My doctorate focusses on how parenting can support their children’s early learning. Between March and June, I visited the Department of Psychology at the University of Bologna for an Overseas Institution Visit. I chose this institution for several reasons: the history of the university, which is the oldest, and one of the most important in the world; the strength of the department in terms of teaching and research; and connection to my host institution supervisor, Associate Professor Leonardo De Pascalis’s research and research interests. Communication with Ass.Prof. De Pascalis was informative in deciding to carry out the OIV there, making me fully aware of his expertise in my area of research interest – parent-child interactions, cognitively stimulating activities, and, in particular, parent-child book-sharing – and in quantitative methods. The primary objective was to carry out detailed consultation with Ass.Prof. De Pascalis on the quantitative methods that would form the basis of the analysis for my first and second DPhil papers. Further, I aimed to foster this collaboration towards working together further in the future. During the visit, I had at least weekly supervision meetings with Ass.Prof. De Pascalis to discuss my research methods, each meeting often lasting 3-4 hours. I also assisted him in teaching undergraduate students about observational assessments of parents and children. We brainstormed future research and I contributed to a grant application that he was leading.Two high-impact journals are currently being targeted for submission of the DPhil papers I worked on during the OIV. Finally, I was encouraged by the academic staff in the department to apply to present at the conference for the Italian Association of Psychologists, which will take place in September 2026, and was accepted to a symposium on parent-child book-sharing, in which I will present on the results of the analysis for my second DPhil paper.

The experience benefitted my doctorate considerably, giving me access to detailed and extensive consultation on quantitative statistical methods that I would not have otherwise had. The collaboration was fruitful, will continue, and has opened up potential possibilities of postdoctoral work with members of the host institution and beyond (for example, through networks established at the conference in September). I believe I made a valuable contribution to the host institution, assisting with teaching and contributing to an important grant application.

I would recommend that future students prioritise establishing a connection with a host academic, and clearly delineating a plan for supervision from them – including what work will be achieved, and how much time they can dedicate to the supervision. It would help to also establish how the student will, in exchange, contribute to the host academic and institution.