Lila is a Chartered Psychologist (British Psychological Society).
She is also an accredited Video Interaction Guidance (VIG) practitioner and trained in Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2) administration and coding.
Lila is an external examiner for the University of East London. She is in charge of the courses BA in Early Childhood and Education and MA in Child Psychology for Education at their European partner Metropolitan College (Greece).
She is honoured to be a governor at Hamilton School and a trustee at the charity EQUALS.
The Hidden Voices of People with PMLD: focusing on meaningful relationships
This event aimed to raise awareness about a group of people who are rarely represented in disability events and research. The perspective of parents, teachers, students, and the wider research community were covered. Our panellists included:
- Dr Lila Kossyvaki, Lecturer in Severe Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities in the Department of Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs (DISN), School of Education, University of Birmingham.
- Hayden, young person with PMLD
- Sandra Archibald, mother of a young person with PMLD.
- Julia Barnes, teacher and doctoral student at the University of Birmingham.
- Rosie Rushton, music specialist and doctoral student at the University of Birmingham.
Worth Listening To? Life with Learning Disabilities: Perspectives on Severe, Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities from Education, Research and Arts’. ERSC festival of Social Sciences 2019.
This two-hour event brought together education, research and performing arts in an effort to give a full account of priorities in the life of people with Severe, Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (SPMLD). In an easy-to-access format, special education expert Peter Imray and Dr Lila Kossyvaki, Lecturer and Programme Lead, in SPMLD at the University of Birmingham, shared from their perspectives what people with SPMLD are taught in schools, how effective this teaching is and also highlighted what is the current existing research on SPMLD. The event explained the implications on the life of people with SPMLD and their families, as well as why teaching staff often 'hit the target but miss the point', failing to teach meaningful and life-long skills to these people. The evening closed with some examples of the amazing work of the One of a Kind theatre group - a group of emerging performers with learning disabilities who work with non-verbal physical theatre relying on music, prop work and improvisation.
The short clip below shows highlights from the event. If you would like to watch the whole event, please view the video beneath this.