9:15 - 9:30
Welcome
9:30 - 10:00
Narrative skills of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD): Focus on macrostructure
G. Andreou & G. Lemoni
10:00 - 10:30
Non-active voice in Greek children with Developmental Language Disorder: Evidence from sentence repetition
A. Paspali, D. Papadopoulou, Th. Marinis, S. Varlokosta & A. Alexiadou
10:30 - 11:00
COFFEE BREAK
11:00 - 12:00
Plenary session, Ianthi Tsimpli
What can lexical errors tell us about linguistic and cognitive biases in autistic children?
The assessment of lexical knowledge in neurotypical and neurodiverse individuals can be a rich source of evidence regarding linguistic and cognitive skills. This is because lexical entries include semantic, phonological, syntactic and morphological features which are acquired gradually or in clusters during the process of lexical development. Psycholinguistically, lexical development and lexical errors have been shown to reveal linguistic and cognitive biases in neurotypical development. For instance, visual errors focusing on the detail of an object rather than the whole object (i.e. the tree rather than the forest) are viewed from a 'weak central coherence' perspective, which is related to a neurodiverse Theory of Mind. Phonological errors and neologisms, on the other hand, point to more linguistically-based sources. Furthermore, lexical knowledge is strongly linked to (child-directed) input, often described in terms of parental education levels, as well as bilingualism, as another 'nurture' factor. Specifically, exposure to two languages has been argued to compromise vocabulary size while, at the same time, improve metalinguistic skills, a higher-level cognitive ability. Although lexical measures, expressive and receptive, have regularly been used in studies on neurodiverse populations, it is usually the overall accuracy score that is referred to as a baseline measure of language ability. The aim of this presentation is to focus on evidence a) from a longitudinal study of lexical errors in object naming and b) morphological biases in the processing of inflection and derivation by autistic children with Greek as their first or second language to gain some insight into qualitative differences that can inform our understanding of the nature of neurodiversity in autism. The data will be analysed in terms of sex differences (boys, girls) and age on one hand, and SES and bilingualism, as nurture factors, on the other. The relationship between metalinguistic skills, Theory of Mind and accuracy in object naming will also be considered as cognitive skills closely interfacing with lexical performance.
12:00 - 12:30
When the language of the tool does not affect DLD children's performance on ToM
D. Bagioka & A. Terzi
12:00 - 13:00
The longitudinal effects of vocabulary, morphosyntax, and home literacy activities on Greek-English bilingual and bi-literate children's reading comprehension
Th. Papastefanou & Th. Marinis
13:00 - 14:00
LUNCH BREAK
Poster session
Ορθογραφικές δεξιότητες στο τέλος της φοίτησης στο δημοτικό σχολείο
Β. Κωτούλας & Χ. Μανώλη
Η επίδραση της κοινωνικοοικονομικής κατάστασης στη γλωσσική επίδοση: Ενδείξεις από μελέτη περιπτώσεων
Ι. Σταμάτης & Σ. Σταυρακάκη
Bilingualism and socioeconomic status in Roma children and their impact on language: Data from two individual linguistic profiles
I. Stamatis & S. Stavrakaki
14:00 - 15:00
Plenary session, Vesna Stojanovik
Optimising early languge development in children with Down syndrome: Theory meets practice
Down syndrome is the most common cause of learning disability, affecting approximately 1 in 700-800 live birth. Children with Down syndrome have particular difficulties with speech, language and communication which are often disproportionately lower than expected for their level of general cognitive development. This is different from typical development and prompts the question of which prelinguistic skills may be relevant to support language acquisition in children with Down sydrome and whether it is possible to optimise early language outcomes. The talk will provide an overview of a research programme which explored early predictors of language development in young children with Down syndrome, followed by a discussion of the findings of a feasibility randomised controlled trial which explored whether an early intervention focusing on early social communication skills may promote early language acquisition in young children with Down syndrome.
15:00 - 15:30
Thematic hierarchy cannot explain children's difficulties with Object Relatives and Passives
E. Geronikou & A. Terzi
15:30 - 16:00
Kindergarten retention in Greece: Exploring speech, language, and cognitive skills
E. Geronikou, E. Theodorou, V. Papathanasiou & P. Mourgela
16:00 - 16:30
Targeting speech intelligibility using phonologically similar targets: a single-case study of dialectal Cypriot-Greek-speaking child with speech sound disorders
K Petinou, E. Philippou & T. Papastefanou
16:30 - 17:00
Speechreading abilities in typically developing Greek children: Some preliminary results
E. Kyritsi & K. Nicolaidis
