Dr Kamila Polisenska
Contact details
About
Overview
Kamila’s research focuses on the cross-linguistic aspects of language acquisition and processing in typically developing monolingual and bilingual/multilingual children and in children with language disorder. In her research, she focuses on distinguishing language difference from language disorder, by designing and evaluating novel assessment tools for linguistically diverse children.
Kamila’s research interests:
• Typical language development
• Bilingualism/multilingualism
• Developmental language disorder
• Language assessments, sentence repetition & nonword repetition
• Relationship between language and literacy
Kamila’s current collaborations:
• Dr Angel Chan (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
• Professor Shula Chiat (City, University of London)
• Dr Svetlana Kapalková (Comenius University)
• Dr Kay Dulay, Prof Lucy Henry and Prof Ros Herman (City St George's, University of London)
Qualifications
- Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, University of Manchester, United Kingdom, 2021
- PhD, City, University of London, United Kingdom, 2011
- MA, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2006
Employment
- Senior Lecturer, City St George's, University of London, United Kingdom, 2023 - present
- Lecturer, University of Manchester, United Kingdom, 2011 - 2022
Publications
Publications by category
Chapters (2)
- Chiat, S., Armon-Lotem, S., Marinis, T., Polišenská, K., Roy, P. and Seeff-Gabriel, B. (2013). Assessment of Language Abilities in Sequential Bilingual Children: The Potential of Sentence Imitation Tasks. Issues in the Assessment of Bilinguals (pp. 56-89).
- Chiat, S., Armon-Lotem, S., Marinis, T., Polišenská, K., Roy, P. and Seeff-Gabriel, B. (2013). The potential of sentence imitation tasks for assessment of language abilities in sequential bilingual children. In Mueller-Gathercole, V. (Ed.), Issues in the Assessment of Bilinguals (pp. 56-89). UK: Mulitlingual Matters. ISBN 9781783090082.
Journal articles (21)
- Polišenská, K. and Chiat, S. (2026). Uptake and Evaluation of a Crosslinguistic Nonword Repetition Test in Clinical and Research Contexts. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 61(5). doi:10.1111/1460-6984.70306
- Ward, L., Bannard, C., Norbury, C. and Polišenská, K. (2026). The Utility and Robustness of Sentence Repetition as a Marker of Developmental Language Disorder: An Analysis of the Surrey Communication and Language in Education Study Project Data. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 69(4), pp. 1669-1685. doi:10.1044/2025_jslhr-25-00058
- Polišenská, K., Chiat, S., Szewczyk, J., Antonijevic, S., Blom, E., Boerma, T.... White, M. (2025). Evaluation of the Crosslinguistic Nonword Repetition Test: Evidence From a Large and Diverse Secondary Data Set. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 68(11), pp. 5363-5383. doi:10.1044/2025_jslhr-25-00158
- Kapalková, S., Polišenská, K., Mentel, A., Horská, T., Janíková, M. and Zubáková, M. (2025). Convergent Validity of the Cross‐Linguistic Lexical Task. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 60(5). doi:10.1111/1460-6984.70110
- Hamdani, S., Chan, A., Kan, R., Chiat, S., Gagarina, N., Haman, E.... Armon-Lotem, S. (2025). Identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in multilingual children: A case study tutorial. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(2), pp. 157-171. doi:10.1080/17549507.2024.2326095
- Fu, N.C., Chan, A., Chen, S., Polišenská, K. and Chiat, S. (2024). Revisiting nonword repetition as a clinical marker of developmental language disorder: Evidence from monolingual and bilingual L2 Cantonese. Brain and Language, 257, pp. 105450-105450. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2024.105450
- Ward, L., Polišenská, K. and Bannard, C. (2024). Sentence Repetition as a Diagnostic Tool for Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 67(7), pp. 2191-2221. doi:10.1044/2024_jslhr-23-00490
- Fu, N.C., Chen, S., Polisenska, K., Chan, A., Kan, R. and Chiat, S. (2024). Nonword Repetition in Children With Developmental Language Disorder: Revisiting the Case of Cantonese. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
- Kapalková, S., Polišenská, K., Mentel, A. and Vencelová, L. (2022). Effects of oral language and decoding skills on reading comprehension performance across multiple assessments: a longitudinal study. Reading and Writing. doi:10.1007/s11145-022-10383-2
- POLIŠENSKÁ, K., CHIAT, S., SZEWCZYK, J. and TWOMEY, K.E. (2021). Effects of semantic plausibility, syntactic complexity and n-gram frequency on children's sentence repetition. Journal of Child Language, 48(2), pp. 261-284. doi:10.1017/s0305000920000306
- Polisenska, K., Chiat, S., Fenton, J. and Roy, P. (2020). Assessing young children from diverse backgrounds: Novel ways to measure language abilities and meet the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Languages, Society and Policy. doi:10.17863/CAM.54064
- Polišenská, K., Kapalková, S. and Novotková, M. (2018). Receptive Language Skills in Slovak-Speaking Children With Intellectual Disability: Understanding Words, Sentences, and Stories. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(7), pp. 1731-1742. doi:10.1044/2018_jslhr-l-17-0029
- Chiat, S. and Polišenská, K. (2016). A Framework for Crosslinguistic Nonword Repetition Tests: Effects of Bilingualism and Socioeconomic Status on Children's Performance. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59(5), pp. 1179-1189. doi:10.1044/2016_jslhr-l-15-0293
- Łuniewska, M., Haman, E., Armon-Lotem, S., Etenkowski, B., Southwood, F., Anđelković, D.... Ünal-Logacev, Ö. (2016). Ratings of age of acquisition of 299 words across 25 languages: Is there a cross-linguistic order of words? Behavior Research Methods, 48(3), pp. 1154-1177. doi:10.3758/s13428-015-0636-6
- Kapalková, S., Polišenská, K. and Süssová, M. (2016). The role of pictures and gestures as a support mechanism for novel word learning: A training study with 2-year-old children. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 32(1), pp. 53-64. doi:10.1177/0265659015585373
- KAPALKOVÁ, S., POLIŠENSKÁ, K., MARKOVÁ, L. and FENTON, J. (2016). Narrative abilities in early successive bilingual Slovak–English children: A cross-language comparison. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37(1), pp. 145-164. doi:10.1017/s0142716415000454
- Polišenská, K., Chiat, S. and Roy, P. (2015). Sentence repetition: what does the task measure? International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 50(1), pp. 106-118. doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12126
- Polišenská, K., Chiat, S., Comer, A. and McKenzie, K. (2014). Semantic effects in sentence recall: The contribution of immediate vs delayed recall in language assessment. Journal of Communication Disorders, 52, pp. 65-77. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2014.08.002
- Polišenská, K. and Kapalková, S. (2014). Improving Child Compliance on a Computer-Administered Nonword Repetition Task. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57(3), pp. 1060-1068. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2013/13-0014)
- Polišenská, K. and Kapalková, S. (2014). Language profiles in children with Down Syndrome and children with Language Impairment: Implications for early intervention. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 35(2), pp. 373-382. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.11.022
- Kapalková, S., Polišenská, K. and Vicenová, Z. (2013). Non‐word repetition performance in Slovak‐speaking children with and without SLI: novel scoring methods. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 48(1), pp. 78-89. doi:10.1111/j.1460-6984.2012.00189.x
Thesis/dissertation
Professional activities
Editorial activity
- Journal of Child Language, Associate Editor, 2020 - 2024.