Galina Ignatova

Background

About Galina Ignatova

As a Final year Psychology student at Aston University I have the chance to explore the world of Psychology and gain knowledge of the subject I am passionate about. I have found that Clinical Psychology, Neuropsychology and Psychological Research are the most fascinating areas and hope to learn and grow through experience in those domains. This areas have been addressed directly in my studies through several modules exploring Clinical cases of psychological disorders, the structures and functions in the brain, the currently available research methods and statistics and my final Year Research Project. During my Placement Year, I had the opportunity to work as an Honorary Research Assistant at Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the University of Birmingham. I was involved in a number of projects, including "The Identification of young children at the highest Risk for developing Severe Challenging behaviour (i-RiSC)" and several Fragile X Syndrome-related projects. I also had the chance to co-author a systematic literature review exploring the behavioural phenotype in individuals with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome (PMS). This experience widened my knowledge and understanding of Psychological research and allowed me to work with established professionals, such as Prof Chris Oliver, Dr Caroline Richards, Dr Jo Moss, Dr Alice Whelam and many others. Simultaneously, I have been involved in the Aston Literacy Project (ALP) at Aston University, which tracks children's literacy skills from school entry into secondary school. This project allowed me to work closely with children and school professionals as I have been actively involved in the data collection, preparation and analysis. On this project, I had the amazing opportunity to work closely with Dr Laura Shapiro. The opportunity to experience the world of Psychological Research inspired me to pursue a career in that field and to continue to actively seek related experience, develop and improve.