Gene-environment interplay on reading ability, disability, and recovery

KEY WORDS

CITY

COUNTRY

France

DETAILS OF THE OFFER

Working place:  Cognitive Sciences and Psycholinguistics Laboratory

Missions:

Current interventions for reading disability (dyslexia) show variable effects: they are often effective for some but not all of the children. It is difficult to predict which children will respond well to an intervention and why. It therefore remains difficult to optimise referral to different types of intervention. This project takes genetic factors into account to enrich our understanding of individual differences in reading trajectories and responses to intervention.

Questions addressed will be: To what extent is the family literacy environment confounded with genetic factors? What are the genetic, environmental and cognitive predictors of reading progress, in normal-reading and in dyslexic children? What are the genetic, environmental and cognitive predictors of dyslexic children’s response to educational or speech and language therapy?

Tasks will include computing polygenic scores for reading ability/dyslexia, educational achievement, and other relevant phenotypes, modelling cognitive and educational trajectories, and performing analyses of educational, cognitive, genetic and environmental variables in several cohorts, and writing up and publishing the research articles.

Qualifications:

The candidate should have a Masters in one or several relevant disciplines (statistical/behavioral genetics, cognitive science, psychology). Strong skills in statistics and big data analysis (R and/or Python) are a pre-requisite. Prior experience with genetic data analysis would be an asset.

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TYPE OF JOB

Thesis - PhD

TYPE OF CONTRACT

CDD (temporary / 3 years)

REMUNERATION

EMPLOYMENT START DATE