This request is for five years of continuing support for the Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders (SRCLD) held annually at the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison, Wisconsin. This symposium is sponsored by the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison and by NIDCD/NICHD, as well as attaining funding through registration fees and donations. SRCLD is the only national conference devoted solely to child language disorders research. Over the past 34 years this meeting has achieved the distinction among child language researchers as a high quality scientific meeting which fosters the exchange of theoretical, experimental, and methodological advances among professional researchers and doctoral students in training. Past programs have featured multiple invited plenary presentations by prominent researchers from the field of communication sciences and disorders and related disciplines and have included increasing numbers of research papers (as poster presentations or short oral presentations). The impact of the SRCLD conference has been documented in several areas including its unique focus, program growth and quality, and the extent of student participation in all aspects of the conference. NIH funds are requested to provide travel and per diem for invited speakers, travel support for student presenters, partial support for an administrative coordinator, website management, and technical support during the meeting. Progress since the last grant began in 2010 includes: 1) an expanded program averaging over 120 poster presentations and six invited state-of-the-art plenary sessions (2010- 2011) or three invited plenary speakers and six to nine submitted oral talks (2012 -2014); 2) support of an average of 37 students during the last five years (up from 22 students in 2004) through NIH student travel funds and private donations, with student travel award recipients consisting of 28% under-represented minorities and 80% women; 3) continued advances in the website which features online submission and registration as well as abstract archives; and 4) increased international participation by researchers studying children learning a variety of languages, representing an average of 11 different countries each year during the last grant period.
This proposal requests partial funding for continued support of the annual Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders (SRCLD), a well-respected meeting for researchers and students in training that is hosted by the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (http://www.srcld.org/home/home.aspx). Funds will be used to provide travel awards to allow students to participate in the conference, travel costs for invited plenary speakers, and part-time salary support for a conference administrative coordinator.
