Let the Children Speak: Learning of Critical Language Skills across 25 Languages
22 January 2010 - 24 January 2010
Austria
Two children in every classroom across Europe suffer from Specific Language Impairment (SLI) – an inability to construct and understand normal sentences. This is costing Europe more than 250 billion euros a year or 1% of its GDP. Scientists from 25 EU countries and beyond, covering 28 languages have now come together in a European-wide initiative to help these children.
A conference entitled Let the Children Speak: Learning of Critical Language Skills across 25 Languages will take place from 22 to 24 January 2010 at the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre in London. It sets out to promote the results of this initiative and provides a common platform for assessing and remediating children with SLI. It will look at commitment from member countries to put language and communication skills at the top of the agenda for investment in research, education and health.
A unique team of experts from across the EU - politicians, educationalists, health specialists, scientists and parents – will set out to address the challenge of SLI. On 22 January 2010, participants can listen to testimonies from an adult living with SLI and a parent whose child has this disorder. Journalists wishing to attend this session or the panel discussion and reception please contact Professor van der Lely.
“Language is a key skill children need to succeed in education and later in life. Without this skill, the potential of our children is lost,” says UK Professor Heather van der Lely, Vice-Chair of COST Action A33 and affiliated Professor at Harvard University.
“Most children acquire language without effort at an early age, but many encounter difficulty in acquiring their first language. Migration and multilingualism seem to be making things worse in identifying language skills in young children. So it’s likely that the number of children is increasing but nobody had the tools to diagnose SLI or to help them,” she adds.
The conference is supported by the COST office and several charities and institutions including: The Wellcome Trust, UK, I CAN, Association for ALL Speech Impaired Children, Centre for Developmental Language Disorders and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Language and Communication Science, City University, London, Birkbeck, University of London and Royal College of Speech and Language TherapistsCOST Action A33 Cross-linguistically Robust Stages of Children’s Linguistic Performance includes scientists from 25 European and neighbouring countries, representing 28 languages from across the major language families spoken in Europe (Germanic, Romance, Slavic, Semitic, Finnish, Greek and Arabic). They have ingeniously used the commonalities between the languages to unlock some of the secrets of language acquisition and SLI.
Research carried out through this COST project shows that language development is shaped by our genes. Participants have also established tests to check children’s key language abilities for education and lifelong learning regardless of the language they speak. The findings offer a platform to identify the needs of children earlier and provide the necessary details for targeted treatment - improving children's lives and helping them reach their potential.
http://www.cost.esf.org/library/newsroom/European-Scientists-Lead-the-Way-in-Helping-Children-with-Language-Disorders(opens in new window)
More information on COST and its activities is available at http://www.cost.esf.org(opens in new window)
A conference entitled Let the Children Speak: Learning of Critical Language Skills across 25 Languages will take place from 22 to 24 January 2010 at the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre in London. It sets out to promote the results of this initiative and provides a common platform for assessing and remediating children with SLI. It will look at commitment from member countries to put language and communication skills at the top of the agenda for investment in research, education and health.
A unique team of experts from across the EU - politicians, educationalists, health specialists, scientists and parents – will set out to address the challenge of SLI. On 22 January 2010, participants can listen to testimonies from an adult living with SLI and a parent whose child has this disorder. Journalists wishing to attend this session or the panel discussion and reception please contact Professor van der Lely.
“Language is a key skill children need to succeed in education and later in life. Without this skill, the potential of our children is lost,” says UK Professor Heather van der Lely, Vice-Chair of COST Action A33 and affiliated Professor at Harvard University.
“Most children acquire language without effort at an early age, but many encounter difficulty in acquiring their first language. Migration and multilingualism seem to be making things worse in identifying language skills in young children. So it’s likely that the number of children is increasing but nobody had the tools to diagnose SLI or to help them,” she adds.
The conference is supported by the COST office and several charities and institutions including: The Wellcome Trust, UK, I CAN, Association for ALL Speech Impaired Children, Centre for Developmental Language Disorders and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Language and Communication Science, City University, London, Birkbeck, University of London and Royal College of Speech and Language TherapistsCOST Action A33 Cross-linguistically Robust Stages of Children’s Linguistic Performance includes scientists from 25 European and neighbouring countries, representing 28 languages from across the major language families spoken in Europe (Germanic, Romance, Slavic, Semitic, Finnish, Greek and Arabic). They have ingeniously used the commonalities between the languages to unlock some of the secrets of language acquisition and SLI.
Research carried out through this COST project shows that language development is shaped by our genes. Participants have also established tests to check children’s key language abilities for education and lifelong learning regardless of the language they speak. The findings offer a platform to identify the needs of children earlier and provide the necessary details for targeted treatment - improving children's lives and helping them reach their potential.
http://www.cost.esf.org/library/newsroom/European-Scientists-Lead-the-Way-in-Helping-Children-with-Language-Disorders(opens in new window)
More information on COST and its activities is available at http://www.cost.esf.org(opens in new window)