In this NIAS-Lorentz Theme Group, participants join forces to investigate the development of language in late childhood and adolescence, and how language difficulties can be assessed.
About the Project
This project bridges the fields of Linguistics, Speech and Language Therapy and Education, setting a novel research agenda on the development of language in late childhood and adolescence (6-16 years) and the assessment of language difficulties of this age range. We will chart out the language development of the school years, severely understudied, and establish an integrated approach that can inform the creation of new screening tools to improve diagnosis of language needs across populations. Non-identification and misdiagnosis are at the root of academic underachievement, poor social development and mental health issues. We will bring together the knowledge on language development separately gathered in the three disciplines by producing a series of position and scoping papers on the knowledge needed to establish accurate indicators of language needs, a preliminary inventory with sample items and a manifesto at the Lorentz workshop appealing to interdisciplinary studies.
Theme Group Members
- Arche, María (University of Greenwich) | Linguistics | Theme-group Coordinator
- van Hout, Angeliek (University of Groningen) | Linguistics | Theme-group Coordinator
- Perovic, Alexandra (University College London) | Linguistics
- Quer, Josep (ICREA-Pompeu Fabra University) | Linguistics
- Schulz, Petra (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) | Language Acquisition