March 2021
Science Spotlight
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
DLD affects approximately two children in every classroom and manifests itself in difficulties with literacy, learning and emotional well-being. In recent years a lot of research has been taking place to further our understanding of this hidden disorder. This month's newsletter has DLD as its main focus, sharing recent findings as well as useful resources from within our Centre and beyond.
Retrieval-based word learning in children with DLD: Implications for practice
Last month we were fortunate enough to host a seminar with world-leading DLD researcher, Prof Laurence B Leonard. (You can watch this back here). He presented a series of studies which show great potential in supporting word learning in children with DLD. Following on from this, we chatted to him about the clinical implications of these studies and how they might be applied to practice. We've summarised this in a blog you can read here.
Can late talkers use words to help scaffold their understanding of how pictures and objects relate to one another?
Whilst the vast majority of late talkers reach the same range of vocabulary skills as their peers by school-age, there are a small minority who are at risk of developing DLD. Rachael Cheung from Lancaster University Babylab, has been studying a group of late talking children alongside typically developing comparison children over the course of two years in order to investigate whether there are any clues in the way language is learned that might help tell us why some late talkers catch up, and some do not. Find out more in Rachael's recent blog.
New Publications
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Events
LuCiD Online Seminar Series
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New Resources
What is Developmental Language Disorder?
How do you know if a bilingual child has a language delay?
Bilingual children are often slower to learn their two (or more) languages when compared to monolingual children. As a result, it can be difficult to identify whether a bilingual child is having difficulties learning to talk or they're simply taking longer because they have more languages to deal with. University of Manchester speech and language therapist, Dr Sean Pert, recently recorded a podcast for Kletsheads, discussing just this and giving tips on how to identify if a bilingual child has a language delay. Listen to the Kletsheads podcast.
For more information about language development in bilingual children, check out this short briefing summarising the evidence.
 DLD and multilingualism
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Take part in our research online
We have moved all of our research studies online at the moment, meaning that you and your children can now take part in one of our fun studies from the comfort of your own home. We currently have a number of studies running and need children aged 10 months - 13 years to take part in these. All the studies are designed to be fun and are a nice way to add a bit of variety to your day! Find out how you can take part.
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The ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD) is a collaboration between the universities of Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester. Our mission is to bring about a step change in the understanding of how children learn to communicate with language, and deliver the evidence base necessary to design effective interventions in early years’ education and healthcare. We are funded by the Economic and Social Research Council under the Centres Transition Scheme (ref: ES/S0071131). |
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