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Speech and Language Difficulties
Photo: www.johnbirdsall.co.ukOver recent years Nuffield has supported a cluster of research projects on specific speech and language delays and disorders. We have the aim not only to support excellent research, but also to foster collaboration and co-ordination between academics and practitioners and contribute to capacity-building in this area.
Our most recent grants were given in response to a specific call for proposals to undertake intervention studies in the field. This led to an award to Dr Victoria Joffe, City University, for work on enhancing language and communication in secondary school children with specific language impairment, and an award to Dr Catherine Adams and Dr Elaine Clarke, University of Manchester.
During the past year we hosted a seminar series to showcase some of the Nuffield-funded research in this field. The aim of the seminar series was to generate discussions among policymakers and professionals particularly of the research findings and their implications. Events were:
- Post 16 destinations for young people with a history of specific speech and language difficulties: implications for policy and practice Professor Julie Dockrell, Institute of Education
- Early Intervention at the Foundations of Reading Professor Margaret Snowling, University of York
- Where has my education taken me? Educational outcomes of young people with language impairments at the end of compulsory education Professor Gina Conti-Ramsden, University of Manchester
- Social and Emotional health in young people with SLI – what are the clinical and educational implications Dr Nicola Botting, City University
- Systematic reviews in the field of speech and language science: the development of the Nuffield Speech and Language Review Group Professor James Law, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh
- Social Well-being: Tracking the Links to Language Dr Courtenay Norbury, Royal Holloway, University of London.
Below is a list of work we are currently supporting on speech and language difficulties (with live links, where possible, to external webpages with more information on the project and its progress)
Professor Margaret Snowling, Dr Claudine Bowyer-Crane, Professor Charles Hulme
University of York
Can preschool training of oral language skills improve children's response to reading instruction? A randomised controlled trial (RCT)
1 Jan 2009 - 31 December 2011
£236,289
Dr Catherine Adams and Dr Elaine Clarke
with Dr Catherine Aldred, Ms Janet Baxendale, Professor Jonathan Green, Professor James Law, Dr Marysia Nash
University of Manchester
Effectiveness of speech and language therapy intervention for children with pragmatic language impairments: an interdisciplinary study
£355,838
1 January 2007 - 31 July 2009
http: //www.psych-sci.manchester.ac.uk/research/groups/neurosciencandlanguage/scip
Dr Victoria Joffe
with Ms Melanie Foster, Ms Nita Madhani
City University
Enhancing language and communication in secondary school children with specific language impairment through two intervention programmes: narrative and vocabulary enrichment
£272, 988
1 October 2006 - 30 September 2009
http: //www.city.ac.uk/lcs/research/elciss/
Professor Gina Conti-Ramsden and Professor Kevin Durkin
University of Manchester
"Hw r u?" interpersonal and educational uses of ICT among adolescents with Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
£141,529
1 March 2006 - 31 August 2008
http: //www.psych-sci.manchester.ac.uk/research/projectdetails/index.aspx?ID=1005
Dr Courtenay Frazier Norbury, Professor Kate Nation
Royal Holloway, University of London
Social well-being: Tracking the links to language
1 October 2004 - 30 September 2007
£119,287
Professor Margaret Snowling, Professor Charles Hulme, Dr Jeremy Miles, Dr Julia Carroll
University of York
Efficacy of two theoretically motivated school-based interventions for children with speech and language difficulties
£218,857
1 September 2004 - 31 December 2007
http: //www.york.ac.uk/res/crl/crl_Nuffield.html
Professor Gina Conti-Ramsden
University of Manchester
Young people with SLI: The transition from compulsory education to adult life
£204,007
1 July 2003 - 31 December 2007
http: //www.psych-sci.manchester.ac.uk/research/projectdetails/index.aspx?ID=1050
Last Updated Thu, 18 September 2008