Prof. Carolien Rieffe | Leiden University | University of Twente
Tirza is a medical doctor who obtained her Bachelor and Master’s degree at the Leiden University Medical Center. Afterwards she has worked at the Department of Surgery of the Bronovo Hospital in The Hague. Currently, Tirza is a PhD student interested in the long term effect of early detection and intervention of hearing loss on the social-emotional development of deaf and hard of hearing children (follow-up DECIBEL-study).
February 26th, 2021
Today at the end of February 2021, sending our sincere words of thanks and love to Lisa, who is leaving our Focus on Emotions lab. Lisa has been a valued member of our team for over two years and made numerous contributions to the ongoing projects. She is a bright character as a colleague and as a friend, who is always thoughtful and willing to provide support.
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February 22nd, 2021
Our new master student Claudia Libbi (University of Twente) aims to design a serious game for girls with autism for a hands-on experience of navigating different (difficult) peer interactions whilst staying calm. Kick off meeting with Els Blijd (lnter-Psy) and Carolien ( Human Media Interaction , University of Twente) to discuss which steps to take and whom to involve.
January 5th, 2021
Understanding emotions from other people’s faces and from social situations is essential for daily social interaction. But how is that for children with hearing loss? Can they learn to understand emotions just as easily as hearing children?Through a collaboration between Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, and Otorhinolaryngology (LUMC and Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital Taiwan), Yung-Ting’s unique eye-tracking studies show that daily "exposure" in the social environment in which emotions take place is essential for the development of this aspect of emotional intelligence. The results are now published in Emotion and Ear & Hearing.
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December 17th, 2020
On December 17th, the webinar with the China Rehabilitation Research Center for Hearing and Speech Impairment in Beijing (北京中国听力语言康复研究中心) was held successfully. With the common goal of promoting the development and having the same enthusiasm for benefitting the wellbeing of children with hearing loss, this collaboration began in the year 2017, sponsored by the KNAW grant for China Exchange Program. Since then, this collaboration has achieved excellent results, including launching three new China Scholarship PhD projects and largescale longitudinal research tracking the social and emotional development of Chinese preschoolers with hearing loss. During the meeting, ideas on ongoing research and preliminary results were discussed in context with observations made by teachers at the centre.
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February 17th, 2021
Jiayin received her China Government Scholarship (CSC) in 2020 and started in our lab January 2021. She will be under the supervision of Carolien and Boya. Jiayin’s thesis focuses on social-emotional functioning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Congratulations Jiayin and welcome.
November 27th, 2020
Starting in December, the China project team (Qi, Shannon and Zijian) will collect the 2nd wave of data about social-emotional development in DHH children online. We are once again working closely with the China Rehabilitation Research Center for Hearing and Speech Impairment (北京中国听力语言康复研究中心) in Beijing.
Read more ...October 14th, 2020
On October 14th, our star-student Maayan Cohen received her diploma for the Research Master (MPhil), cum laude! Maayan did her research with Carolien and Evelien on empathy in autistic adolescents.
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Our team is located at the department of Developmental Psychology of Leiden University and at the Human Media Interaction at the technical University of Twente, both in the Netherlands. We work in close collaboration with the ENT department of the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), the mental health organisations INTER-PSY (Groningen) and Curium-LUMC, the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), and TU Delft. Our group is dedicated to examining the development of emotional intelligence of children and adolescents from a very young age; with a strong focus on its impact on children's social development. Besides typically developing children and adolescents, we are interested in the development of those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH), with autism, or with a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Currently, we have an ongoing project on social inclusion at schools that utilises sensor technology with DHH and autistic children. Since 2017, our team has also been working in close collaboration with a centre for DHH children in China.
On this site we will post regular news items about new publications, events, and other important news. You can also read more about our ongoing projects, read about/download questionnaires we have developed, peruse the list of our publications per topic, or learn about opportunities for students to join our team.