Saturday, January 01, 2011

Oxford Dysfluency Conference on September 1-4th 2011


The Oxford Dysfluency Conference is from September 1-4th 2011. I have been to the last three conference, I think. The setting is very nice, the historic university town of Oxford. The conference is also OK, with the usual ups and downs. Don't expect a true scientific conference. For many years, it was the only conference on stuttering apart from the ISA and IFA conferences. They have been organized by Dave Rowley, a loyal TheStutteringBrain reader from de Mountfort University.

Unfortunately, he has given the responsibility of the many conference admin shores to Elsevier, the leading academic publisher. As a result, the prices have gone up dramatically, and I am sure many are going to ask themselves whether it's worth the money: £595 + 20% VAT. British institutions can probably claim VAT back, but the lonely therapist cannot not can overseas attendants, I would guess. As Elsevier is not able to provide the full price on their website. I have done the *very* difficult calculation: 714£. Plus travelling expenses, and you have to count 800£ for British, 900£ for continental European, and over 1000£ for
overseas. Needless to say that only the wealthy country can attend.

I have asked for a reduced fee in exchange for a sponsored link on my blog. So far every conference has agreed, but I am not so sure about Elsevier. But even the reduced student fee is 475% plus travelling. That's one week holidays.

If you plan to go or find it too expensive, you should also consider the BSA conference held a week later in Durham. I know Durham well, because I have done my PhD there. Beautiful historical city, probably the most impressive setting of ALL towns in England. Especially, in snow on a gloomy late afternoon. I probably should attend. And fifteen minutes up North is Newcastle. A real party town on Friday night. Not be missed: the Geordie girl. Some years earlier, I organized some research symposiums at the BSA conference. Maybe Durham would be a good and cheap place to repeat. The only downside of Durham is that it is so damn hard to get, too. It's a real pain. You have to take the train.

Here are some more details of the Oxford Conference.
The 9th Oxford Dysfluency Conference is one of the leading international conferences in the field of stuttering/stammering. It brings together researchers, practitioners and clinicians across a range of disciplines most notably speech and language therapy, along with psychology and linguistics. The Oxford Dysfluency Conference provides an opportunity for researchers to hear about the latest work in disorders of fluency and will enable clinicians to update their professional skills.

In 2011, the goal of the Oxford Dysfluency Conference is to lead a challenging international debate about the latest research in disorders of fluency and its clinical applications. The 2011 conference will:

* Present the latest research developments and findings
* Explore issues relating to the nature of stuttering and its treatment
* Develop knowledge and clinical skills working with children and adults who stutter
* Consider ways to integrate research into clinical practice
* Support and encourage new researchers in the field
* Develop collaborations with researchers working in dysfluency
* Provide informal opportunities to meet and discuss ideas with leading experts in the field in a friendly environment
* Advance research in the field of dysfluency

Topics List

Abstracts are invited on the following conference themes:

* Commonalities - commonalities across therapies, disorders or perspectives
* Evidence Based Practice - empirical research evidence; integrating research into clinical practice; measuring outcome; practice based evidence
* Dysfluency: The wider context - concomitant disorders; covert aspects of stuttering; environmental factors; cluttering
* Integrating theories and therapies - application of counseling approaches such as CBT, SFBT to stuttering; application of theories; how theory informs therapy
* Neurophysiology - aetiological complexity; brain imaging; brain function; motor function; implications for interventions
* Health Service Issues - coping with health service changes; value for money; telehealth; service delivery models.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hey tom, great job at stuttertalk.com. You did excellent!

You are correct that the film the King's Speech will have more impact than if you blog for the next 1000 years.

What are your predictions for the next 5 years, given not much news in 2011.

Will there finally be a medication for stuttering?

who are the key speakers at oxford and why should the stuttering community attend?

Will you be there to attend, to present, to debate....do you have a poster?