Hayley Leonard

Hayley is a Research Director in the Centre for Children and Families, with a particular interest in cognitive development and education in children with and without special educational needs. Hayley is a trained primary school teacher and former Lecturer in Psychology. Her research in developmental psychology focused mainly on cognitive and motor development in children with a range of special needs and diagnoses, including longitudinal projects with infants and school-aged children. More recent work has included Randomised Control Trials in primary and secondary schools evaluating the impact of a range of interventions to encourage more girls to study computing.

Hayley has expertise in both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analyses, and in managing large-scale complex projects in educational settings. Throughout her career, Hayley has worked closely with parents and teachers to understand key issues affecting children’s development and educational experiences and outcomes, and to conduct research that addresses these issues.