Background: An increasing number of children in the UK and Ireland are growing up speaking more than one language. The many advantages of bilingualism are acknowledged however this increased linguistic diversity presents particular challenges for Speech and Language Therapists. The case is often more complex with speakers of minority languages such as Welsh and Irish which are acquired almost exclusively in bilingual contexts. Lack of appropriate standardised assessments for bilinguals is a key issue for Speech and Language Therapists internationally, however little is known about the practices, personal perspectives or wider challenges faced by SLTs in assessing minority language skills. We focus on SLTs working with English-Irish bilinguals across Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (ROI) where status, use and exposure to Irish differs significantly. Aims: To investigate the perceptions and practices of Speech and LanguageTherapists in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the assessment of bilingual English-Irish speaking children. Methods and procedures:A 33-item online survey was distributed to SLTs working with children in community settings in NI and the ROI.Outcomes and results: 181 SLTs completed the survey. The majority of respondents had bilingual English-Irish speaking children on their caseloads however, less than one-quarter had assessed Irish language skills. Responses What this paper adds to existing knowledgeThe status of the Irish language differs significantly between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, while English is the dominant language in both areas. This study provides the first exploration of current assessment practices for bilingual English-Irish speaking children as reported by SLTs across both regions. The challenges of assessing bilingual clients in many other countries are mirrored by SLTs in NI and the ROI. The majority of children acquiring Irish are doing so in a specific context, the immersion education setting; this raises uncertainty for SLTs around whether the definition of bilingualism actually applies. Despite clinicians and clients sharing the same majority language, the complexity of minority language assessment remains. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?SLTs require specific support and resources to help them meet the assessment needs of bilingual English-Irish speaking children. Ongoing education and training are required for clinicians and other professionals to facilitate understanding of the complexities surrounding bilingual speakers of minority languages and the application of best practice guidelines. A greater understanding of the context in which children are acquiring Irish and the impact this may have on their acquisition of English would further support clinicians in identifying Speech, Language and Communication Needs in this population.speech-language pathology services to support multilingual children. International

Children have been reported to prefer the surface scope or 'isomorphic' reading of scopally ambiguous sentences (Musolino 1998, among others). Existing accounts in the literature differ with respect to the proposed source of this isomorphism effect. Some accounts are based on learnability considerations (e.g., Moscati & Crain 2014), while others invoke pragmatic and/or processing factors (e.g., Gualmini et al. 2008; Musolino & Lidz 2006). The present study investigates whether the isomorphism effect is specific to development, or rather is observable in other populations with language processing limitations. We investigated the interpretation of ambiguous sentences containing "every" and negation in 4-6-year-old children, individuals with Broca's aphasia, and neurotypical adult controls. We observed parallel performance in the children and the aphasic group, with both groups accessing more surface scope readings than inverse scope readings. This finding suggests that the preference for isomorphism may not be specific to acquisition, and supports accounts that are not specifically based on learnability considerations, for example, processing accounts along the lines of Musolino & Lidz (2006).

As we enter the second century of superconductivity, helium still prevails as the cryogenic coolant of choice. What does the future of helium hold? What can be done to avoid the squandering of this precious resource? In our presentation, we will discuss the use of cryogenic hydrogen originated from renewable and low-CO 2 emission sources. We suggest that 20 K of liquid hydrogen can ultimately displace helium as an indirect coolant in a range of superconducting electromagnetic devices. As is already well documented, superconductors have much potential underpinning the future developments in transportation, energy supply/storage and also in medical applications. Although superconductors that can operate at liquid hydrogen temperatures, such as MgB 2 and YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 , are not yet truly commercially available, research indicates that these will be feasible in the near future.

Sentences involving past tense verbs, such as "My dogs were on the carpet", tend to give rise to the inference that the corresponding present tense version, "My dogs are on the carpet", is false. This inference is often referred to as a cessation or temporal inference, and is generally analyzed as a type of implicature. There are two main proposals for capturing this asymmetry: one assumes a difference in informativity between the past and present counterparts (Altshuler & Schwarzschild 2013), while the other proposes a structural difference between the two (Thomas 2012). The two approaches are similar in terms of empirical coverage, but differ in their predictions for language acquisition. Using a novel animated picture selection paradigm, we investigated these predictions. Specifically, we compared the performance of a group of 4-6-year-old children and a group of adults on temporal inferences, scalar implicatures arising from "some", and inferences of adverbial modifiers under negation. The results revealed that overall, children computed all three inferences at a lower rate than adult controls; however they were more adult-like on temporal inferences and inferences of adverbial modifiers than on scalar implicatures. We discuss the implications of the findings, both for a developmental alternatives-based hypothesis (e.g., Barner et al. 2011; Singh et al. 2016; Tieu et al. 2016; 2018), as well as theories of temporal inferences, arguing that the finding that children were more (and equally) adult-like on temporal inferences and adverbial modifiers supports a structural theory of temporal inferences along the lines of Thomas (2012).

Acquisition of English language skills is vital for the successful integration of children into English-medium Education. Newcomer children who are not proficient in the language of instruction may be left vulnerable to exclusion in the classroom and long-term educational failure (McEachron 1998, Paradis 2005). Targeted linguistic support can increase access to education by prioritizing the development of core linguistic skills such as vocabulary and grammar. ‘Language Made Fun’, is a joint Ulster University-Barnardos initiative that was developed to investigate English vocabulary and grammar development in a group of newcomer children from various language backgrounds. To address the needs of these children, we developed an individually tailored language intervention programme to facilitate English language development as part of a wider Barnardos family support programme for newcomer pupils and their families. Trained undergraduate student volunteers from both Linguistics and Speech and Language Therapy delivered the interventions for the children. We used formal and informal assessment tools to measure language progress. Main positive outcomes included improvements in receptive vocabulary, morphology, receptive and expressive syntax including an increase in sentence length and complexity. These findings indicate the potential value of an intervention programme such as 'Language made fun', which could be implemented more widely in educational contexts to help support newcomer pupils and their families and teachers.