Silvana Mengoni is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Hertfordshire. Her PhD in Psychology was awarded by the University of York in 2012 and explored the development of reading and language in children with Down syndrome. Her subsequent research projects have remained in the area of learning disabilities and have had practical applications to education, health and social care. She is currently working on the WIELD project, which is a randomised controlled feasibility trial using an image-based book as an intervention with people with learning disabilities and epilepsy to improve quality of life and seizure control.