Vasilis Pliogkas is a PhD candidate at King’s College London in the School of Education, Communication and Society. He holds a BSc in Speech and Language Therapy from the University of Patras, Greece (2004) and an MEd in Special Educational Needs in children with autism from the University of Birmingham (2014).

Since 2005, Vasilis has been working as a speech and language therapist in his private clinic providing services to children with autism and other communication and speech difficulties.

His research interests include the development of speech in typically developing children and children with autism, and the interplay between cognition and language. He is also interested in developing educational material and learning tools for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Thesis

His thesis title is: Comprehension of metaphors in Greek speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and typically developing children.

Vasilis’s thesis seeks to determine how the comprehension of typological distinct metaphors develops in Greek speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and typically developing children, how this development is likely to differ – yielding different developmental patterns – depending on the type of metaphor and to explore the underlying factors guiding these patterns.

Principal supervisor: Professor Gabriella Rundblad

Secondary supervisor: Dr Jill Hohenstein