Speaker
Professor Helen Dodd
Professor of Child Psychology in the College of Medicine and Health (CMH), University of Exeter
Biography
Helen Dodd is a Professor of Child Psychology in the College of Medicine and Health (CMH), University of Exeter. She is an expert in child mental health with a particular interest in the development of childhood anxiety disorders. Her research has been funded by the ESRC, Royal Society, British Academy, Kavli Foundation and the Australian Research Council. She has received awards for her research from the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA) and the British Psychological Society (BPS). Most recently she was awarded the Margaret Donaldson Award from the British Psychology Society for her outstanding contribution to developmental psychology.
Helen held an ESRC Future Research Leaders grant between 2014 and 2019 and currently holds a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, which funds a program of work examining the relationship between children’s adventurous play and mental health. Helen regularly writes about children’s play and contributes to public discussions about the role of play in supporting children’s mental health. During the pandemic Helen played a leading role in the @playfirstUK group, who campaigned for children’s play to be prioritised and for a #SummerOfPlay.
Alongside her work on adventurous play, Helen collaborates on a number of other projects which focus on better understanding pathways to anxiety in young children and how to support children and families to prevent mental health problems. She has expertise in longitudinal data analysis, eyetracking, observational research, experimental design and developmental psychology more broadly.