Dr Marina Kalashnikova gives keynote address at Child Language Conference

On Friday 18 September Dr Marina Kalashnikova gave a keynote address at The challenge of evidence based policy and practice: Where to now for early language interventions?(opens in a new window), a conference hosted by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute(opens in a new window) at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

In her keynote, Marina discussed the qualities of infant directed speech, the special type of speech that we use when addressing young infants, and its relation to healthy language development in first years of infants' lives.

"The quantity and quality of infant directed speech are significantly related to infants' early ability to distinguish the speech sounds of their language, recognise familiar words, and later vocabulary development," said Dr Kalashnikova.

"However, infant directed speech can be impacted by several factors including maternal depression and risk for sensory or cognitive disorders in the child."

Infant directed speech can be impacted by several factors including maternal depression and risk for sensory or cognitive disorders in the child - Dr Marina Kalashnikova

Marina went on to discuss these potential risk factors and their implications for the development of interventions to promote early language development.

The conference brought together key experts in child language development from Australia and the UK, and was attended by over 250 speech pathologists, early childhood educators, allied health professionals, local government personnel, policy makers and researchers.

Thanks to Marina for engaging with the community and sharing some of her ongoing research.