The Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences hosted the 2014 David E. Yoder Symposium on March 28 at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill. The all-day session, titled “Combining Literacy and Language Intervention of Young Children,” was led by Dr. Laura Justice, Executive Director of the Children’s Learning Research Collaborative and EHE Distinguished Professor at The Ohio State University.
Dr. Justice is an internationally known researcher, teacher, and speaker. Over the past 15 years, she has conducted research on the causes of and treatments for childhood literacy difficulties and language impairment. These include randomized controlled trials investigating various techniques for improving the early literacy skills of children, and descriptive studies examining early risk factors associated with reading outcomes in this population.
At the symposium, Dr. Justice discussed evidence-based techniques that can be used in classrooms and clinics to accelerate the early literacy achievements of children with communication disorders. The focus of these techniques was on both oral and written language skills, including print and phonological awareness. Workshop participants learned ways to intervene with children who show delays in achieving fundamental milestones in these important areas of development, with a particular emphasis on using highly meaningful literacy events, like shared reading, as an intervention context.
The Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences hosts the Yoder Symposium every two years to honor Professor Emeritus David E. Yoder. Dr. Yoder, who served as Chair of the Department of Allied Health Sciences at UNC from 1986-2000. In 1988, he and David Koppenhaver co-founded the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies. In 2000, Dr. Yoder retired from the University and became the Executive Director of the Council for Allied Health in North Carolina, from which he retired in 2007. Dr. Yoder has authored numerous professional articles and book chapters in the area of language disorders with special needs populations. He has co-edited five books and presented over 500 research papers, professional workshops, and consultations nationwide as well as in Europe, Japan, Taiwan, the Soviet Union, and New Zealand. He has served on numerous committees and boards of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and served as the association’s President in 1984. He is a Fellow of ASHA, a Fellow and Life member of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), and a Fellow of the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions. Read more . . .