We would like to invite you to the next event in the UCL Health Communication Network’s seminar series.

Date: 17^th November 2022, 1-2pm GMT

Location: IOE – 20 Bedford Way, Room W4.01

Talks:

‘Language in adults with Down syndrome: Evidence from narrative production and sentence comprehension’ – Elisa Mattiauda, Psychology and Language Sciences

Individuals with Down syndrome present with a specific profile of relative strengths and weaknesses in areas of cognitive and communication abilities, while also experiencing accelerated ageing and a range of health complications. Language development is particularly affected by the syndrome, resulting in patterns of generalised delays in acquisition, coupled with more marked difficulties in aspects of syntax across production and comprehension. Much of the available evidence of the linguistic profile of Down syndrome comes from child and adolescent populations, making adults an understudied group. Given mounting evidence of the link between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease, our research seeks to add to our understanding of adult language attainment in this population and its possible links with dementia presentation. In this talk, I will present some recently published findings from my doctoral research relative to macrostructural narrative production abilities in a sample of young adults with Down syndrome. I will also discuss work in progress on narrative microstructure and passives comprehension, and consider possible implications for monitoring and diagnosis.

‘Metaphor, Agency, and the Language of Addiction’ – Sinéad Jackson, Culture, Communication and Media

Alcohol addiction is a public health crisis, and it is a situation which has significantly worsened as a result of the pandemic. Individuals affected by alcohol harm often report feeling shame, feelings of disempowerment, and a lack of agency and control as a result of their situation. These factors are often barriers to seeking and potentially engaging with any support that may be available. Yet despite the proven difficulties in communication around this topic – both interpersonally and in clinical settings – there is yet to be much large-scale linguistic analysis of addiction discourse. In response to this, this talk will present a planned study examining how both institutional bodies and those with lived experience of alcohol harm use language to frame the experience. The study will focus on metaphorical language specifically, as metaphor has been shown to offer rich insights into how we frame and respond to difficult or distressing experiences. Using computer-aided methods, the study will conduct a systematic analysis of a large electronic dataset. The analysis will foreground evidence of agency and empowerment, considering the role and function of agency in the metaphors identified. The findings hope to enable an increased understanding of the experience of alcohol harm, and offer evidence-based insights into potential problems with current communication in clinical settings.

Live stream link for those who can’t attend: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/98164550979?pwd=T0JoNTV0Y3MvUjRTa1YrTkljd3Qwdz09 (Passcode: 053572)

Please get in touch (z.demjen@ucl.ac.uk) if you would be up for sharing your work with the Network at one of our sessions. And feel free to send this message on to your colleagues and students at UCL who work on relevant topics. We’d like to host two speakers per seminar, and would be interested in analysis, ideas, approaches, etc. at all stages of development.