The 11th National Language and Speech Disorders Congress, which is held every two years, was hosted by Üsküdar University this year in cooperation with the Language and Speech Disorders Association, Anadolu and Üsküdar University. The 11th National Language and Speech Disorders Congress (UKDB) was held this year in cooperation with the Language and Speech Disorders Association and Anadolu and Üsküdar Universities, in Üsküdar University NP Health Campus, between 19-21 May 2023. The congress, in which approximately 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 more than 150 paper presentations by foreign academicians as well as experts from different professions.
Numerous suggestions and papers were received from academics.
Making the opening speech of the congress, Language and Speech Disorders Association (DKTD) Chairman of the Board Prof. Dr. Ahmet Konrot started his speech by thanking Üsküdar University for their contribution to the realization of the congress. Stating that the leading experts in the field on 'Motor Control and Evaluation of Speech', 'Analysis of Story Language Samples', 'Stuttering and Its Management in School-Age Children' attended the congress as speakers, Konrot said, “We made an open call for the congress. Suggestions and support for many papers, courses and panels came from both our students and graduates as well as academics from other universities. We appreciated each and every one of them. We held our congress with 10 conferences, 14 panels, 9 courses and more than 8 papers in 150 halls.” he said.
International participation in the congress was ensured
The congress hosted guests who are experts in the field of language and speech disorders. Co-Chair of the 11th National UDKB Congress Prof. Dr. İlknur Maviş also introduced speakers from different universities around the world. Professor at the University of Cincinati, USA. Suzanne Boyce gave a presentation and a workshop on devices such as motor speech disorders, ultrasound use. The Director of the ZAS Institute from Germany, Prof. Natalia Gagarina informed the participants about the innovations and practices in the field with the title 'Why is the evaluation of narrative skills so important for typical, atypical and irregular language acquisition'. Known for the seminars he organized on stuttering and attending Thomas More University in Belgium, Prof. Kurt Eggers' presentation was also watched carefully by the participants.
Working as a full-time lecturer at Anadolu University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Language and Speech Therapy, Prof. Dr. Şükrü Torun was among the guests who highlighted the interdisciplinary approach of the congress with his speech titled “Rhythm in Language and Speech from the Perspective of Neuroscience” and President of Neuropsychiatry Association Öget Öktem Tanör, one of the veterans of neuroscience.
prof. Dr. Nazife Güngör: “We first establish our connection with the world through language”
Making the opening speech of the congress, Üsküdar University Rector Prof. Dr. Nazife Güngör started her words with emotion because the opening of the 11th National UDKB Congress coincided with the 19 May Republic Day and said, “Wherever there is a Republic and wherever we commemorate Atatürk, I always get very emotional.” He continued his words by saying: Güngör; “Language and Speech 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 putting our thoughts into words. For his efforts to establish and spread such an area, Prof. Dr. Congratulations to Ahmet Konrot.” said.
prof. Dr. Oğuz Tanrıdağ “Neuroscience and Speech and Language Therapy cannot be separated from each other”
Üsküdar University Faculty of Medicine Head of Department Prof. Dr. Oğuz Tanrıdağ also held a seminar on 'The Importance of an Interdisciplinary Approach in Language and Speech Therapy: Neuroscience' within the scope of the congress.
Starting his speech by stating that he was honored to be included in the congress scientific program, Tanrıdağ said, “Neuroscience and Speech and Language Therapy cannot be considered separately from each other. These two professions are indispensable for each other. Because speech therapy without neuroscience becomes a process that the therapist does not know what to do and cannot measure by moving away from the biological hypothesis. As long as they do not exist, it becomes an effort that moves away from being scientific. A neuroscience without speech therapy, on the other hand, turns into a mechanical effort that lacks information about the groans of the human brain, as well as the place of the dominant brain half in the general cognitive structure and its relations with other brain parts. Therefore, let alone interdisciplinary interaction, we should say that these two fields of science form the indispensable scientific infrastructure for each other.” He emphasized the need for these two fields to work together.
prof. Dr. Kurt Eggers: “Bilingualism is becoming more and more common in the world”
Talking about his studies on stuttering at Belgium Thomas More University, Prof. Kurt Eggers gave a lecture to participating Language and Speech Therapists, where they could gain valuable information on stuttering in bilingual and monolingual children. In his speech, Eggers said, “Bilingualism is becoming more and more common in the world. For example, if you look at Syrian children in Turkey, and children whose mother tongue is Kurdish, you will see that they are raised bilingual. On the other hand, when you look at the studies on stuttering, you see that it is based on the norms of monolingualism. This shows us that bilingual children may be at risk of being misdiagnosed in this sense. On the other hand, in some research I conducted in Lebanon, where almost everyone was raised bilingual, I expected a high prevalence rate of stuttering, but it did not happen. As far as you know, there is no such research result.”
prof. Dr. Kurt Eggers: "If we're evaluating stuttering, we need to focus on all components"
Talking about the evaluation criteria of stuttering according to the scales, Eggers said, “If we are talking about the diagnosis of stuttering in children, we definitely need to focus on all components. We need to ask other questions, not just the motor features of language. What's on the child's mind? How does he feel? What about the child's environment? How do your parents react? We need to consider all of these. We consider speaking fluency or nonfluency as evaluation criteria. We can talk about two types of fluidity. If there is 3% stuttering-like fluidity, this is considered a sign of stuttering. If a certain phrase is repeated, we consider it a normal repeat. This falls under the class of other fluids. multiple syllables sözcüIf it repeats, it falls into the other class of fluidity. But if he repeats like 'I am I' during speech, we count this as stuttering-like fluency. If you look at the categories here, stutter-like ones are monosyllabic. sözcük repeat, partial sözcük repetition, syllable repetition, distorted vocalization, silent prolongation, or sözcüIf he gives a break in the middle of the day, it counts as fluency.” prof. During the Kurt Eggers conference, he shared many researches with the participating language speech therapists with samples from different countries and different languages.