Dr Melissa Allen's Homepage

phone:	01524 593100
fax:	01524 593744
email:	melissa.allen@lancaster.ac.uk

Research Interests

Symbolic understanding of pictures and words in toddlers and children with autism
Early language acquisition
Initial language constraints
Intention, art and representation
Drawings by young typically developing children and children with autism
Syntactic alignment in children with autism

Dr. Allen has previously published under the name 'Melissa Preissler'.

Publications

	Allen, M.L. (in press). Associative learning of pictures and words. Chapter in : Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. .
	Allen, M.L, Haywood, S., Rajendran, G., & Branigan, H. (2011). Evidence for syntactic alignment in children with autism. Developmental Science, 14(3), 540-548.
	Allen, M.L., & Chambers, A. (2011). Implicit and explicit understanding of ambiguous figures by adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism, 15(3), 1-16.
	Allen, M.L., Bloom, P., & Hodgson, E. (2010). Do young children know what makes a picture useful for other people? Journal of Cognition and Culture, 10, 27-37.
	Allen, M.L. (2009). Decoding representations: How children with autism understand drawings. J Autism Dev Disorders, 39, 539-543.
	Ganea, P.A., Allen, M.L., Butler, L., Carey, S. & DeLoache, J.S. (2009). Toddlers' referential understanding of pictures. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 283-295.
	Preissler, M.A. (2008). Associative learning of pictures and words by low-functioning children with autism. Autism, 12 (3), 229-246.
	Preissler, M.A. & Bloom, P. (2008). Two-year-olds use artist intention to understand drawings. Cognition, 106, 512-518.
	Preissler, M.A. & Bloom, P. (2007). Two-year olds understand the duality of pictures. Psychological Science, 18, 1-2.
	Preissler, M.A. (2006). Autism and play: Facilitating symbolic understanding. Chapter in Singer, D., Golinkoff, R.M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (Eds.): Play=Learning: How play motivates and enhances children's cognitive and social-emotional growth. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
	Preissler, M.A. & Carey, S. (2005). What is the role of intentional inference in word learning? Evidence from autism. Cognition, 97(1), B13-23.
	Preissler, M.A. & Carey, S. (2004). Do both pictures and words function as symbols for 18- and 24-month old children? Journal of Cognition and Development, 5, 185-212.
	Boser, K., Higgins, S., Fetherson, A., Preissler, M.A. & Gordon, B. (2002). Semantic fields in low-functioning autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 32, 563-582.

Grants

2008 (for one year), Project Grant from Lancaster University.
Cognitive differences in bilingual children: Is there a symbolic advantage?
with Dr Karen Mattock.
2008 (for one year), Small Grant from British Academy.
Do young children understand the flexibility of visual symbols?

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