9:30 - 10:30
Plenary session, Eleni Peristeri
Intellectual profiles of bilingual and monolingual children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Language Disorder: Identification of verbal and nonverbal subscales affected by bilingualism in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
Intellectual functioning and asymmetric patterns observed across verbal and nonverbal (also known as performance) IQ domains in gold-standard, intelligence assessment tools have long been identified as markers for the early detection or diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders. Explanations of recurring asymmetry patterns in the intellectual functioning of children with neurodevelopmental disorders are usually oriented towards the division of processing into domain-general and linguistic: disorders whose hallmark symptoms lie in language exhibit higher performance IQ than verbal IQ scores, while the reserve pattern is observed in disorders primarily characterized by executive dysfunctions. Though studies so far have extensively integrated IQ performance in delineating the profiles of children with neurodevelopmental disorders, most of them have focused on monolingual individuals sharing similar socioeconomic characteristics and experiences (mostlly livining in middle-to-high income settings). Furthermore, asymmetries in the intellectual performance of atypical child populations have been consistently derived from coarse information conveyed by the two general verbal and performance IQ metrics, which may have camouflaged fine-grained information about (a) children's performance in the individual subtests comprising the verbal and performance IQ scales of intelligence assessment tools, and (b) different profiles of atypical patterns that have been 'lost' by treating experimental samples as homogeneous groups. The aim of this presentation is to examine the intelligence profiles of monolingual and bilingual children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Language Disorder using the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children, by tracking cluster profiles across children and by modelling verbal and performance IQ in each cluster as a function of language experience (monolinguals vs. bilinguals) and socioeconomic status (low vs. middle vs. high). The relationship between individual IQ subtests and general verbal IQ and performance IQ indexes will also be discussed to pinpoint the loadings of the subtests on the verbal and performance IQ constructs that are assumed to measure, i.e., language and domain-general cognitive functioning, respectively.
10:30 - 11:00
Sentence comprehension in Greek-speaking individuals with Alzheimer's disease: The role of length and canonicity
D. Arfani, K. Tsapkini & S. Varlokosta
11:00 - 11:30
Αναπτυξιακή Γλωσσική Διαταραχή και Διαταραχή Ελλειμματικής Προσοχής-Υπερκινητικότητας: Πού διαφέρουν και γιατί;
Κ. Αφαντενού, Μ. Βαρκανίτσα & Σ. Σταυρακάκη
11:30 - 12:00
COFFEE BREAK
12:00 - 12:30
Αλφαβητισμός και γραμματισμός σε άτομα με μερική όραση
Β. Κωτούλας & Ε. Μάνου
12:30 - 13:00
Visualized digital narration in the treatment of patients with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia
I. Asanakidi
13:00 - 14:30
LUNCH BREAK
14:30 - 15:30
Plenary session, Eirini Sanoudaki
Mutlilingualism and neurodiversity: Insights from Wales
Research in the field of bi/multilingualism has made significant strides in recent decades, as it is now common knowledge that exposure to two languages is not a disadvantage and does not have a negative impact on language development. However, research has tended to focus on neurotypical children, while little is known about bilingual development in children with neurological differences or developmental conditions. This talk will present latest developments in the field and introduce some of the work of the Child Bilingualism Lab, a body of work examining language in bilingual children with and without developmental conditions. Based in bilingual Wales, an ideal environment in which to investigate the spectrum of bilingualism in relation to the spectrum of neurodiversity, our insights help allay fears about multiple language exposure.
15:30 - 16:00
Synthetic children's voices for bilingual Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) in Wales
D. Prys, M. Williams & S. Cooper
16:00 - 16:30
Bilingual language development in Rett syndrome
R. Day & Ei. Sanoudaki
16:30 - 17:00
Language and the Arts: Exploring creative techniques to aid with learning a new language
B. Collins & Ei. Sanoudaki
