Speech and Language Therapy students and lecturers in the School of Allied Health at UL along with partners in education at Mary Immaculate College and the HSE are coming together to take part in this Friday’s Developmental Language Disorder Day.
This year they have the support of Limerick Council and Speech and Language Therapist in training Cllr Elisa O’Donovan.
“Developmental language disorder (DLD) is very common with 70,000 children in Ireland living with this hidden disability. Children with DLD can struggle to understand what is said to them and to be understood and this is often mistaken for poor behaviour,” said Cllr O’Donovan.
She continued, “DLD can have long term and detrimental effects on social, emotional, mental health, and academic functioning. We aim to spread the word and tell as many people as possible about DLD.”
Researchers at UL recently published a study in which children with DLD from Limerick and other parts of Ireland were asked to co-design their ideal supports in school.
According to Aoife Gallagher, one of the researchers involved in the study, “asking children their views about supports has shown the important insights about how we, as practitioners can help them to learn and participate in school.”
The group aim to spread the word and tell as many people as possible about DLD.
To get involved on October 18, 2019 by following @schoolalliedhealth, @UL, @RADLD and using the hashtags #DLDYouandMe and #DLDFamilies. For further information see https://radld.org/resources/information/.
