Thread by @LauraGlisson

Attending the wonderful #naplic19 conference. Theme for today 'Growing up with Developmental Language Disorder' #DevLangDis

Our first speaker is a young person with #DevLangDis. As we know, #DevLangDis is a life-long difficulty & doesn't just go away. Services in secondary school & beyond is essential. #naplic19

Key take-homes: 1) lack of vocabulary knowledge impacts on comprehension & expression, 2) links w/ language & stress/anxiety/panic, 3) importance of explaining what #DevLangDis is to the children w/ DLD & their families #naplic19

4) background noise makes it difficult to understand what is being said, 5) lack of understanding on behalf of teachers makes school more difficult for ch/ren w/ #DevLangDis, 6) pre-teach key words before lessons, review/recap what has been taught, use visual supports #naplic19

Thank you @julietwri for a wonderful speech. So powerful to help us share these important messages. #Naplic19

Next up is Dr Cristina McKean to talk about what kinds of interventions & services should we be delivering. Looking forward to this one! #Naplic19

'We can confidently identify children likely to have persisting language difficulties by 4yrs so we should act" #Naplic19

"Strict cut-off points for access to support are not recommended". Intervention should be a gradient response to gradient levels of need. Speaking to my heart here, Dr Cristina McKean #Naplic19

We should think really hard about what we choose to target for maximum functional effects for school-aged language Rx. We are unlikely to make large-scale system-wide changes, but can make changes in the skills that we target #Naplic19

Strict cut-points are not useful. Children do change categories - dependent on assessments, the day the child is seen. We need to provide gradient interventions based on where the children are sitting at that point in time. #Naplic19

Onto pre-school services now - if we look at 'late-talker status at 2 years, we will hugely over-service a group of ch/ren that don't need it, & under-service a group pf students that do need it. #Naplic19

Much better predictive stability than 'late-talker' status for preschool children:
1) ch/ren are showing objects, understanding words/phrases & using words meaningfully
2) family history, maternal edcn, SES
3) 'when my child plays w/ a toy, I talk about it'
#Naplic19

We need to stop the rhetoric around early intervention!! YES Cristina McKean!! Children with an underlying disorder will keep having that disorder, so of course they will need ongoing support. #Naplic19

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