International Conference 2024 - Keynote Speaker: Associate Professor Tuija Aro
Tuesday 19 September 2023
As a clinical neuropsychologist and psychotherapist, I am interested in both neuropsychological development and mental well-being of children. I am currently working on long-term outcomes (cognitive, social-emotional well-being, educational, employment) of developmental learning disabilities, in addition to research on social-emotional problems associated with learning disabilities.
I am involved in studies on diverse interventions related to reading and math skills, self-efficacy, and executive functions as well as conducting a school-based intervention on anxiety integrating cognitive psychotherapy and psychophysiological psychotherapy approaches.
I am part of the Center of Excellence project called InterLearn which started at the University of Jyväskylä and University of Turku in 2022. The InterLearn investigates the links between children’s learning and mental health, and the factors contributing to response to interventions.
I am also working as a clinician doing neuropsychological treatments and psychotherapy with children and young adults.
Q & A with Associate professor Tuija Aro
What do you love about being a researcher/educator?
Learning new things and co-working with different people from different backgrounds and disciplines, incorporating research and clinical work
What are you working on right now?
School based anxiety intervention and links between children's learning and mental health
Why is it important and what impact do you hope it will have?
I hope it will provide school personnel and parents information that will help them better support mental well-being specially among those who struggle for some reasons in school.
What other historic or current research are you particularly interested in and why?
I am interested on the long-term outcome of learning disabilities, on psychophysiological reaction in psychotherapy and support provision, and on school-well being. I am keen on taking a wider perspective on both well-being and development.
What do you hope will be researched in the future?
I wish we could better understand children’s own experiences, the meanings they attach to learning related problems and to the support they have received, and that we would integrate diverse individual and environmental factors in our future studies.
If you could recommend one book or article to a member of the public interested in dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties, it would be:
Catts, H. W., & Petscher, Y. (2022). A cumulative risk and resilience model of dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 55(3), 171-184. Bazen, L., de Bree, E. H., van den Boer, M., & de Jong, P. F. (2023). Perceived negative consequences of dyslexia: the influence of person and environmental factors. Annals of Dyslexia, 73(2), 214-234.
Tell us something interesting!
We should keep in mind that emotions and cognition occur in the same brain and the same body interacting with environmental factors, that is, we should not think in a dualistic way separating cognition and academic development form emotional and physiological processes.
