Dr Tessa Weadman is a Lecturer in English, Literacy and Pedagogy in the School of Education at La Trobe University. She is the course coordinator for the Bachelor of Education, Diploma of Teacher Education, and Associate Degree of Teacher Education. She is also a member of La Trobe University’s SOLAR Lab (Science of Language and Reading). 

Tessa’s research interests span across preschool and school-age language and literacy development. Her PhD research focused on preschool oral language and emergent literacy development in early childhood settings, and the role of adult-child shared book reading and dialogic book reading. She developed the “Emergent Literacy and Language Early Childhood Checklist for Teachers” (ELLECCT) – a shared book reading observational tool that can be used to support teachers’ oral language and emergent literacy strategies.

Tessa’s background is in speech-language pathology, where she continues to work clinically to support preschool and school age students with language, literacy and communication difficulties.