Detecting language disorder in children with a language background other than English: the role of the Dynamic Assessment. 17.6% of Australia's culturally diverse population are born in non-English speaking countries. Recently, reports of unprecedented growth in the diagnosis of children with language disorders have emerged. There are difficulties in accurately identifying children at risk of language disorder. We hypothesize that some children with language backgrounds other than English (LBOTE ....Detecting language disorder in children with a language background other than English: the role of the Dynamic Assessment. 17.6% of Australia's culturally diverse population are born in non-English speaking countries. Recently, reports of unprecedented growth in the diagnosis of children with language disorders have emerged. There are difficulties in accurately identifying children at risk of language disorder. We hypothesize that some children with language backgrounds other than English (LBOTE) are mis-identified. If true, then scarce resources are being misdirected and inappropriately allocated, depriving children with true language disorder of support and intervention. The aim of this project is to determine the utility of the Dynamic Assessment to discriminate normal language learning from language learning difficulties in LBOTE children.
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Elucidating the neurobiological basis for developmental stuttering using modern brain imaging techniques. We plan to untilise brain imaging techniques to examine the neurological underpinnings of stuttering. We aim to develop new tools for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the patterns of brain activation in the motor, speech and language areas, specifically for use in children who stutter. We aim to answer the question of whether stuttering is a motor-speech or a language ....Elucidating the neurobiological basis for developmental stuttering using modern brain imaging techniques. We plan to untilise brain imaging techniques to examine the neurological underpinnings of stuttering. We aim to develop new tools for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the patterns of brain activation in the motor, speech and language areas, specifically for use in children who stutter. We aim to answer the question of whether stuttering is a motor-speech or a language disorder and to establish whether variations in the speech and language regions of the brain found in adult stuttering research are also present in children who stutter, and to explore the possibility that different variations in brain activation and/or morphology may predict persistence and recovery.
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