Dr Elsje van Bergen
@drelsje
A/Prof Psychology @ VU Amsterdam; Visiting Prof @ Oslo. Educational Genetics | Neurodiversity | Intergenerational Transmission 🧬📖➗👨👩👧👦 #ERC-StG #VIDI 🤸acrobat
Why should developmental scientists care about genetics? Genes and environments are intertwined. Accounting for genetic influences helps us estimate environmental effects more accurately and identify better intervention targets Alexandra Starr about our new work at #SSSR2026 osf.io/preprints/ps...
I spoke about how family-based and genetically-informed designs can help us think more clearly about reading development, genes, environments, and causality. Extra special: my parents, husband, and our children were there. Child review: “Mama, it was sooooo boring.” Grounded again.
Grateful and happy to have given the Mid-Career Award Lecture at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading #SSSR2026: “Why reading difficulties run in families.” Such an honour to present in the plenary slot of the society that has been my scientific home since my PhD.
Looking forward to #SSSR2026! Alexandra Starr, @madeliefkuijper.bsky.social, @josefina-bernardo.bsky.social, Britt Min and I present work on literacy/numeracy genetics, ADHD–reading links, intergenerational transmission, and online assessment. I’ll also give the Mid-Career Award plenary on Friday.
Why do educational outcomes run in families—and what does that mean for social inequality in education? Thursday #ORD2026: adoption, extended-family & population-genetics studies, with Marjolijn Das, me, @dr-appie.bsky.social, Louise Elffers & Hans Luyten 🕝14:30 |📍0.055 #OnderwijsResearchDagen
Tomorrow morning at the @behaviorgenetic.bsky.social conference: Intergenerational Transmission of Education and ADHD 🕥 Wednesday 24 June, 10:45–12:00 📍 Erasmus 1 Looking forward to bringing the findings and methods together! #BGA2026 #DevelopmentalScience #BehaviourGenetics #WomenInScience
Lovely to catch up with Maggie Snowling and @deevybee.bsky.social Dorothy Bishop at @stjohnsox.bsky.social Oxford. Two scientists who have shaped so much of our field, and who remain wonderfully generous colleagues. ✨ Lucky me. #DevLangDis #Dyslexia #OpenScience #DevelopmentalScience
Back in one of my academic homes for a few days. Always special to return to Oriel College, where I was a postdoc and Junior Research Fellow. Oriel was founded in 1326 (!). Oxford has cutting-edge science in an ancient place.
Last slot before the conference dinner at #LHRS2026 — wish us luck :) We'll talk about parenting, genes, and child outcomes: how family background shapes behaviour, personality, and school achievement, and how we can disentangle genetic and environmental pathways 16:45–18:15, GS Auditorium 1, Oslo
🤧🧬 “When you sneeze, tiny bits of your DNA fly out.” True or false? Today I talked and experimented with Grade 6 pupils about genes, environment, practice, and experiences, and why children differ from one another. Great questions, lots of curiosity. #MeetTheProfessor vu.nl/en/news/2026...
Excited to be affiliated with Karolinska Institutet (ki.se), Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB)! Looking forward to collaborations on genetic epidemiology, neurodevelopmental conditions, & intergenerational research, using incredible Swedish twin and population data ki.se/en/people/el...
Wonderful discussions at the LEAD Retreat in Tübingen after my keynote on genes, environments, learning, & ADHD. Interdisciplinary audiences always ask the best questions: about causality, stats, and what heritability means for intervention. And: 😀Keynote by day, acrobatics instructor by night 🤸♀️🧬
📄 Preprint: osf.io/dt647 🧮 Great collaboration led by Lotta Sieppi and @mtorppa.bsky.social, together with Daria Khanolainen, Eija Räikkönen, Jenni Salminen, Tuire Koponen, and myself. @uniofjyvaskyla.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social @mcls-official.bsky.social @mclstrainee.bsky.social 2/2
🌿 EdGen lab retreat Walking meetings, flash talks, writing sessions, discussing Paige Harden’s Original Sin, yoga/runs, and arts & crafts. A good reminder that science is also about creating space to think, collaborate, and enjoy science together. 🙏 to @jacobsfoundation.bsky.social & my lab
I’ll talk about how genes and environments work together in shaping learning and ADHD, and why these traits run in families. Many thanks to @koumurayama.bsky.social and #LEADretreat @unituebingen.bsky.social for the invite! uni-tuebingen.de/en/research/... 2/2
Next week at the LEAD Retreat (Tübingen): 🎤 keynote on genetics × environment in learning & ADHD 🤸 partner acrobatics workshop Not a combination I often bring together! But both are about collaboration and balance 📷 Today at my home campus @vuamsterdam.bsky.social #AcademicLife #NeverGrowOld 1/2
📊 Once we account for parents’ maths skills, most home numeracy environment (HNE) effects fade — but parental skills still predict children’s maths. 🔗 osf.io/9hu3g
Working from Stockholm this week! Speaking at Karolinska Institutet on causal inference in education & ADHD, using family-based & genomic designs. Grateful to the Psychiatric Epidemiology group for the invitation and warm welcome. Come say hi if you’re around!
DNA or parents’ reading: what predicts #dyslexia risk? 🧬 Polygenic score → 6% 🎓 Each parent’s education → 6% 📚 Parents' reading ability → 21% PGS are informative, not diagnostic. Family phenotypes predict at least as much as DNA Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps... 21%: doi.org/10.1080/1088...
📢 LEARN! seminar in Amsterdam Genetics meets environment: twin studies & polygenic scores in learning and neurodiversity. 📅 12 Feb | 📍 VU Amsterdam | 🍷 drinks afterwards All are very welcome! This marks me starting as Programme Leader Educational Neuroscience at LEARN! @geneamsterdam.bsky.social
Lectured in the morning, snow-play with the kids in the afternoon. 📍Amsterdamse Bos #worklifebalance #academiclife #Netherlands #snow #cycling #winter #fietsen
Unusually white #Amsterdam this week ❄️ Slippery cycling, but incredibly beautiful. 📍Kalfjeslaan #winter #snow #sneeuw #Netherlands #cycling #fietsen
🎙️Thanks to @eugeniakis.bsky.social for the thoughtful conversation on her #podcast Psychology Inside Out. open.spotify.com/episode/6Sxt... @geneamsterdam.bsky.social @ntrbiopsy.bsky.social (2/2)
🎙️ #Podcast open.spotify.com/episode/6Sxt... 🧬 genetics shape differences — but are not destiny 🧠 dyslexia & ADHD often co-occur due to shared genes 👨👩👧 families pass on both genes and environments 🎓 better science → fairer education & mental-health support 🧭 also reflects on non-linear academic paths
Above all, I’m grateful to my family — for doing this together. My husband Yves Rezus also had a great sabbatical year at OsloMet. This year reminded me how much science, parenting, and life benefit from movement: across countries, disciplines, communities, and seasons. ✨ (5/5)
Grateful for mentoring my Amsterdam & Nijmegen team remotely, and for PhD trajectories crossing borders — @josefina-bernardo.bsky.social visiting from Amsterdam for 6 months at the NIPH, Britt starting at CREATE in Oslo. And for @madeliefkuijper.bsky.social & other team members for visiting 4/5
Professionally, this sabbatical year was a gift. Grateful to PROMENTA (@eivindy.bsky.social @unioslo-svfak.bsky.social) and CREATE (@melbylervag.bsky.social @unioslo-uv.bsky.social) at the University of Oslo for hosting me so generously, and to the many dear collaborators across Oslo. (3/5)
Between these two summers was a full Norwegian winter. Learning the language. Trying to integrate. Making acrobatics friends. Weekends in off-grid cabins. Cycling year-round, with spiked tyres in winter. New family routines. Living the dark months as fully as the light ones. (2/5)