic gymnastics.

Picture I (here I'm the base)

Picture II (here I'm the middle one)