Dr Lila Kossyvaki

• PGCHE, University of Birmingham
• PhD, University of Birmingham
• M.Ed., University of Birmingham  Special Education: Autism (children) 
• B.Ed., National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece)  Philosophy-Pedagogy-Psychology (Major: Psychology)

Lila currently supervises the following students:

• Julia Barnes (EdD)
• Marianna Moustaka (PhD)

Former students who have completed their doctoral studies

• Rosie Rushton (PHD) Exploring the impact of music on the play experiences of children and young people with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities
  
• Karam Bhogal (EdD) School practitioners’ perceptions of the impact of Intensive Interaction on the emotional wellbeing of pupils with severe intellectual disabilities and autism
• Sarah Todorov (PhD) Experiences of foster carers of children with disabilities in Bulgaria
• Hadeel Alharbi 'Using Dialogic Reading for mothers of children with autism in Saudi Arabia'
• Mayra Muller Spaniol (PhD) Attention control in adults with high autistic traits and attention training in children with autism
• Patricia Pérez-Fuster (PhD) Enhancing skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorder through technology-mediated interventions

PhD title

A study into the effect of adult interactive style on the spontaneous communication of young children with autism at school. 

Lila’s main research interests are:

• Autism and severe or profound learning disabilities
• Adult Interactive Style and its impact on the communication of children with autism and/or learning disabilities
• Technology enhanced learning environments for individuals with disabilities
• The development of play skills in children with disabilities
• Staff and parents' training
• Video Interaction Guidance (VIG)
• Cultural differences and disability

She has worked or is working on the following research projects: 

Using telepractice to train and coach parents of children with autism in rural areas in North England 
Funded by BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (October 2019 - September 2020).

Teacher Training and Attention in Autism 
Funded by Erasmus (September 2019 - August 2021)

Tablet based attention training in schools for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. 
Funded by ESRC Impact Acceleration Account-User Engagement Fund (October 2017 - June 2018). 

Meeting the needs of pupils with autism in Qatar: moving forward, raising awareness and building capacity
Funded by The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) - an initiative of the Qatar Foundation (February - August 2017). 

Using new technologies at school: working with pupils with autism and additional complex needs
Funded by Filisia Interfaces (April 2015 - August 2016).

Transform Autism Education: enhancing the skills, knowledge and understanding of teachers in the UK, Italy and Greece
Funded by the European Commission(November 2014 - August 2017). 

SHARE-IT: School-Home Autism Research Environment through Intelligent Technologies
Funded by EPSRC (July 2013 - July 2014).  

SHAPE: Shaping the future of technology use in the classroom
Follow on funding by ESRC (May 2012- June 2013).  

ECHOES 2: Improving children’s social interaction through exploratory learning in a multimodal environment
Funded by EPSRC/ESRC, TLRP-TEL (May - December 2011).

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.