Hélène Deacon

Education

BSc Honours (University of Prince Edward Island)
DPhil (University of Oxford)
PDF (University of British Columbia)

Research Interests

Dr. Hélène Deacon is a Member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada and a Professor in the Faculty of Science, where she directs the Language and Literacy Lab. She completed her doctoral research as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford in 2004. She is currently co-Director of a new 2.5-million-dollar Partnership Grant: Ensuring Full Literacy in a Multicultural and Digital World. Deacon has world-renowned expertise in reading development, with active collaborative research examining how children achieve the reading skills they need to fully participate in society. Deacon’s research is conducted with amazing partner schools and collaborators around the world. In 2022 she was named as one of the top 2% scientists in the world, across all disciplines and ages, by Stanford University. To learn more about the wide reach of Deacon’s research including impact on public policy and educational and clinical practice, visit https://langlabatdal.weebly.com/wider-reach.html.  

Students at all levels can get involved in new data collection or analysis of existing large-scale datasets, including learning new statistical techniques. Potential projects include examining reading development in children, including in digital contexts and in bilinguals.  

Selected Publications

• Tong, X., Yu, L., & Deacon, H. (2024). A meta-analysis of the relation between syntactic skills and reading comprehension: A cross-linguistic and developmental investigation. Review of Educational Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543241228185  
• Ryken, A.M., Wade-Woolley, L. & Deacon, S.H. (2024). Punctuation: a missing link between awareness of prosody and reading comprehension. Reading and Writing. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-024-10517-8
• Deacon, S. H., Levesque, K. (2024). Mechanisms in the relation between morphological awareness and the development of reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000871 
• Heintzman, S., Conrad, N. J., & Deacon, S. H. (2024). vgck versus vack: The contributions of children’s early sub-lexical orthographic knowledge to gains in word reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 47(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12444
• Deacon, S. H., Mimeau, C., Levesque, K., & Ricketts, J. (2024). Testing mechanisms underlying children’s reading development: The power of learning lexical representations. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001749
• Howard-Gosse, A., Bergey, B. W., & Deacon, S. H. (2023). The reading challenges, strategies, and habits of university students with a history of reading difficulties and their relations to academic achievement. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 52(2), 91-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222194231190678  
• Nastasiuk, A. M., Courteau, É, Deacon, S. H. & Thomson, J. M. (2024). Drawing attention to print or meaning: How parents read with their preschool-aged children on paper and on screens. Advance online publication. Journal of Research in Reading. http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12451
• Thompson, J., & Deacon, S. H. (2021). Technology and a child’s journey to literacy. In Werker, J. F. et al. (Eds.) Impact of COVID-19 on Language and Literacy in Canada (pp. 75-77). Royal Society of Canada. https://rsc-src.ca/sites/default/files/Literacy%20PB_EN_3.pdf
• Courteau, E., Loignon, G., Dutemple, M., Deacon, S. H. (2024). The impact of the pandemic on development: Parents’ perceptions on language and literacy. Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. 48(1), 17-27. https://cjslpa.ca/files/2024_CJSLPA_Vol_48/No_1/CJSLPA_Vol_48_No_1_2024_1299.pdf
• McGrath, P. J., Asmundson, G. J. G., Blackstock, C., Bourque, M. C., Brimacombe, G., Crawford, A., Deacon, S. H., McMullen, K., Mushquash, C., Stewart, S. H., Stinson, J., Taylor, S., Campbell-Yeo, M. (2020, October 9). Easing the disruption of COVID-19: Supporting the mental health of the people of Canada.  Royal Society of Canada. https://rsc-src.ca/en/research-and-reports/easing disruption-covid-19-supporting-mental-health-people. https://rsc-src.ca/fr/covid-19-policy-briefing/att%C3%A9nuer-les-perturbations-engendr%C3%A9es-par-la-pand%C3%A9mie-de-la-covid-19 
• Savage, R., Maiorino, K., Gavin, K., Horne-Robinson, H., Georgiou, G., & Deacon, H. (2023). Contrasting morphology interventions in children with poor morphological awareness in Grade 3: A school-based RCT trial. Journal of Learning Disabilities, Advance online publication.  https://doi.org/10.1177/00222194231161117 

Selected Awards and Honours

2024-29—Distinguished Research Professorship, Faculty of Science
2020—Elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars
2015-20—Killam Professor, Faculty of Science
2013—Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists Editor’s award
2012—Voted 3^rd Best Professor in 2012 for “Best of Halifax” in local newspaper “The Coast”
2010—IWK Auxiliary Award for top grant submitted to competition
2010—UKLA/Wiley-Blackwell Research in Literacy Education Award
2008-10—March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Award
2008-10—National Academy of Education Spencer Fellowship
2009—Visiting Professor, European Doctoral College

Memberships

• Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars
  
• Affiliate Member, Language Sciences Initiative, University of British Columbia
  
• Member of Society for the Scientific Studies of Reading

Teaching

PSYO 1012 - Introduction to Psychology II: Learning and Development
PSYO 3093 - Development of Language and Literacy
PSYO 4092 - Special Topics in Developmental Psychology
PSYO 4501/4502 - Honours Thesis Seminar

Service and Activity

• Editorial Advisory Board Member for: Journal of Research in Reading (since 2008), Reading Psychology (since 2008), Applied Psycholinguistics (since 2012), Scientific Studies of Reading (since 2012), Reading Research Quarterly (since 2017), The Reading League (since 2019), and Journal of Educational Psychology (since 2020).
• At Dalhousie: Member, Faculty of Science Human Ethics Committee (Social); Member, Ad Hoc Probationary Review Committee (Department of Psychology and Neuroscience); and Honours Advisor (Department of Psychology and Neuroscience).