AN ULSTER University psychologist has received a national research award for her pioneering research.
Dr Victoria Simms was presented with the prestigious Neil O’Connor award by The British Psychological Society for her published paper on the Premature Infants Skills in Mathematics (Prism) study.
Funded by Action Medical Research and carried out by the UK team of children’s development experts, the Prism study discovered that children born before 32 weeks of pregnancy are more likely to have difficulties with maths in primary school and showed, for the first time, that these stemmed from problems with memory and hand-eye coordination.
As a result of Dr Simm’s published research, Action Medical Research has awarded a second grant of £220,000 to further investigate the learning and maths skills of these children as teenagers now they are in secondary school.