Curriculum Vitae
Peter Linton Brooks (Date of birth 13-7-48)
8 Hall Bridge Road, Upwell, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire PE14 9DP
Tel: 01945 351 016
Current positions and professional activity
Self-employed Chartered Educational Psychologist
Clinical assessment in Europe including the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands
Advice and consultation especially regarding:
Specific learning difficulties/dyslexia; learning difficulties; ability levels; school and educational placement; work and training; developmental issues; necessary specialist provisions; appropriate handling; and related emotional development.
Age of client group:
3 years to adulthood.
Work with:
Independent pre-preparatory, preparatory and senior schools including
Amesbury, Barfield School, Bearwood College, Bradfield College, Charterhouse,
Cranleigh School, Cranmore School, Frensham Heights, Great Ballard,
Guildford High School, Lady Eleanor Holles School, Lanesborough, Milbourne Lodge Junior School, Pennthorpe School, Prior’s Field, The Royal School, Seaford College and St. Catherine’s School;
LEA schools' children;
F.E. colleges including Alton College;
H.E. institutions
International and British schools in Europe including Antwerp International School, Basel International School, Bonn International School, Eindhoven International School, Frankfurt International School, Heidelberg International School, Independent Bonn International School, Kreuzlingen-Konstanz International School and
St. George’s School Koeln.
Work for:
MOD and service children.
Research
A particular emphasis upon specific learning difficulties/dyslexia and literacy.
Work has included:
Membership of a research team at the University of Surrey led by John Everatt, with a focus upon literacy and mathematical development, and dyslexia.
Continuing to work with John in his position as Professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and other UK colleagues.
Dissemination following the completion of a three and a half year DfEE sponsored project, "Individual styles in learning to spell: improving spelling in children with literacy difficulties and all children in mainstream schools.";
Theoretical perspectives on literacy, instruction and phonology;
Helen Arkell Spelling Test;
Adult screening for dyslexia via a Web based package - Amidyslexic;
Adult Reading Test.
Current and possible future projects include:
Further computer based screening;
Number and mathematics test;
Phonological skills test;
Mathematics and specific learning difficulties;
The effects of using voice-activated and visual modelling software;
Individual learning styles;
Phonology in pre-school children and adults;
Adult measures of literacy and cognitive development;
Attention deficit;
Dyslexia in Germany and Switzerland;
Developing tests in German and Flemish.
Schools and systems work
Includes:
Whole school, FE and HE policy and systems regarding learning difficulties;
Screening;
Building unit provisions;
Surgery type provisions;
Raising staff awareness;
Staff training.
This work has been undertaken in preparatory and senior schools such as Amesbury, Charterhouse, and Independent Bonn International School, and H.E. such as the University of Surrey Roehampton, where I have been Consultant to the Roehampton Educational Development Centre.
Special Schools work
Centred upon:
More House School, a specialist school for dyslexic difficulties which includes:
Children with A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and Asberger's Syndrome;
Dyslexic units or provisions at Bearwood College, Bradfield College, Cranmore School, Great Ballard and Seaford College.
Lecturing
To conferences, courses, colleges and universities especially within specific learning difficulties/dyslexia and related teaching techniques.
Legal work
Assisting in preparing cases for claims of negligence within education, especially with Irwin Mitchell 1998 to 2001.
Attendance at Special Educational Needs Tribunal.
Further consultation as an expert witness.
Qualifications and membership of professional bodies.
"A" levels in pure mathematics, applied mathematics and physics - 1966
B.Sc. (Hons.) Human and Physical Sciences, III, University of Surrey - 1970
P.G.C.E., Brunel University - 1971
B.Sc. (Hons.) Psychology, II Upper, Birkbeck College, University of London - 1975
M.Sc. Psychology of Education with clinical studies, Institute of Education, London - 1976
Associate Fellow of:
The British Psychological Society
Chartered Educational Psychologist
Member of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology
Member of the Association of Educational Psychologists
Registered with the Health Professions Council UK
Professional positions.
Assistant teacher of maths and social studies, Longford School, Feltham - 1971-3
Assistant teacher in primary school class, Feltham Hill Junior School - 1973-5
Educational Psychologist in training, Essex E.P.S. - 1975-6
Educational Psychologist, Hampshire E.P.S. - 1977-92
Principal Educational Psychologist, Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre, Frensham, Farnham Surrey - 1992-1999.
Locum Educational Psychologist at SCE, JHQ, Rheindahlen – January 2008 to July 2008.
Work in Hampshire included:
All aspects of educational psychology covering an area of north-east Hampshire;
including learning, emotional and behaviour, language, physical skills, hearing and vision difficulties;
Work in mainstream playgroups, nurseries, primary schools, senior schools, and
specialist schools/units for physical, moderate learning, severe learning, emotional
and behaviour, and specific learning difficulties;
Ages from 18 months to adulthood;
INSET for teachers and psychologists including assessment, Datapac and later
versions, specific learning difficulties, early work to prevent literacy difficulties and
behaviour management;
Being specialist psychologist for specific learning difficulties from 1987-92 including
policy development and supporting, training and managing psychologists;
Involvement in establishing an opportunity centre for children from 18 months to
5 years with a range of developmental, language, learning and other difficulties;
Establishing units for specific learning difficulties in senior schools in Hampshire;
Working in Child Guidance teams including family therapy.
Work at the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre has included:
Clinical assessment and advice;
Schools' advice and consultation;
Management of psychologists;
Being part of the senior management team;
Lecturing;
Training teachers and assistants;
Supervising psychology students;
Managing secretarial inputs;
Reporting to Trustees;
Developing policy;
Managing research projects.
Movement from a general managing Principal Educational Psychologist (with 10-15 part-time psychologists in the team) in 1997 to Principal Educational Psychologist – Research until 2000. Continuing to consult with the Centre on a range of issues.
Research Activity.
Dissertations included drug dependence, and mathematical and cognitive development.
Research with (now) Professor Margaret Snowling on reading and spelling development, and interrelationships with cognitive development, especially in severe dyslexics in senior schools - 1987-1992.
Early intervention in phonology and literacy - 1993-4.
The incidence of dyslexia in H.E. - 1995-6.
The development of the Helen Arkell Spelling Test involving standardised measurement of spelling levels and a diagnostic package of strategies used in relation to age group, further assessment and remediation - 1995 to current.
The development of an adult screening package for literacy and related cognitive skills in F.E. and H.E. - 1996 to current.
Part of the team developing the Phonological Assessment Battery at U.C.L. - 1993-5.
Managing a DfEE sponsored project, "Individual styles in learning to spell: improving spelling in children with literacy difficulties and all children in mainstream schools.", from 1996 to 1999.
Development of a Web based literacy difficulty screen - Amidyslexic - from 2002 to the current time.
Development of literacy and cognitive tests in German and Flemish.
Evolution, management and dissemination of projects.
Particularly close collaborations have involved Professor Margaret Snowling (University of York), Dr. John Everatt (University of Surrey and University of Canterbury, New Zealand) and Dr. Rhona Stainthorpe (Institute of Education, London)
Future possible projects include:
Teaching reading and spelling;
Individual styles in learning;
Computer-based screening;
The effects of voice-activated software;
Mathematics as a combination of cognitive/logical development, numeracy and the
mathematics curriculum, and specific learning difficulties;
Phonology measures for the very young to adults;
Teacher-based assessment for literacy and specific learning difficulties;
Cross country/culture tests for dyslexia;
Comparisons of screening/assessment measures regarding dyslexia
in Germany and Switzerland;
Developing tests in German and Flemish.
Publications, research papers and articles include
Brooks, P. (1990) "The effects of different teaching strategies on severe dyslexics." in
Hales, G. (ed.) "Meeting points in dyslexia." Reading: B.D.A.
Brooks, P. (1994) "Teaching spelling to dyslexics." Dyslexia Contact 13 9-10
Walton, D. and Brooks, P. (1995) "The Spoonerism test." Educational and Child Psychology 12 50-52
Brooks, P. (1995) "The effectiveness of various teaching strategies in teaching spelling to a student with severe specific difficulties." Educational and Child Psychology 12 80-88
Frederickson, N., Frith, U. and Reason, R. (1997) "Phonological Assessment Battery." Windsor: N.F.E.R. Nelson (contributing author)
Brooks, P. and Weeks, S. (1998) "A comparison of the responses of dyslexic, slow learning and control children to different strategies for teaching spellings." Dyslexia 4 212-222
Brooks, P. and McLean, B. (1999) "Helen Arkell Spelling Test." Farnham: H.A.D.C.
Brooks, P. and Weeks, S. (1999) "Individual styles in learning to spell: improving spelling in children with literacy difficulties and all children in mainstream schools." London: DfEE
Brooks, P., Everatt, J. and Weeks, S. (2001) “Spelling progress can be doubled.” Special Children April 137 32-33
Brooks, P., Everatt, J. and Weeks, S. (in press) “Spelling doubled by individualised methods!”
Child Education
Brooks, P., Weeks, S. and Everatt, J. (2001) “Individual styles in learning to spell: a field trial in mainstream schools.” Dyslexia Contact 20 17
Weeks, S. Brooks, P. and Everatt, J. (2001) “The personal touch.” Special! Autumn 18-21
Weeks, S. Brooks, P. and Everatt, J. (2002) “Differences in learning to spell: relationships between cognitive profiles and learning responses to teaching methods.” Educational and Child Psychology 19 47-62
Brooks, P., Weeks, S. and Everatt, J. (2002) “Individualisation of learning in mainstream school children.” Educational and Child Psychology 19 63-74
Fidler, R. Brooks, P and Everatt, J. (submitted) “The development of an adult prose reading test: its standardisation and some observations on reading accuracy, comprehension and rate amongst adult dyslexics.”
Brooks, P., Everatt, J. and Fidler, R. (2004) “Adult Reading Test” London: University of Surrey Roehampton
Brooks, P., Everatt, J. and Giller, P. (2006) “Amidyslexic screen” on the Web.
Everatt, J. Weeks, S. and Brooks, P. (2007) “Profiles of strengths and weaknesses in dyslexia and other learning difficulties.”
Brooks, P & Everatt, J (2009). “Phonology, discrepancy, instruction and dyslexia: Adversaries or allies?” In Larson, JE (Ed), “Educational psychology: Cognition and learning, individual differences and motivation.” Hauppauge NY: Nova Science Publishers
Weeks, S., Everatt, J. and Brooks, P. (submitted) “Dyslexia and cognitive strengths II: the identification of learning strategies.”
Papers to recent and non-U.K. conferences include
"Teaching spelling to dyslexics." International Schools' Conference, Geneva 1988 (key speaker)
"Improving spelling in children with learning difficulties." B.D.A. International Conference, York 1997 (with S.A.J. Weeks)
"Teaching spelling to young school children who appear to be at risk of dyslexia/specific learning difficulties." 4th World Congress of Dyslexia, Macedonia, Greece 1997 (with
S.A.J. Weeks)
"Learning and teaching spelling for children with learning difficulties." B.P.S. Annual Conference, Brighton 1998 (with S.A.J. Weeks)
"The methodology of dyslexia assessment." Dyslexia Assessment 2000 Conference, Civil Service College, Ascot 1998
"Approaches to spelling." Dyslexia/New Aspects Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University 1998 (key speaker)
“Identifying individual styles and strategies in literacy learning.” Network Training, Birmingham 2000 (key speaker)
“Specific Learning Difficulties” HKSAR course for the Hong Kong Education Department 2000
“Profiles of learning difficulty: a comparison of children with dyslexia, attention deficits, speech and language problems, emotional and behaviour disorders and moderate learning difficulties." "Dyslexia Plus" Conference, University of Wales Bangor – Gregynog 2000 (with
J. Everatt and S.A.J. Weeks)
“Roehampton Educational Development Centre.” “Dyslexia and progression to Higher Education” conference, University of Surrey, Guildford 2000 (with R. Fidler)
“Individual styles in learning to spell: a field trial in mainstream schools.” B.D.A. International Conference, York 2001
“AD/HD in context.” AHCRSE Conference, Institute of Education, University of London 2001
“Individual styles in learning to spell: improving spelling in children with literacy difficulties and all children in mainstream schools.” “The psychology of literacy” conference, Association of Educational Psychologists’ (NE Branch) conference, Hartlepool Historic Quay, 2001
“Phonology, discrepancy, instruction and dyslexia: adversaries or allies?” “Policy on Dyslexia” conference, Uppsala, Sweden, 2002 (with J. Everatt)
“Age-related variability in the effectiveness of literacy-related assessment and remediation tools.” “Policy on Dyslexia” conference, Uppsala, Sweden, 2002 (with J. Everatt and S.A.J. Weeks)
“Reading comprehension ability in adult dyslexics.” XIX Annual BPS-CPS Conference, University of Kent 2002 (with J. Everatt, C. Zabell, R. Fidler and S. Nenopoulou)
“Phonology, discrepancy, instruction and dyslexia: adversaries or allies?” University of Bangor Dyslexia Conference 2003 (with J. Everatt and S. Weeks)
“Specific learning difficulties and dyslexia: cognitive development and styles of learning.”
Sixth BDA Conference, Warwick University 2004 (with J. Everatt and S. Weeks)
“Evaluation of adult literacy skills as part of an FE/HE dyslexia assessment process.”
Sixth BDA Conference, Warwick University 2004 (with R. Fidler (presenter) and J. Everatt)
“The Adult Reading Test.” Dyslexia Institute Psychologists’ Conference 2004, University of York (with J. Everatt and R. Fidler)
“Assessment of literacy, phonological and verbal abilities of adult dyslexics and students with English as an additional language.” Multilingual and Cross-cultural Perspectives on Dyslexia Conference, Limassol, Cyprus 2005 (with S. Nenopoulou (presenter) and J. Everatt)
“Dyslexia assessment and screening in non-compulsory education students.” 56th IDA Annual Conference, Denver 2005 (with J. Everatt, R. Fidler, S. Weeks, C. Zabell and
P. Giller)(self and J. Everatt presenters)
“Dyslexic screening on line.” Practically there! Conference, Southampton University 2007
“Differences between first language English dyslexics and students with English as an additional language.” EDA Conference, Luxembourg 2007 (with J. Everatt et al)
“Dyslexia in Deutschland: Lebt es schon, oder muss es noch geboren werden?” EDA Conference, Brugge 2010 (with E. Brooks)
Lecturing and training.
Lectures have been given at the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre, the National Hospital of Speech Sciences, Reading University, Surrey C.C. Educational Psychology Service, Southampton University, U.C.L., University of Surrey Roehampton, University of Surrey, Medway Dyslexia Association and a range of local dyslexia groups.
Audiences have included students, parents, teachers, educational psychologists and psychologists.
Involvement in the training of teachers in R.S.A. Diploma courses in specific learning difficulties at Basingstoke College of Technology, the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre,
the National Hospital College of Speech Sciences and Fareham College, and on postgraduate studies at Reading University.
Involvement in the training of educational psychologists at Southampton University and U.C.L.
Undergraduates have been supervised over one year, and shorter placements, including individual project work.
Assisting in the supervision of PhD students at the University of Surrey.
Recent CPD.
Recent courses attended include:
Thinking and learning skills, Institute of Education, London, 2003
Research in dyslexia, BDA Conference, Warwick University, 2004
Practice in dyslexia, East Court School, 2004
DCD, Institute of Education, London, 2004
Dyslexia research, University of York, 2004
DI Psychology Conference, London, 2004
Dyslexia, Mathematics and Dyscalculia, ICL, 2004
Multilingual and cross-cultural perspectives on dyslexia, Cyprus, 2005
IDA conference, Denver, 2005
Dyslexia workshop, East Court School, 2006
EDA Conference, Luxembourg, 2007
BVL Conference, Berlin, 2008
EDA Conference, Brugge, 2010
BDA Conference, Guildford, 2014
Regular refresher groups with colleagues.
Other.
Member of the B.D.A. Psychology Committee from 1992 to 1994.
Member of the B.D.A. Examinations Committee in 1995.
Governor of Beacon Hill School from 1992 to 2004, and Chair of Governors from 1998 to 2003.
Governor of More House School from 1998 to 2004.
Continuing to play occasional tennis, and, most importantly, living with my wife and stepson, and continuing to care for and support my older daughters and my wife’s son.