Unidentified and unmet language needs have significant individual, social, and economic consequences. Research conducted in the UK—a country similar in size to South Africa—shows that these needs, if left unaddressed across the lifespan, will cost £330 million per age cohort.
The Child Language Development Node of SADiLaR, hosted by the Department of General Linguistics at Stellenbosch University, works to advance knowledge on children’s language development in African languages. The node’s primary function is to promote research on child language development across all South African languages and to digitise child language development data. This ensures that the data is freely available on the SADiLaR platform for scientists working in language, cognition, child health and development, language learning, and language disorders.
Data on African languages can inform the development of valid diagnostic tools and interventions to promote language and cognitive development in South African children, both in health and educational settings.
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