Record participation at the 11th National Speech and Language Disorders Congress
The 11th National Speech and Language Disorders Congress, which is held every two years, was hosted by Üsküdar University in cooperation with the Speech and Language Disorders Association, Anadolu and Üsküdar University. Prof. Ahmet Konrot, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Language and Speech Disorders Association and Head of the Department of Language and Speech Therapy at Faculty of Health Sciences within Üsküdar University, said that "We have collected the speech themes of the 11th National SLD Congress under the titles of 'Motor Control and Evaluation of Speech', 'Analysis of Story Language Samples', ‘Stammering (Dysphemia) in School-Age Children and Its Management'. Our congress was richer and more productive thanks to the special interest shown by Üsküdar University, which is based on the triangle of Neurology-Psychiatry-Psychology in the field of speech and language disorders. With the participation of 1500 experts, we completed this year with record participation. The interest in this area makes us very happy." At the opening of the congress, Üsküdar University Faculty of Medicine Head of the Department of Neurology Prof. Oğuz Tanrıdağ drew attention to why these two sciences cannot be separated from each other in the seminar titled 'Interdisciplinary Approach and Neuroscience in Speech and Language Therapy'.
Prof. Oğuz Tanrıdağ: "Neuroscience and 'Speech and Language Therapy' cannot be separated from each other"
The 11th National Congress of Speech Language Disorders (NCSLD) was held this year in cooperation with the Speech and Language Disorders Association and Anadolu and Üsküdar Universities between May 19-21, 2023 at Üsküdar University NP Health Campus in Istanbul. The congress, where about 1500 experts filled the halls, reached a record number of participants. The congress, where the participants formed long queues for entry and registration, was completed with 14 conferences, 9 panels, 8 courses and over 150 presentations by experts from different professional groups as well as foreign academicians.
Numerous suggestions and papers came from academics
Prof. Ahmet Konrot, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Speech and Language Disorders Association (SLDA), who made the opening remarks of the congress, started his speech by thanking Üsküdar University for contributing to the realization of the congress. Stating that leading experts in the field of 'Motor Control and Evaluation of Speech', 'Analysis of Story Language Examples', ‘Stammering and Management in School-Age Children' participated in the congress as speakers, Konrot said that "We made an open call for the congress. Suggestions and numerous papers, courses and panel support came from our students and alumni friends as well as academicians from other universities. We appreciated each and every one of them. We held our congress with 14 conferences, 9 panels, 8 courses and over 150 papers in 10 halls.".
International participation was achieved in the congress
The congress hosted expert guests in the field of speech and language disorders. Prof. İlknur Maviş, Co-Chair of the 11th National SLD Congress, introduced the speakers from different universities of the world in her speech. Prof. Suzanne Boyce from the University of Cincinati, USA, made a presentation and carried out a workshop on devices such as the use of ultrasound in motor speech disorders. Prof. Natalia Gagarina, Director of the ZAS Institute from Germany, informed the participants about the innovations and practices in the field under the title 'Why the assessment of narrative skills is so important for typical, atypical and irregular language acquisition'. Participants paid close attention to the presentation of Prof. Kurt Eggers, who is known for his seminars on stammering and who attended from Thomas More University in Belgium.
Prof. Şükrü Torun, who works as a full-time lecturer at Anadolu University Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Language and Speech Therapy, made his speech titled "Rhythm in Speech and Language from the Perspective of Neuroscience" and President of the Neuropsychiatry Association, one of the doyens of the field of neuroscience Öget Öktem Tanör made his presentation on "Aphasia". They were the other guests who emphasized the interdisciplinary approach of the congress. Prof. Nazife Güngör said: "We first establish our connection with the world through language.”.
Üsküdar University Rector Prof. Dr. Nazife Güngör, who made the opening speech of the congress, touched by the fact that the opening of the 111th National SLD Congress coincided with the May 19 Republic Day. She started her remarks as follows; "Wherever there is a Republic and wherever we commemorate Atatürk again, I always get very emotional.". Güngör said that "Speech and Language Therapy is a very important field of health sciences and one of the most preferred departments of our university. We first establish our connection with the world we live in through language. We can socialize by verbalizing thoughts. I congratulate Prof. Ahmet Konrot for his efforts to establish and spread such an area.".
Prof. Oğuz Tanrıdağ: "Neuroscience and Speech and Language Therapy cannot be considered separately"
Üsküdar University Faculty of Medicine Head of Department Prof. Oğuz Tanrıdağ also realized a seminar on 'The Importance of Interdisciplinary Approach in Speech and Language Therapy: Neuroscience' within the scope of the congress.
Stating that he was honored to be included in the scientific program of the congress, Tanrıdağ said that "Neuroscience and Speech and Language Therapy cannot be considered separately. These two professions are indispensable for each other because a speech-language therapy without neuroscience becomes a process in which the therapist does not know and cannot measure what to do by moving away from the biological hypothesis. Without these, it becomes an effort that moves away from science. A neuroscience without speech-language therapy, on the other hand, becomes a mechanical endeavor that does not have information about the place of the dominant brain half in general cognitive structuring and its relationships with other brain parts, as well as incomplete information about the groans of the human brain. Therefore, let alone the interdisciplinary interaction, we must say that these two fields of science constitute the indispensable scientific infrastructure for each other.". Tanrıdağ emphasized the necessity of these two fields to work together.
Prof. Kurt Eggers: "Bilingualism is becoming increasingly common in the world"
Speaking about his work on stuttering at Thomas More University in Belgium, Prof. Kurt Eggers gave a lecture to the participating Speech and Language Therapist experts to gain valuable knowledge on stuttering in bilingual and monolingual children. In his speech, Eggers said that "Bilingualism is becoming increasingly common in the world. For example, if you look at Syrian children in Türkiye, if you look at children whose mother tongue is Kurdish, you will see that the children are raised bilingual. On the other hand, you see that it is done on the norms of monolingualism when you look at the studies on stammering. This shows us that bilingual children may be at risk of being misdiagnosed in this sense. On the other hand, in some research I did in Lebanon, where almost everyone is raised bilingually, I expected a high prevalence of stuttering, but it did not. As far as you know, there is no such research result.".
Prof. Kurt Eggers: "If we are evaluating stammering, we need to focus on all components"
Speaking about the criteria for evaluating stammering according to scales, Eggers said: "If we are talking about the diagnosis of stammering in children, we need to focus on all the components. We need to ask other questions, not just the motor characteristics of language. What goes through the child's mind? How do they feel? What is the child's environment? How do your parents react? We need to take all of this into account. We consider speech fluency or lack of fluency as an evaluation criterion. We can talk about two types of disfluency. If there is a 3% lack of fluency similar to stammering, this is considered a sign of stammering. If a certain phrase repeats, we consider it a normal repetition. This falls into the class of other disfluencies. If he repeats a multi-syllable word, it again falls into the class of other disfluencies. However, if he repeats things like 'I-I-I a-a-m' during a conversation, we count this as stammering-like disfluency. If you look at the categories here, those that are similar to stammering are counted as monosyllabic word repetition, partial word repetition, syllable repetition, distorted vocalization, silent lengthening, or lack of fluency if it gives a pause in the middle of the word.". During his conference, Prof. Kurt Eggers shared many research with samples from different countries and different languages with the participating speech-language therapists.
Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)