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Faculty of Education and Language Studies > People Profiles > David Messer

David Messer

Professor of Education

The Open University Faculty of Education and Language Studies Centre for Childhood, Development and Learning

+(01908) 654752
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Profile

At the Open University I am Head of the Centre for Childhood Development and Learning and Cluster Director of the Child and Youth Studies.

My activities include:

Academic Consultant to the BBC1/OU co-production Child of Our Time for the last 5 years

Membership  of the following British Psychological Society committees: Education Board; Research Board, and Publications & Communications Board.

Membership of the Following Editorial Boards, First Language and Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology.

Reviser of AQA GSCE, AS, and A level Psychology, as well as AEA Psychology

Past activities include:

President of the British Psychological Society Developmental Psychology Section.  Media Relations Officer of Developmental Section.  Conference Organiser: Child Langauge Seminar, Society for Reproduction and Infant Psychology.


Teaching Interests

I was a member of the course team for ED840, Child Development in Families, Schools and Society. This course is taken by postgraduates studying for the MA in Education, Advanced Diploma in Child Development and as an optional course in the MSc in Psychology.

More recently I have been part of the production team for ED8141 Understanding Children's Development and Learning which has replaced ED840

Research Interests

My current research interests concern:


1) interests in the way technology can be used to assist language and literacy development
2) children’s communication and language, particularly children with communication difficulties, such as problems with Word-Finding (WFDs) and Specific Language Impairment (SLI).                                                                                                                                       3) children’s cognitive development, particularly the progression from implicit to explicit thinking, exectutive functioning and inner speech
4) issues connected with health and diet

I also have interests in: autism, prospective memory and children’s sleeping.

Currently I am involves in an ESRC Grant to Professor Lucy Henry (LSBU) & Prof. David Messer to study Executive Functioning in Children with SLI £220,000

Publications

Authored Book
Davey, Graham; Albert, Ian P.; Chandler, Chris; Jones, Dai; Stirling, Chris; Messer, David J. and Moore, Simon (2008). Complete Psychology, Second Edition. London, UK: Hodder Education.
Book Chapter
Kvavilashvili, L.; Kyle, F. and Messer, D. J. (2007). Prospective memory in children: Methodological issues, empirical findings and future directions. In: Kliegel, Matthias; McDaniel, Mark A. and Einstein, Gilles O. eds. Prospective Memory: Cognitive, Neuroscience, Developmental, and Applied Perspectives. UK: Erlbaum, pp. 115–140.
Messer, David (2005). Current perspectives in language acquisition. In: Peccei, Jean Stilwell ed. Child Language: a Resource Book for Students. Routledge English Language Introductions. London: Routledge, pp. 110–118.
Messer, David (2004). An introduction to developmental psychology. In: Davey, Graham ed. Complete Psychology. London: Hodder & Stoughton, pp. 282–298.
Messer, David (2004). Cognitive development : thinking, information and representations. In: Davey, Graham ed. Complete Psychology. London: Hodder & Stoughton, pp. 299–320.
Messer, David (2004). Communication, language and literacy. In: Davey, Graham ed. Complete Psychology. London: Hodder & Stoughton, pp. 321–339.
Messer, David (2004). The self, others and social relationships. In: Davey, Graham ed. Complete Psychology. London: Hodder & Stoughton, pp. 340–360.
Dockrell, Julie E. and Messer, David A. (2004). Lexical acquisition in the early school years. In: Berman, Ruth A. ed. Language Development across Childhood and Adolescence. Trends in Language Acquisition Research Series (3). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 35–52.
Messer, David (2003). Processes of development in early communication. In: Bremner, Gavin and Slater, Alan eds. Theories of Infant Development. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 284–316.
Journal Article
Danielsson, Henrik; Henry, Lucy; Messer, David and Rönnberg, Jerker (2012). Strengths and weaknesses in executive functioning in children with intellectual disability. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 33(2), pp. 600–607.
Henry, Lucy A.; Messer, David and Nash, Gilly (2012). Executive functioning in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(1), pp. 37–45.
Kucirkova, Natalia; Messer, David and Whitelock, Denise (2012). Parents reading with their toddlers: the role of personalisation in book engagement. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy
Henry, L.; Messer, D.; Luger-Klein, S. and Crane, L. (2012). Phonological, visual and semantic coding strategies and children’s short-term picture memory span. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (In press).
Bhandari, Suchitra; Winter, David; Messer, David and Metcalfe, Chris (2011). Family characteristics and long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50(4), pp. 435–451.
Henry, Lucy A.; Messer, David J. and Nash, Gilly (2011). Executive functioning in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(1), pp. 37–45.
Messer, David and Dockrell, Julie (2011). Lexical access and literacy in children with word-finding difficulties. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 46(4), pp. 473–480.
Kucirkova, Natalia; Messer, David and Whitelock, Denise (2010). Sharing personalised books: a practical solution to the challenges posed by home book reading interventions. Literacy Information & Computer Education Journal, 1(3), pp. 263–272.
Nash, Avril S.; Pine, Karen J. and Messer, David J. (2009). Television alcohol advertising: Do children really mean what they say? British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27(1), pp. 85–104.
Messer, David J.; Pine, Karen J. and Butler, Cathal (2008). Children's behaviour and cognitions across different balance tasks. Learning and Instruction, 18(1), pp. 42–53.
Murphy, V. A.; Dockrell, J. E.; Messer, D. and Farr, H. (2008). Morphosyntax in children with word finding difficulties. Journal of Child Language, 35(3), pp. 703–720.
Dockrell, Julie E. and Messer, David (2007). Language profiles and naming in Children with word finding difficulties. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 59(6), pp. 318–323.
Pine, Karen J.; Lufkin, Nicola; Kirk, Elizabeth and Messer, David (2007). A microgenetic analysis of the relationship between speech and gesture in children: Evidence for semantic and temporal asynchrony. Language and Cognitive Processes, 22(2), pp. 234–246.
Oates, John and Messer, David (2007). Growing up with TV. The Psychologist, 20(1), pp. 30–32.
Messer, David; Dockrell, Julie; Parmigiani, Charlotte and Karmiloff-Smith, Annette (2006). Speeded naming, frequency and the development of the lexicon in Williams syndrome. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21 pp. 721–759.
Messer, David and Dockrell, Julie E. (2006). Children's Naming and Word-Finding Difficulties: Descriptions and Explanations. Journal of Speech, Hearing and Language Research, 49(2), pp. 309–324.
Albery, Ian P. and Messer, David (2005). Comparative optimism about health and nonhealth events in 8- and 9-Year-old children. Health Psychology, 24(3), pp. 316–320.
Townsend, J.; Wolke, D.; Hayes, J.; Dave, S.; Rogers, C.; Bloomfield, L.; Quist-Therson, E.; Tomlin, M. and Messer, D. (2005). Routine examination of the newborn: the EMREM study. Evaluation of an extension of the midwife role including a randomised controlled trial of appropriately trained midwives and paediatric senior house officers. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 21(1), pp. 146–147.
Messer, David; Dockrell, Julie E. and Murphy, Nicola (2004). Relation between naming and literacy in children with Word-finding difficulties. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(3), 462 -470.
Pine, K. and Messer, D. (2003). The development of representations as children learn about balancing. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21(2), pp. 285–301.
Dockrell, J.; Messer, D.; George, R. and Ralli, A. (2003). Beyond naming patterns in children with WFDs. Journal of Neuropsychology, 16 pp. 191–211.
Smith, Pamela; Nix, Andrew; Davey, Neil and Messer, David (2003). A connectionist account of Spanish determiner production. Journal of Child Language, 30(2), pp. 305–331.
Barker, Trevor; Jones, Sara; Britton, Carol and Messer, David (2002). The use of a co-operative student model of learner characteristics to configure a multimedia application. User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, 12(2-3), pp. 207–241.
Luckett, T.; Powell, S. D.; Messer, D.; Thornton, M. E. and Schulz, J. (2002). Do children with autism who pass false belief tasks understand the mind as active interpreter? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32(2), pp. 127–140.
Pine, K. J.; Messer, D. J. and St. John, K. (2002). Children's learning from contrast modelling. Cognitive Development, 17(2), pp. 1249–1263.
Light, Paul; Littleton, Karen; Bale, Stuart; Joiner, Richard and Messer, David (2000). Gender and social comparison effects in computer-based problem solving. Learning and Instruction, 10(6), pp. 483–496.