The lesson we learnt from this year’s conference is that no matter how much you prepare, you still need to be ready for the unexpected. The sudden failure of a server at our conference support partner resulted in a large number of delegates not being able to log on and watch the early speakers. It eventually got sorted, but we know it caused a great deal of frustration for many delegates. Thank you for your patience and perseverance.
We know it is not the same as the live event, but delegates will be able to log on and watch the presentations. We are also going to arrange some ‘watch parties’ so that delegates will be able to watch the presentations and then discuss them together. Keep an eye out for that.
“The NAPLIC conference is always a highlight of the year and this year felt unmissable. The range of speakers was excellent. I was so impressed with the way it was run. I really appreciated hearing from academics whose research I follow and also hearing about best practice. The balance between teachers/therapists felt particularly good this year. I think the Committee have done an incredible job pulling this conference together.”
NAPLIC 2021 CONFERENCE DELEGATE
The conference content was definitely top notch. Below is a brief summary of each presentation.
The first speaker was NAPLIC President, Professor Courtenay Norbury from UCL. Summarising 10 years of her longitudinal SCALES study. Courtenay so often has little gems that really challenge thinking and one that struck me was that most children from lower SES have typical language development, so for most children language is resilient. This is contra to much media coverage. In relation to intervention Courtenay used the analogy of running marathons. Unless we keep going the impact of the intervention (like marathon training) fades. Something to ponder when designing services.
Next Dr Yvonne Wren from Bristol spoke about the very exciting use of artificial intelligence to analyse language samples. Her team recorded a large number of children re-telling a simple narrative. In what sounds like a laborious task, they compared manual language samples to the AI analysis which in general proved reliable. The next step is to compare this to clinical samples, with the hope that it will support language sample analysis. What a time saver!
The technology theme continued with Professor Charles Hulme from Oxford who started by outlining the recently developed Language Screen app. As we would expect from this team it has been thoroughly developed. It is a reliable measure of language designed to be used by schools for screening for language needs. Charles then continued with the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) which has been rolled out to English schools on a truly mammoth scale. NELI has a strong evidence base, so it is giving schools a really effective tool to use to support young children at targeted level.
NELI was the link into the next talk which was delivered by Louise Buckland from St Johns School in Dorking. St Johns were involved in earlier roll outs of NELI and so Louise had considerable experience to share. Of particular note was how they had integrated NELI into their overall support for children with SLCN. NELI was used part of a pathway, and children with higher level needs were then referred on to Speech and Language Therapy. NELI is part of the system not the answer to all children with SLCN.
NAPLIC is all about collaborative practice and so we were very keen to hear from Specialist SLCN teacher, Mary-Jo Spearey and Speech and Language Therapist Pippa Cotterill who work together in Wales. What made it even more impressive is that they manage this across multiple local authorities and have continued this work over a number of years. They have a clearly defined offer which makes best use of resource and leads to positive outcomes. Mary-Jo and Pippa have added lots of resources to the conference portal for delegates to access.
Professor Kate Nation from Oxford gave a fascinating talk about ‘book language’ that synthesised complex data and concepts very simply. Key points include: young children’s books use a wider range of words than child directed speech. The words are denser (carry more meaning), more abstract and morphologically complex. Interestingly books contained more emotional vocabulary than child directed speech. The differences were not limited to vocabulary, as children’s books were also found to be syntactically more complex. Pre-school children who have been read to less are therefore less likely to be familiar with the demands of book language, which in turn may impact on their readiness for reading.
The final two sessions of the day addressed oracy. Starting was Professor Neil Mercer from Cambridge. Neil provided great insight into the importance of spoken language in the classroom to promote learning. A powerful point was made about the balance between teacher talk and student talk, and in particular the need for students to take long turns in whole class discussions. To achieve this requires organisation and systematic teaching of these skills. Neil emphasised that oracy was inclusive, as systematic teaching of skills supported all learners.
This point was picked up by Dr Wendy Lee from Lingo in her talk to finish the day. Wendy talked about how oracy approaches can be enhanced for students with Developmental Language Disorder by increasing the use of visual supports, comprehension monitoring strategies and extra modelling. This can be hugely beneficial, but it requires collaboration, a theme that underpins much of the day.
There were a number of themes that ran through the day including the importance of the classroom and the language opportunities it offers for our children and young people with DLD, technology and how that can be utilised to increase reach and efficiency ,and collaboration between professions. Our presenters brought together research and applied it to the real world in a way that delegates had much to think about and apply to practice. Thank you to our incredible speakers!
Our Early Bird ticket rates for members and non members will end on 21st April.
The 2021 NAPLIC conference will be held on 8th May online with a theme of “Language: The Bridge Across the Gap”.
A full list of conference speakers has been announced and conference programme for this fantastic event is available to view.
We are delighted to announce that booking is now open for our 2021 conference.
The 2021 NAPLIC conference will be held on 8th May online with a theme of “Language: The Bridge Across the Gap”.
Once again we have outstanding and inspiring speakers who will be sharing their knowledge about DLD and wider speech, language and communication needs.
The line up includes Professor Charles Hulme from Oxford University addressing interventions in Early Years, Professor Courtenay Norbury from UCL talking about Developmental Language Disorder across ages and Professors Kate Nation from Oxford and Neil Mercer from Cambridge outlining language and its impact on learning. And that is only the start!
A full list of conference speakers has been announced and conference programme has been released and it promises to be a fantastic event.
This array of speakers will have great appeal to all educational professionals including class teachers, SENCOs and Educational Psychologists, as well as specialist SLCN teachers and Speech and Language Therapists. It is online, so it is convenient. It is also very well priced. So please share details with multi-professional colleagues, and bring a friend.
We encourage you to book on our Early Bird rates.
Details of how to access the livestream conference won’t be available until Wednesday 18 March. If you haven’t received details by Thursday 19th march please email naplic.conference@gmail.com.
A full statement on the new conference details is available here
The 2020 NAPLIC conference will be held on Saturday 21st March in Sheffield with a theme of “Developmental Language Disorder: moving forward together”.
Once again we have outstanding and inspiring speakers who will be sharing their knowledge about DLD and wider speech, language and communication needs.
A full list of conference speakers has been announced and conference programme has been released and it promises to be a fantastic event.
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a relatively new term, but it is very common with approximately two students in every mainstream classroom presenting with this condition. Most simply, DLD is trouble with understanding and / or talking. Recently the NAPLIC annual conference was held with the theme of ‘Growing Up with Developmental Language Disorder.’ The idea was to explore how DLD changes and how we can provide support at different stages from early years, through primary and secondary education into young adulthood.
The day was opened by Juliet Wright, a young person with DLD, who very powerfully expressed the experience of being a young person with DLD. Her top tips included:
Juliet struggles with language, but her needs have been identified and supported. Many others are not identified. Maxine Winstanley from University of Manchester found in her research that 50% of first-time young offenders had previously unidentified DLD. This contrasted with young adults with identified DLD who had been well supported in school. They were less likely to exhibit risky behaviour or be in contact with the police than their peers. Take home message: young people with unidentified needs are at far more risk
Anna Sowerbutts and Amanda Finer from Hackney outlined their programme, ‘DLD and Me’ to support children and young people understand their DLD diagnosis. The impact on students’ self-awareness has been transformative. We look forward to this being published later in the year.
Melanie Rudkins and Marie Newton work together in the multi-disciplinary support service in Brighton and Hove. Their theme was collaboration: amongst professionals, but importantly with schools and families. Something that we at NAPLIC fully endorse.
Support for students with DLD in secondary has often been a challenge, but Billie Lowe from City, University of London showed that a one hour INSET with secondary teachers can have a positive impact on how they teach vocabulary.
Data from a number of longitudinal studies was synthesised by Cristina McKean from Newcastle University into simple messages. Language needs that are identified at 4 years of age are very likely to persist, so intervention needs to start then. There is a small group of children (about 4%) who emerge after 4 years of age.
The day ended with a focus on Early Years and the big surprise came from Danielle Matthews at University of Sheffield who showed that whilst encouraging parents to respond to young babies’ communication (‘contingent talk’) had a positive effect, the same was not true for shared book reading. Deborah Powers from the ‘Time to Talk’ initiative in Warwickshire outlined how her innovative service support Early Years settings to provide quality support. Training had a great impact on staff and on the children they worked with.
NAPLIC is the national organisation for professionals who work with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), and in particular Developmental Language Disorder. We are a committed bunch of volunteers who have been running for 35 years. Because we are volunteer run, we are able to be very cost-effective, with membership from £20 per year and conference from £99. Join us and support a better future for children and young people with DLD. To learn more about Developmental Language Disorder go to www.naplic.org.uk.
Stephen Parsons
Chair, NAPLIC
The 2019 conference theme ‘Growing up with Developmental Language Disorder’ was a huge success.
The day was opened by Juliet Wright, a young person with DLD, who very powerfully expressed the experience of being a young person with DLD.
The other speakers were a combination of research and practice looking at the pathway of DLD in terms of its presentation, services and interventions.
Key learning points included:
We are delighted to announce that we have extended the Early Bird rates for NAPLIC’s 2019 Conference: “Growing up with DLD”to 15 February 2019.
Hurry – conference places are selling out fast!
To find out more about the conference, view the full range of conference speakers and read our conference programme.
The exhibitor list is now available for NAPLIC’s annual conference, due to take place on 11th May 2019 at Aston University, Birmingham.
Companies currently exhibiting:
There’s still time to purchase conference places at the Early Bird rates, which are available up until 31st January 2019.
NAPLIC’s 2019 Conference, “Growing up with DLD”, will take place on 11th May 2019 at Aston University in Birmingham.
The conference programme has now been announced which can be viewed online. Speakers include Amanda Finer, Billie Lowe, Danielle Matthews, Cristina McKean, Marie Newton, Deborah Powers, Melanie Rudkin, Anna Sowerbutts and Maxine Winstanley.
The programme covers a wide range of topics related to DLD and promises to be another brilliant day.
Online booking starts at just £99 for a member early bird rate and £160 for non-members booking on the early bird rate.
Published 23rd May, 2021
Early bird ticket prices for the 2021 NAPLIC conference end on 21st April
Published 12th April, 2021
NAPLIC Spring 2021 Newsletter now available online
Published 26th March, 2021
“The NAPLIC conference is always a highlight of the year and this year felt unmissable. The range of speakers was excellent. I was so impressed with the way it was run. I really appreciated hearing from academics whose research I follow and also hearing about best practice. The balance between teachers/therapists felt particularly good this year. I think the Committee have done an incredible job pulling this conference together.”
NAPLIC 2021 CONFERENCE DELEGATE
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