The Oral Language Forum has been facilitated by Youngballymun since 2010. Youngballymun initiated this inter-agency and multi-disciplinary forum to collaborate on oral language development in prevention and early intervention areas. Since then there has been approximately two Oral Language Forum meetings per year.
The Oral Language Forum supports a community of professionals to:
- Share experiences of the challenges of best practice in relation to oral language development;
- Capture the benefits of integrated service delivery;
- Inform local and national policy;
- Promote future innovation and learning across the lifecycle.
The Oral Language Forum is currently chaired by Dr. Duana Quigley, Practice Education Coordinator, Dept of Clinical Speech and Language Studies, Trinity College, Dublin.
On Tuesday 10th November 2020 the first online Oral Language Forum was held with over 35 practitioners in attendance. Practitioners come from different areas of expertise – educators, speech and language therapists, family support workers and researchers to share their current practice and new ways of working during the Covid-19 pandemic to support children’s oral language development.
Dr. Áine Cregan, former lecturer in oral language at Mary Immaculate College Limerick, shared information about the Starlite Oral Language Programme, which she designed to align with the new Primary Language Curriculum. It was a really interesting talk about this new valuable resource. Members commented on the importance of the Primary Language Curriculum in collaborative working with teachers.
Membership of the Oral Language Forum is open to all those who support enhanced child outcomes for oral language, whether at the level of policy or practice, who are working towards or have an interest in supporting models of service delivery that support prevention and early intervention at a universal level. If you are interested in the work of the Oral Language Forum and would like to take part in the next forum, please contact the coordinator Lána McCarthy lana@youngballymun.org.