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Dispelling the myths around stuttering and bilingualism

There are many myths around language development in bilingual children, and an increased risk of stuttering in bilingual children is one of these misperceptions. In research studies, speech and language therapists have identified higher numbers of dysfluencies in speech samples...

How can we actually be culturally responsive?

Now, more than ever, we need to take action to meet the needs of the students and patients we work with. Black Lives Matter only emphasised how little progress has been made in this area to date. The authors of...

Early habilitation for hearing impairment in children with Down syndrome

Approximately 40-80% of children with Down syndrome have hearing impairment in addition to speech and language impairment. The commonest cause of hearing impairment in young children is otitis media with effusion. This paper investigated the impact of early hearing loss...

Increased intensity of treatment: intensity does not improve outcomes

There is a paucity of reports regarding the intensity and appropriate duration of treatment required to improve the language abilities of children with language impairment. This study used direct measures such as the time spent on language, the frequency, number...

Cochlear implant use in young children

There are clear and well-established links between those identified and fitted with amplification early and good spoken language outcomes, but how much does the time an appropriately fitted hearing instrument is used each day contribute to this? During the first...

Swahili speech development in pre-school children

This study describes the speech development of 24 typically developing first language Swahili speaking children between the ages of three and five years 11 months in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and was motivated by the 2013 position paper drafted by...

Multilingualism in a monolingual environment: shifting perspective for economic benefits

English proficiency amongst migrant populations has a relatively high profile in the UK education system at present. This article compared data from two Australian national censuses with the aim of describing the English proficiency of the Australian population, to explain...

Back to the Future

Normally my objective for this column is to highlight an innovation that is already fully realised and on the market. Sometimes it can be fun instead to look forward to what innovations are coming down the pipeline. With that in...

Canopy: a medical translation app

Professional interpreters perform an integral role in the medical setting, ensuring that clinician-patient interactions are understood from both sides. As essential as they are, however, we have all experienced scenarios where we have been left, to our own devices, so...