UC Spark

Dr Brigid McNeill

School of Teacher Education

Fields of Research

  • Childhood apraxia of speech
  • Literacy instruction
  • Developmental speech disorders
  • Phonological awareness
  • Reading and spelling development
  • Oral language
  • Dyslexia

Researcher Summary

Active research includes:
1. Childhood apraxia of speech;
2. Phonological awareness intervention for children with speech and language difficulty;
2. Classroom spelling instruction practices;
3. The effectiveness of primary teacher education graduates in facilitating literacy learning in at risk populations;
4. Predictors of reading success

Subject Area: Disciplines

Research Projects

Research Groups

Affiliations

Prizes and Awards

  • College of Education Emerging Reseacher of the Year (2010)
  • Awarded Tertiary Education Commission Top Doctoral Achiever Scholarship. (2004-2007)

Research Service

  • Senior Supervisor: Leanne Wilson (Doctoral Student) (2013-present)
  • Senior Supervisor: Samantha Robinson (Masters thesis) (2013-present)
  • Associate Supervisor: Maria Casey (Masters thesis) (2012-present)
  • Co-supervisor for Adele O'Connor's Masters thesis (2011-2012)
  • Co-supervisor for Caralyn Purvis's doctoral project (Speech, Language and Communication Abilities of New Zealand Students at Risk of School Exclusion and Juvenile Offending). (2011-present)
  • Senior Supervisor for Amy Collings (doctoral student): Emergent literacy development in at-risk populations (2011-present)
  • Senior Supervisor for Christina Sands (Masters Student). Topic: The effectiveness of classroom based vocabulary teaching in enhancing students' writing skills. (2011-present)
  • Senior Supervisor for PhD student Gillian O'Donoghue (Contributions of morphological awareness and orthographic knowledge to literacy development in Year 3 students: Implications for classroom practice). (2011-present)
  • Member of the New Zealand Institute for Language, Brain and Behaviour (2010-present)
  • Co-Supervisor for PhD student Alice Wong (2009-present)
  • Co-supervisor for PhD student Jane Carroll (2009-present)
  • Co-Supervisor of doctoral student (Amir Sadeghi) (2009-present)

Publications


  • McNeill, B. C. (2013) Developmental verbal dyspraxia. In L. Cummings (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Communication Disorders: 43-52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter in Book)
  • McNeill, B.C., Westerveld, M., van Bysterveldt, A., Boyd, L. and Gillon, G.T. (2013) Early name writing and invented spelling development. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies 48(1) (Journal Article)
  • McNeill, B.C. and Gillon, G.T. (2013) Expressive morphosyntactic development in three children with childhood apraxia of speech. Speech, Language, and Hearing 16(1): 9-17. (Journal Article)
  • McNeill, B. C. and Everatt, J. (2013) Meta-linguistic predictors of word-level literacy skills in monolingual and language minority learners. Speech, Language, and Hearing 16(2) (Journal Article)
  • Justice, L.M., Gillon, G.T., McNeill, B.C. and Scheule, C.M. (2013) Phonological awareness: Description, assessment, and intervention. In J.E. Bernthal, N.W. Bankson and P. Flipsen (Ed.), Articulation and Phonological Disorders: Speech Sound Disorders in Children (7th ed.): 355-382. Boston: Pearson. (Chapter in Book)
  • Collings, A., McNeill, B. and van Bysterveldt, A. (2012) An online survey of the Home Literacy Environments of teenage parents attending a Teen Parent Unit. New Zealand Journal of Speech-Language Therapy 67: 22-30. (Journal Article)
  • Collings, A., McNeill, B.C. and van Bysterveldt, A. (2012) Early intervention literacy engagement: Literacy intervention for teenage parents and their young children. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand: International Reading Comprehension Symposium, 4-5 Oct 2012. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • Carroll, J., Gillon, G.T. and McNeill, B.C. (2012) Explicit Phonological Knowledge of Educational Professionals. Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing 15(4): 232-244. (Journal Article)
  • Carroll, J., Gillon, G.T. and McNeill, B.C. (2012) Once upon a time... Early childhood educators' talk during story book reading. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand: International Reading Comprehension Symposium, 4-5 Oct 2012. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • Van Bysterveldt, A. and McNeill, B.C. (2012) Reading comprehension development in children with speech disorder. Christchurch, New Zealand: International Reading Comprehension Symposium, 4-5 Oct 2012. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • Sadeghi, A., Everatt, J. and McNeill, B.C. (2012) Reading comprehension in Persian: Predictors of individual differences and comparisons with English. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand: International Reading Comprehension Symposium, 4-5 Oct 2012. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • Sadeghi, A., Everatt, J. and McNeill, B.C. (2012) Reading comprehension in Persian-English bilinguals: Support for learning. Mons, Belgium: 17th European Conference on Reading Literacy and Diversity, 31 Jul-3 Aug 2011. (Conference Contribution - Paper in published proceedings)
  • Wong, A., Everatt, J. and McNeill, B.C. (2012) Second language writing in the ESL classroom. Dunedin, New Zealand: First National Postgraduate Colloquium, Aug 2012. In Bracing Malaysia for a complicated world: A compilation of research by Malaysian postgraduates in New Zealand 65-81. (Conference Contribution - Paper in published proceedings)
  • Sadeghi, A., Everatt, J. and McNeill, B. (2011) Comparison of cognitive-linguistic predictors of reading comprehension of English-Persian and English-Arabic bilinguals. Auckland, New Zealand: 4th Annual Educational Psychology Forum, 22-23 Nov 2011. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • Gillon, G., McNeil, B., van Bysterveldt, A., Carroll, J. and Carson, K. (2011) Delivering Phonological Awareness Within the Classroom Context. San Diego, CA, USA: 2011 American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention, 17-19 Nov 2011. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • McNeill, B. and Gillon, G. (2011) Evaluation of Expressive Morphosyntactic Development in Three Children with CAS. San Diego, CA, USA: 2011 American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention, 17-19 Nov 2011. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • McNeill, B.C. and Gillon, G.T. (2011) Longitudinal evaluation of the expressive morphosyntactic abilities of three children with apraxia of speech (CAS). University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand: 8th Asia Pacific Conference on Speech, Language and Hearing, 11-14 Jan 2011. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • Sadeghi, A., Everatt, J. and McNeill, B. (2011) Phonological and Orthographic Processing in Persian Reading Comprehension. St Pete Beach, FL, USA: Eighteenth Annual Meeting: Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR), 13-16 Jul 2011. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • Carroll, J., Gillon, G.T. and McNeill, B.C. (2011) Phonological awareness of New Zealand educators. Dunedin, New Zealand: 17th Biennial Conference of the Australasian Human Development Association (AHDA), 4-6 Jul 2011. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • Carroll, J., Gillon, G. and McNeill, B. (2011) Phonological Awareness: Early Childhood Teachers' Knowledge. San Diego, CA, USA: 2011 American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention, 17-19 Nov 2011. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • Wong, A., Everatt, J. and McNeill, B. (2011) Predictors of second language writing quality. National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan: 2011 International Conference on EFL Education Tradition and Innovation, May 2011. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • McNeill, B. and Gillon, G. (2011) Prospective Evaluation of Features of Childhood Apraxia of Speech. San Diego, CA, USA: 2011 American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention, 17-19 Nov 2011. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • McNeill, B.C., Buckley-Foster, P. and Gillon, G.T. (2011) Supporting children with reading difficulties within the New Zealand English curriculum. Support for Learning: British Journal of Learning Support 26(3): 115-121. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9604.2011.01489.x. (Journal Article)
  • Sadeghi, A., Everatt, J. and McNeill, B.C. (2011) Text reading processes in a relatively transparent orthography: the influence of underlying cognitive-linguistic abilities. Dunedin, New Zealand: 17th Biennial Conference of the Australasian Human Development Association (AHDA), 4-6 Jul 2011. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • Carroll, J., Gillon, G.T. and McNeill, B.C. (2011) The Phonological Awareness Knowledge of NZ Early Childhood Educators. Dunedin, New Zealand: 2011 NZSTA Professional Development Seminar, 30-31 May 2011. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • McNeill, B. (2010) Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Speech Therapy Association Conference 2010, 22-23 Apr 2010. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • Sadeghi, A., Everatt, J. and McNeill, B. (2010) Development of Persian Reading Comprehension. Ottawa, Canada: Development 2010: A Canadian Conference on Developmental Psychology, 6-7 May 2010. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • McNeill, B.C. and Hesketh, A. (2010) Developmental complexity of the stimuli included in mispronunciation detection tasks. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 45(1): 72-82. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/13682820902745479. (Journal Article)
  • McNeill, B.C., Gillon, G. and Dodd, B. (2010) Phonological Awareness Intervention Maintenance for Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Athens, Greece: 28th World Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, 22-26 Aug 2010. (Conference Contribution - Full conference paper)
  • Gillon, G.T. and McNeill, B.C. (2010) Phonological awareness: Motivating early literacy success. In J. Fletcher, F. Parkhill and G. Gillon (Ed.), Motivating Literacy Learners in Today's World: 53-66. Wellington: NZCER Press. (Chapter in Book)
  • Everatt, J., Tehrani, L.G., Al-Menaye, N., McNeill, B., Elbeheri, G. and Sadeghi, A. (2010) Predictors of Reading Comprehension Across Languages. Auckland, New Zealand: 23rd World Congress on Reading, 12-15 Jul 2010. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • Wong, A., Everatt, J. and McNeill, B. (2010) Second language writing process: How do ESL students write? University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia: Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Conference 2010, 28 Nov-2 Dec 2010. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • Sadeghi, A., Everatt, J., Tehrani, L.G., Al-Menaye, N., Elbeheri, G., Mahfoudhi, A. and McNeill, B. (2010) Text reading across languages: the influence of underlying cognitive-linguistic abilities. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand: 3rd Educational Psychology Forum, 1-2 Nov 2010. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • McNeill, B.C., Gillon, G.T. and Dodd, B. (2010) The longer term effects of an integrated phonological awareness intervention for children with childhood apraxia of speech. Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing 13(3): 145-161. (Journal Article)
  • McNeill, B.C., Gillon, G.T. and Dodd, B. (2009) A longitudinal case study of the effects of an integrated phonological awareness program for identical twin boys with childhood apraxia of speech. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 11(6): 482-495. (Journal Article)
  • Sutherland, D., McNeill, B. and Gillon, G. (2009) Communication impairments and behaviour problems in children and adolescents: A review of the literature. ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing 11(3): 132-135. (Journal Article)
  • Gillon, G.T. and McNeill, B.C. (2009) Effective practices in phonological awareness assessment and intervention. ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing 11(2): 72-76. (Journal Article)
  • McNeill, B.C., Gillon, G.T. and Dodd, B. (2009) Effectiveness of an integrated phonological awareness approach for children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Child Language Teaching and Therapy 25(3): 341-366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0265659009339823. (Journal Article)
  • Carroll, J., Gillon, G. T. and McNeill, B. C. (2009) New Zealand educators' phonological awareness skills. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand: Literacy Research Symposium, 1-2 Oct 2009. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • McNeill, B.C., Gillon, G.T. and Dodd, B. (2009) Phonological awareness and early reading development in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 44(2): 175-192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13682820801997353. (Journal Article)
  • Gillon, G., Davis, N., Everatt, J., McNeill, B. and Moran, C. (2009) Supporting Adults with Dyslexia: A resource developed for the Tertiary Education Commission Adult Literacy Project. Tertiary Education Commission. (Report for External Body)
  • Gillon, G., Davis, N., Everatt, J., McNeill, B. and Moran, C. (2009) Supporting Adults with Dyslexia: A resource developed for the Tertiary Education Commission Adult Literacy Project. Tertiary Education Commission. (Report for External Body)
  • Gillon, G., Dodd, B., Holm, A., Moriarty, B., van Bysterveldt, A., Callagher, K. and Kirk, C. (2008) Applying Key Principles Of Phonological Awareness Intervention To Different Clinical Populations. Auckland, New Zealand: Reflecting Connections: A joint conference between New Zealand Speech-Language Therapists' Association and Speech Pathology Australia, 25-29 May 2008. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • McNeill, B.C., Gillon, G.T. and Dodd, B. (2008) Integrating phonological awareness, letter knowledge and speech targets for children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Harrogate, UK: 7th BDA International Conference - Dyslexia: Making Links, 27-29 Mar 2008. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • Gillon, G., Dodd, B., Holm, A., Moriarty, B., van Bysterveldt, A. and Gallagher, K. (2007) Adapting Phonological Awareness Intervention for Differing Populations. Boston, MA, USA: 2007 American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention, 15-17 Nov 2007. (Conference Contribution - Oral presentation)
  • Moriarty, B.C. (2007) Advancing Spoken and Written Language Development in Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. PhD, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. (Thesis - Doctor of Philosophy)
  • Gillon, G.T. and Moriarty, B.C. (2007) Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Children at Risk for Persistent Reading and Spelling Disorder. Seminars in Speech and Language 28(1): 48-57. (Journal Article)
  • Moriarty, B. and Gillon, G. (2006) Childhood Apraxia of Speech: An intervention case study. ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing 8(1): 3-6. (Journal Article)
  • Moriarty, B. and Gillon, G. (2006) Childhood Apraxia of Speech: Impact on Phonological Awareness & Reading Development. Miami, FL, USA: American Speech-Language and Hearing Association's (ASHA) Annual Convention: Building Bridges Through Communication, 16-18 Nov 2006. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)
  • Gillon, G., Moriarty, B. and Schwarz, I. (2006) Evidence-based practice: An update of best practices in Speech-Language Therapy. Wellington: Ministry of Education. pp. (Authored Book)
  • Moriarty, B.C. and Gillon, G.T. (2006) Phonological awareness intervention for children with childhood apraxia of speech. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 41(6): 713-734. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13682820600623960. (Journal Article)
  • Moriarty, B., Gillon, G. and Moran, C. (2005) Assessment and Treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS): A Clinical Tutorial. New Zealand Journal of Speech-Language Therapy 60: 18-30. (Journal Article)
  • Moriarty, B. and Gillon, G. (2005) Childhood apraxia of speech and phoneme awareness intervention. San Diego, CA, USA: The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Annual Convention, 18-20 Nov 2005. In The ASHA Leader 10 155. (Conference Contribution - Poster presentation)