Dr Sevil Savi-Karayol

Biography

I joined the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Essex in 2023. I hold a PhD examining language difficulties in children and young people in care (CYPIC). Alongside my role at Essex, I am a Visiting Lecturer at ARU London and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Prior to joining the University of Essex, I gained more than 23 years of professional experience working with children and young people in care, children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), developmental language disorder (DLD), social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across the UK and internationally. My research is driven by a commitment to improving the lives of children and young people in care through advancing knowledge of the factors that shape their communication, educational attainment, health, and long-term wellbeing. My work focuses on SLCN and DLD among children and young people in care and care leavers, with particular emphasis on their prevalence, identification, and impact across the life course. I am also interested in developing and evaluating evidence-based interventions that improve communication, educational and wider life outcomes for this population. A further strand of my research explores the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the development of SLCN and DLD, particularly among care-experienced children and young people. I am interested in understanding how developmental language difficulties interact with childhood adversity to influence educational attainment, social participation, mental health, and life trajectories into adulthood, with the aim of informing policy, professional practice and early intervention. I welcome enquiries from prospective postgraduate researchers whose interests align with these areas and am keen to supervise research that advances knowledge and contributes to improving policy, practice and outcomes for children and young people with communication needs, particularly those with care experience and histories of ACEs.