Dorothy Bishop’s research focuses on the nature and causes of children’s communication problems — encompassing psychological, linguistic, neurological and genetic aspects. Her work has laid the foundation for the genetic investigation of developmental disorders. In particular, Dorothy pioneered the use of data from identical and fraternal twins to reveal the influence of genes on language disorders.

Her work has highlighted the relatedness of a number of language impairment disorders, including specific language impairment, dyslexia and autism. The tools that Dorothy developed enable both clinical professionals and researchers to distinguish between different types of language impairment.

Dorothy’s book Uncommon Understanding won the British Psychology Society’s annual book prize in 1998. As well as publishing in conventional academic outlets, she writes a popular blog, BishopBlog, which was a runner-up in the Good Thinking Society’s UK Science Blog 2012 prize. She is regularly tweets and is the founder of a YouTube campaign to raise awareness of language learning impairments.