NIH and NSF have provided support for the construction of a series of TalkBank databases on language disorders and development. These databases include a variety of multimedia samples of spoken language from specific target populations. There are currently separate TalkBank databases for 8 target populations including people with aphasia, apraxia, dementia, stuttering, right hemisphere damage, traumatic brain injury, autism spectrum disorder, and phonological disorders. The data includes both naturalistic samples and samples collected with a specified elicitation protocol. In addition, there are ongoing efforts to include representative samples from Latino and African-American participants across all of these databases. There are two major goals for this conference. First, we need to bring together the developers and users of these databases to share their interests, achievements, and desires for further developments. Second, we need to help both young researchers and more established researchers learn about a wide variety of new analytic methods that can lead to important advances in each of these content areas. We are requesting support for a two-day meeting to bring these groups together to maximize the use of the TalkBank resources that are being created.
This conference is designed to bring together the developers and users of eight NIH-supported language databases to share their interests, achievements, and desires for further developments. In addition, the presentations are designed to help both young researchers and more established researchers learn about a wide variety of new analytic methods that can lead to important advances in each of these content areas.
