Speak Out August 2021

Association NEWS

2021 SPA Research Grant Award

Twenty six applications for the New Researcher, Nadia Verrall Memorial and Queensland Registration Board Legacy Grants were received in 2021. Applications covered a range of areas of interest, including autism, feeding and swallowing, voice, child language and aphasia, using different research designs. Grateful thanks to all those who reviewed applications. The grant round depends on your contribution. Although there can only be a limited number of winners, all those who submitted applications are to be congratulated.

Successful applicants in the New Researcher and Nadia Verrall categories are detailed below. The outcomes of the Queensland Registration Board Legacy Grant category will be announced following ratification by the Board and the Queensland Registration Board Legacy Grant steering committee. If you’re wondering about previous successful projects, you can find a list here. Cori Williams Senior Advisor EBP & Research

New Researcher Grant

Lizz Hill Language and mental health among children with dyslexia following the transition to secondary school Oral language skills are critical for psychosocial health and academic success in childhood and adolescence and are predictive of skills in reading and writing. For this reason, children with poor oral and written language can experience behavioural issues, reduced psychosocial wellbeing, and poorer academic outcomes. These problems may be exacerbated over the transition to high school, which can be a stressful period for students with language and learning difficulties. Dyslexia affects approximately 10% of Australian children. Emerging research has shown clear associations between poor literacy and long-term psychosocial problems including anxiety and depression, academic truancy, incarceration, and suicide. However, exactly why these associations exist remains unclear. A potential explanation may be a link between oral language, mental health, and dyslexia as a considerable proportion of children with dyslexia present with oral language difficulties. To date, no study has explored contributions of oral and written language to psychosocial outcomes in children with dyslexia, and the exact nature of oral language skills in dyslexia remains poorly understood. This project will leverage recruitment and mental health data from an ongoing NHMRC project to explore oral and written language skills among children with dyslexia and their contribution to psychosocial outcomes following the transition to secondary-school.

Lizz Hill

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Speak Out | August 2021