DLD from school years through to adulthood: the invisible condition

Abstract

Although things have improved in the past few years, developmental language disorder (DLD) still has a very low public profile when compared to other neurodevelopmental condition such as autism and dyslexia. I’ll discuss some possible reasons for this. These include the different professional groups involved with different conditions, and different research funding bodies.

In addition, while DLD in preschoolers is generally obvious to others, language problems can go unnoticed in older children and adults. I will discuss how consistent terminology can help with recognition of DLD, while noting that the potential drawbacks of diagnosis need to be balanced against benefits.

Bio

Dorothy Bishop recently retired as Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology at the University of Oxford, where she headed an ERC-funded programme of research. She is an honorary fellow of St John’s College Oxford, and a Fellow of the Royal Society, the British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences. She has published substantial books and papers on the nature and causes of developmental language disorder, focusing on psycholinguistics, neurobiology and genetics. Beyond psychology, she is active in the field of open science and research reproducibility. She remains active on social media, with a popular blog, Bishopblog, and she tweets as @deevybee.

Rethinking Bilingual Development and Disorder

Abstract

Worldwide, a large number of children are bilingual or in the process of being bilingual.. As such, patterns of language acquisition can be highly variable. An educational challenge in this population how to distinguish between typical and atypical performance in L1 and L2 use. Comparison to of bilingual children’s language to monolinguals may contribute to high rates of misidentification of DLD. On the other hand, assumptions of a “normal” bilingual delay may contribute to documented delays in identification and intervention. In this talk I will present data examining 1) whether bilingual children are at elevated risk for developmental language disorder (DLD); 2) how we can combine L1 and L2 performance to increase diagnostic accuracy for determining DLD in bilinguals; and 3) the nature of the “bilingual delay” using a person-based vs. a variable-based approach.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to identify key markers of DLD in bilingual children

2. Participants will be able to describe relationship between language exposure and risk for DLD.

3. Participants will define the nature of the bilingual delay.

Key References:

Hoff, E., & Core, C. (2015, May). What clinicians need to know about bilingual development. In Seminars in speech and language (Vol. 36, No. 2, p. 89). NIH Public Access.

Peña, E.D., Bedore, L.M., Lugo-Neris, M., & Albudoor, N.E. (2020). Identifying Developmental Language Disorder in School age Bilinguals: Semantics, Grammar, and Narratives. Language Assessment Quarterly.

Peña, E.D., Bedore, L.M., Shivabasappa, P. & Niu, L. (2018). Effects of Divided Input on Bilingual Children with Language Impairment. International Journal of Bilingualism. 1-17.

Bio

Elizabeth Peña is Associate Dean of Faculty Development & Diversity and Professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Education. She is a certified Speech-Language Pathologist and is a Fellow of the American Speech Language Hearing Association. Her research focuses differentiating language impairment from language difference in bilingual children. This work examines children’s lexical-semantic, morphosyntactic, and narrative performance across both their language. She is a co-author on the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment (BESA) designed to identify speech and language impairments in children who have exposure to Spanish and English.

Direct interventions for under-fives: 10 reasons why they help families and our profession

Abstract

This TED-Style talk will open Day 3 of the International Developmental Language Disorder Research Conference with a reflective commentary about the direction of intervention for children under 5.

Children under 5 with speech, language and communication needs can be tricky to diagnose and their growth trajectories are not set in stone. In this keynote, Dr Nat Munro will offer 10 reasons why direct interventions help families and the SLP profession. Drawing on the research she has conducted with her PhD students and collaborators, the keynote will have a particular focus on late talkers, family engagement research and future directions for paediatric SLP research and practice. The talk aims to inspire and promote an active Q&A session!

Bio

Dr Munro is a certified practising speech pathologist and Associate Professor in child language development and disorders. Nat works at the Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Nat has a passion for intervention and improving communication outcomes for children and young people who are at-risk or diagnosed with neurodevelopmental conditions such as Developmental Language Disorder, Autism, and ADHD. She has led and conducted universal and targeted intervention research, national survey research, systematic reviews and meta-analyses as well as empirical investigations relating to children’s early vocabulary and pragmatic language skills. Nat is the current co-editor of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. She has three children that span Gen Z and Gen Alpha, a Cavoodle called Evie and a budgerigar called Benji.