Usha Goswami

Usha Claire Goswami (born 21 February 1960) is a researcher and professor of Cognitive Developmental Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and the director of the Centre for Neuroscience in Education, Downing Site. She obtained her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Oxford before becoming a professor of cognitive developmental psychology at the University College London. Goswami's work is primarily in educational neuroscience with major focuses on reading development and developmental dyslexia.

Early life and education Goswami was born on 21 February 1960. She received her Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in experimental psychology from the St John's College, Oxford. She then went on to receive her Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) from the University of London in primary education allowing her to become a teacher. In 1987 she received her Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in psychology from the University of Oxford with her main topics being reading and spelling by analogy.

Career and research Goswami was a research fellow at Merton College, Oxford for the 1986–87 and 1988–89 academic years. She was at the University of Illinois from 1987 to 1988 having received a Harkness Fellowship. She was a lecturer in experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge from 1990 to 1997.

Dyslexia is a multifaceted disorder of learning primarily manifested by difficulties in reading, spelling, and phonological processing. In people with dyslexia, the brain processes certain signals in a specific way making it a very specific learning difficulty. Dr. Goswami's research is concerned with focusing on dyslexia as a language disorder rather than a visual disorder as she has found that the way that children with dyslexia hear language is slightly different than others. When sound waves approach the brain, they vary in pressure depending on the syllables within the words being spoken creating a rhythm. When these signals reach the brain they are lined up with brain rhythms and this process doesn't work properly in those with dyslexia. Goswami is currently researching whether or not reading poetry, nursery rhymes, and singing can be used to help children with dyslexia. The rhythm of the words could allow the child to match the syllable patterns to language before they begin reading as to catch them up to where children without the disability might be.

Honours and awards Usha Goswami has received numerous awards and has served on several different committees over the years. Early in her career she was awarded the British Psychology Society Spearman Medal (for early career research excellence), the Norman Geschwind-Rodin Prize (a Swedish award for research excellence in the field of dyslexia), and received research fellowships from the National Academy of Education (USA), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), and the Leverhulme Trust. She has served on the National Curriculum and the National Literacy Project, the Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing in 2008, and the Managing Committee of the European Concerted Action on Learning Disorders as a Barrier to Human Development. Goswami has also been a member of several research boards including the ESRC Research Grants Board (1998-2000), the Neurosciences and Mental Health Board of the Medical Research Council (1999-2003), and the Cross Board Group of the Medical Research Council (2001-2003).Usha Goswami was awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Research in September 2019 for her ground-breaking neuroscience research in understanding brain function, which allows educators to design different teaching pedagogy, techniques and tools to help children with dyslexia and special needs to learn languages more effectively. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 2021.

Publications Huss M, Verney JP, Fosker T, Mead N & Goswami U (2011). Music, rhythm, rise time perception and developmental dyslexia: Perception of musical meter predicts reading and phonology. Cortex, 47, 674-89. Beddington J, Cooper CL, Field J, Goswami U, Huppert FA, Jenkins R, Jones HS, Kirkwood TBL, Sahakian BJ & Thomas SM (2008). The mental wealth of nations. Nature 455: 1057-1060. Goswami U (2006). Neuroscience and education: from research to practice? Nat Rev Neurosci 7(5):406-11. Ziegler J & Goswami U (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: a psycholinguistic grain size theory, Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3-29. Goswami, U (2014). Child Psychology: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press. Goswami, U (2010). The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development: 2nd Edition. Blackwell Handbooks of Developmental Psychology. Goswami, U (2010). Phonology, reading and reading difficulty. In K. Hall, U. Goswami, C. Harrison, S. Ellis and J. Soler (Eds) Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Learning to Read: Culture, Cognition and Pedagogy. London: Routledge. Goswami, U (2008). Cognitive Development: The Learning Brain. Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis. Cooper CL, Field J, Goswami U, Jenkins R, & Sahakian BJ (2009) (Eds.). Mental Capital and Wellbeing. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Goswami, U (2008). Cognitive Development: The Learning Brain. Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis. Goswami, U (2006). Cognitive Development: Critical Concepts in Psychology. London: Routledge. Goswami, U (2002 & 2004). Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development. Oxford: Blackwell.