The ‘Foundations of Language Acquisition’ Seminar for IGU Speech and Language Therapy Students by Specialist SLT Kemal Colay

During the seminar, the cognitive, environmental, and neurodevelopmental dimensions of language acquisition were addressed, with particular emphasis on the processes through which language development takes shape in children and how these processes should be interpreted from a clinical evaluation perspective. A general framework was presented highlighting that the language acquisition process is not limited solely to biological development; rather, it is influenced by many factors such as family, environment, and social interaction. In addition, attention was drawn to the importance of understanding language development in order to recognize potential language and speech difficulties in children at an early stage and to determine appropriate evaluation approaches.

Throughout the seminar, students had the opportunity to gain a general perspective on the fundamental concepts of language acquisition and how this knowledge can be considered in clinical practice. At the end of the event, students were able to ask questions they were curious about and listen to experience-based insights from the field, and the seminar concluded with an interactive question-and-answer session.