Hannah Hobson, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Hannah directs the EMERALD lab (Emotions and Mental health Research in Autism and Language Disorders).
The lab chiefly explores the relationships between communication skills and socio-emotional abilities, especially in neurodivergent groups such as children and adults with Developmental Language Disorder or Autism. Her DPhil was in Experimental Psychology, and before coming to York to studied at the University of Oxford and worked at King’s College London and the University of Greenwich.
email: hannah.hobson
Our 60-second interview with Hannah:
Could you please tell us what work you do in the field of mental health?
I am very interested in language difficulties and how these relate to mental health problems: we know that children and adults with language difficulties are at a higher risk of mental health problems, and we also know that language problems are very over-represented but also often missed in mental health settings. I also work on a range of topics that feed into the theme of language and mental health, including work on camouflaging, how young people with language needs are perceived by others, relationships between emotional insight (“alexithymia”) and language skills, and the experiences of autistic people, including autistic women’s experiences of diagnosis.
What do you find most rewarding and inspiring in this work?
I find working on topics that could have real world impacts really motivating, and I also really enjoy doing dissemination and policy work that aligns with my expertise. I get to work with neurodivergent groups and I really enjoy meeting a diverse range of professionals, not just academics! For example, right now, I am helping the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists develop their priorities for future DLD research, I am also creating a video resource for mental health professionals about DLD, and I have recently given presentations to schools about DLD. Feedback from families and clinicians that our work is helping is hugely rewarding (even when I sometimes wish the papers had more data/more measures/fancier analysis!).
What is the most challenging or complicated aspect of this work?
Developmental Language Disorder is very common but poorly known about. This makes recruitment to our studies very challenging, and often I find key organisations like funding bodies don’t know much about it and think I am trying to study something very “niche”. However, the families and young people motivate me to stick with it and not give up!
What impact do you hope your work is having - or can potentially have?
I really hope that my work, and the work of others (there is a great team of scientists interested in language and mental health!), will make mental health care more accessible for people with communication needs. I hope we can improve the awareness and understanding of all forms of neurodivergence, including autism (which many people have heard of but may have inaccurate views on) and DLD (which few people know about).
Could you share with us one piece of advice that you follow for your own mental health?
Breaking things down into smaller achievable goals make big projects seem less overwhelming: things take time to come fruition so enjoy the journey and celebrate all small steps towards making something happen!