Research projects

Language support in education  

Synopsis will follow soon. 

Want to know more? 
Contact kirsten.schraeyen@thomasmore.be

 

Language assessment in bilingual children  

More than half of the Flemish speech therapists assess multilingual children in the same way as monolingual children. This entails a great risk of misdiagnoses. This research project aims to develop a protocol for language assessment in multilingual children. The protocol will provide speech therapists with a research based guideline for responsible language assessment for this target group. 

Want to know more? 
Contact charlotte.mostaert@thomasmore.be

 

Readers at risk

A recent questionnaire survey showed that more information is needed to identify and care for preschoolers at risk of reading problems (Doumen, 2017). Further analyzes showed a positive relationship between knowledge about and attitude towards these readers at risk (Hartman, 2018). With the reaserach project 'Fall prevention for readers at risk' we aim to sensitize and inform teachers, speech therapists, parents and reading promoters, so that they can adequately assist readers at risk and cooperate while doing so. We developed an awareness campaign consisting of a poster, a checklist for risk signals and a website with more information and tips: fit-voor-lezen.thomasmore.be. In a follow-up project we are evaluating this campaign and we systematically assemble evidence based recommendations on intervention for at risk readers.

This project is a collaboration between the Speech Therapy and Audiology program and the Teacher Training program of Thomas More.

Want to know more? 
Contact marjolein.noe@thomasmore.be

 

Executive functions and reading development in multilingual children 

This longitudinal research project aims at gaining insight into the influence of executive functions (inhibition, flexibility & working memory) on the development of emerging literacy (including phonological skills) and initial reading in multilingual children in Dutch-speaking schools in Flanders. The gained insights must first of all result in practical recommendations for the educational field. In addition, these insights should increase the knowledge of professionals within clinical practice with regard to possible risk signals. Finally, the acquired insights should provide tools to the primary environment of multilingual children for stimulating and assisting preschool skills that contribute to a smooth reading start in the scholing language.

This project is a collaboration between the Speech Therapy and Audiology program of Thomas More and the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of KU Leuven.

Want to know more? 
Contact kirsten.schraeyen@thomasmore.be

 

How to assist multilingual children?

Teachers and speech therapists often have questions about how best to assist multilingual children in the classroom and the speech therapy practice. For example, the mother tongue of these children is often ignored, while that language can actually be a lever to improve Dutch.

With the research project 'Meer Taal' we want to inform and advise primary school teachers and speech therapists. We preform a literature study in search for effective practices, next we interview the target groups to investigate their needs. We then advise teachers and speech therapists through a campaign. Eventually, we want to strengthen language didactics in school and language therapy of speech language therapists and thus in the long run improve the language development of multilingual children.

Want to know more? 
Contact heleen.leysen@thomasmore.be

 

Parental questionnaire on native language development (ALDeQ-NL)

The ALDeQ-NL is published. This free parental questionnaire on the mother tongue and linguistic development of multilingual children helps to detect developmental language disorders in this population. Speech therapists, but also CLB (Centre for Pupil Guidance) staff members, care coordinators or teachers can use the questionnaire. Parents should always complete the ALDeQ-NL under the guidance of a professional.

With the support of HaBilNet we currently are translating the ALDeQ-NL into 10 different languages and are adding the function to read the text aloud. This alows parents to complete the questionnaire in their own language.

The ALDeQ-NL is a Dutch version of the Alberta Language and Development Questionnaire (ALDeQ; Paradis, Emmerzael, & Sorenson Duncan, 2010). The research project is a collaboration between the Speech Therapy and Audiology programs of both Thomas More and Vives and the research group Experimental Oto-Rhino-Laryngology (ExpORL) of KU Leuven.

Want to know more? 
Contact heleen.leysen@thomasmore.be