Abstract submission 30th September 2009
Early Bird registration fee until 1st January 2010

Let the Children Speak is the final conference of COST Action A33, a unique initiative which has brought together scientists from 25 European countries to address the problems of Specific Language Impairment in children. Together they have created an assessment that is comparable across languages, is able to establish whether a child has the key language abilities needed for education and life-long learning in languages across the EU, and can serve as a template for other languages.

Two children in every classroom across Europe suffer from Specific Language Impairment (SLI), meaning that they have problems learning language. Language is one of the key skills that children need in order to succeed in education and in later life; without it, children may fail to reach their potential. Early assessment of language skills, to identify children who have SLI, is essential. Yet migration and multilingualism may make it difficult to assess whether children have the necessary language skills to access the school curriculum, and diagnosing SLI across Europe is a challenge.

SLI is costing Europe more than 250 billion Euros a year. That’s equivalent to 1% of GDP, enough to bail out a medium-sized bank. Like the world banking crisis, it must be addressed at an international level. In a unique initiative, scientists from 25 European countries (and close neighbours), and representing 25 languages (covering the major European language families: Germanic, Romance and Slavic, and adding Arabic, Estonian, Finnish, Hebrew, and Romany have worked together to investigate the critical language skills that children need to learn. We have created an assessment that is comparable across languages, with 13 subtests that test critical skills in grammar, semantics and pragmatics. This work allows us to assess whether a child has the key language abilities needed for education and life-long learning in languages across the EU, and can serve as a template for other languages too.

This work provides the necessary platform for politicians, professionals and scientists alike to take up the reins to collaboratively address the severe socio-economic cost of our children's lost potential. We are therefore bringing together a unique team of experts from across the EU - politicians, educationalists, health specialists, scientists and parents to address this challenge at a ground-breaking international conference.

Professor Stephen Crain, Macquarie University, Australia

The Hon Ed Balls, MP Secretary of State, Department of Children, Families and Schools UK Government (tbc)

The Hon John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, and Author of the Departments of Health and Children, Families and Schools UK Government "The Bercow Report 2008" (tbc)

Janez Potocnik: Commissioner for Science and Research (tbc post EU elections)

·Heather van der Lely, Affiliated Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University, UK
·Uli Sauerland, Centre for General Linguistics (Zas), Berlin, Germany
·Angeliek van Hout, University of Groningen, Germany
·Na'ama Friedman, University of Tel Aviv, Israel
·Ken Drozd, University of Aarhus, Denmark
·Sharon Armon-Lotem, Bar Ilan University, Israel
·Spyridoula Varlokosta, University of Athens, Greece

· COST Action A33
· The Wellcome Trust, UK.
· Centre for Developmental Language Disorders & Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL
· Department of Language and Communication Science, City University, London.
· Department of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London
· ICAN
· AFASIC
· The church of St Etheldreda
· Bleeding Heart Yard Restaurant