News

Latest news and articles.

2025

  • We are happy to announce that doctoral student Eveliina Joensuu from the ELD group was selected as one of the winners of the Third Annual Child Neuropsychology Student Project Competition (the shared 2nd prize). The papers taking part to the competition were selected from student-authored manuscripts accepted to Child Neuropsychology, all of which were rated by blinded reviewer (CN editors were not part of the manuscript rating process). The reference for the winning article: 

    Joensuu E, Munck P, Nyman A, Rautava P & Stolt S. In press. Difficulties in reading ability persist up to 11 years of age in Finnish children born very preterm – a prospective cohort study. In press. Child Neuropsychology. 2025 May;31(4):585-612.doi: 10.1080/09297049.2024.2415531. Epub 2024 Oct 14. 

     

  • We are happy to announce that the 2nd edition for the book Keskosen hoito ja kehitys [The care and development of prematurely born child] targeted to the personnel of the neonatal intensive care units and to the students in the field of neonatology, pediatric neurology, speech-language pathology and psychology as well as to the parents of the prematurely born children will be published by Duodecim in November 2025.
  • The 33rd World Congress of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders will be organized in Malta 24-28.8.2025.
  • Six presentations from the ELD group members have been accepted to summer 2025 congresses
  • Prof. Suvi Stolt was invited to deliver an invited talk to the 16th European Paediatric Neurology Society (EPNS) Congress 2025 in July 2025.
  • We are happy to announce that doctoral researcher Sirpa Tarvainen will defend her thesis 21th November 2025. Professor Cristina McKean from the University of Oxford will act as an opponent. 

2024

  • The research project Pikkukeskosen kielipolku [Clear Path for the Language Development of Very Preterm Children], part of the ELD group, received a grant from the Lastentautien tutkimussäätiö [Pediatric Research Fund]. Warm thanks for this important support!
  • the XVIth International Congress for the Study of Child Language will be organized in Prague, Czeck Republic in July 2024
  • ELD Group has new PhD student, MA Laura Lehtiniemi. Laura received a 4-year salaried position for her PhD studies from the doctoral program of Cognition, Learning, Instruction and Communication from February 2024 onwards - congratulations Laura!
  • Six presentations and one symposium from the ELD group members have been accepted to summer 2024 congresses 

2023

  • The research project Pikkukeskosen kielipolku [Clear Path for the Language Development of Very Preterm Children], part of the ELD group, received a grant from the Lastentautien tutkimussäätiö [Pediatric Research Fund]. Warm thanks!
  • Prof. Caroline Rowland, Director of the Language Development Department, Max Planck Institute, will deliver a guest lecture "What predicts how quickly children learn language?" Thursday 23.11.2023 at 14-16 pm., Hall 2, Haartmaninstitute, Meilahti campus
  • Eva Stålhberg-Forsén will defend her PhD on Friday the 24th of November at noon (address: Biomedicum 1, Hall 3, Haartmaninkatu 8). Prof. Caroline Rowland from the Max Planck Insitute will act as on opponent.
  • PhD students Eva Ståhlberg-Forsén and Riikka Mustonen are presenting findings from their ongoing PhD studies in the 32nd World Congress of the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders in Auckland, New Zealand in August 2023.  
  • ELD Group has new PhD student, MA Anna Markkula will prepare her thesis in the Clear Path for Language Development of Very Preterm Children. Anna received a 4-year salaried position for her PhD studies from the doctoral program of Cognition, Learning, Instruction and Communication from January 2023 onwards - congratulations Anna!
  • Eija Aalto defended her PhD thesis in February 2023. Congratulations Eija!

2022

  • Interesting working symposium about the supporting of the resilience of the families with preterm born children in the Perhetutkimuksen päivät [Family Research Conference] 10-11.11.2022 organised by University of Turku. See further information: https://sites.utu.fi/perhetutkimuksenpaivat2022/ohjelma/
  • New paper on the association between the screentime use and children's language development has been published - see Mustonen, Torppa & Stolt. Children 2022; https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/9/10/1577; further information: https://www.helsinki.fi/fi/uutiset/aivot/digilaitteiden-kaytto-voi-vaikuttaa-lapsen-kielelliseen-kehitykseen
  • MA Eija Aalto will defend her thesis in the 10th of February 2023. Eija's thesis is about the phonological development of 3,6-year-old Finnish children and its´ associations to lexical and auditory recognition ability, and very early pre-reading skills. Eija's PhD has been done as a part of the Sanaseula Project.
  • New paper on the phonological development of the Finnish children has been accepted for publication in First Language (see: Aalto, Saaristo-Helin & Stolt. In press. Associations between early pre-reading and phonological skills in the light of auditory word recognition and lexical ability. First Language
  • The research project Pikkukeskosen kielipolku [Clear Path for the Language Development of Very Preterm Children], part of the ELD group, received a grant from Päivikki and Sakari Solhberg Foundation [Päivikki ja Sakari Sohlbergin säätiö]. Thank you very much!
  • The research project Pikkukeskosen kielipolku [Clear Path for the Language Development of Very Preterm Children], part of the ELD group, received a grant from the Lastentautien tutkimussäätiö [Pediatric Research Fund]. Thank you!
  • Interesting paper on eye-tracking based assessment of lexical processing and lexical development of very preterm children has been published in Early Human Development (Ståhlberg-Forsen et al. 2022. Eye Tracking Based Assessment of Lexical Processing and Early Lexical Development in Very Preterm Children). See: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2022.105603
  • Eva Ståhlberg-Forsen and Riikka Mustonen, doctoral students in ELD Group, are presenting parts of their work in 11th ESLA Congress in May 2022
  • The European Network Meeting on Communicative Development Inventories, EUNM-CDI 2022, will be organized in May 14th - 17th May in Dubrovnik, Croatia
  • Information on the validity of the Finnish version version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories III (FinCDI III) available. Prof. Suvi Stolt will tell about the recent findings on the validity study of the FinCDI III in Open Lecture Serie of Logopedics 15th February at 3 pm. 

2021

  • MA Suvi-Maria Vehkavuori defended her PhD at the 15th of October at noon (12.15). The title of her thesis is Early lexicon – associations to later language skills and screening. Suvi-Maria has prepared her PhD in the FinCDI-SF Study (Sanaseula Study), as a member of ELD group.
  • Päivikki and Sakari Solhberg Foundation granted FinCDI-SF Study and FinCDI III Study by 20 000 euros.
  • Two new PhD students (MA Marianna Visapää and MA Susanna Surakka) were accepted to ELD group. Both MA Visapää and MA Surakka will prepare their PhD's in Doctoral Program in Cognition, Learning, Instruction and Communication (CLIC) at the University of Helsinki.
  • Virtual conference on the International Association for the Study of Child Language (IASCL) in July 2021 (see https://iascl2021.com)
  • Virtual meeting Eight European Network Meeting on Communicative Development Inventories (EUNM-CDI) in May 2021

2020

  • 16th Nordic Symposium on Child Language will be arranged in May 27-28 2020 in Linnköping, Sweden
  • International Association for the Study of Child Language (IASCL) Conference will be arranged in July 13-17 2020, in Philadelphia, USA. Further information: http://iascl2020.com (postponed to summer 2021 due to corona virus)
  • The 8th European Network Meeting on Communicative Development Inventories (EUNM-CDI 2020) will be arranged in April 27-29 2020 in Dubrovnik, Croatia (postponed to spring 2021 due to corona virus)
  • The Finnish National Symposium of Speech and Language Research [Puheen ja kielen tutkimuksen päivät] will be arranged in March 26-27 2020 in Helsinki. Further information: www.puhejakieli.fi/tapahtumat
  • MA Riikka Mustonen, a member of ELD Group, received a 4-year scholarship for her PhD from the Finnish Cultural Foundation in February 2020.
  • MA Eveliina Joensuu, a member of ELD Group, received a 4-year salaried position for her PhD studies from the doctoral program of Psychology, Learning and Communiciation (Psycho), University of Helsinki.

2019

  • MA Eva Ståhlberg-Forsén, a member of ELD Group, received a 4-year salaried position for her PhD studies from the doctoral program of Psychology, Learning and Communication (PsyCo), University of Helsinki.
  • The Finnish National symposium of Speech and Language Research [Puheen ja kielen tutkimuksen päivät] will be arranged in March 28-29 2019 in Helsinki. The main theme of the symposium is Developmental Language Disorder [Kehityksellisen kielihäiriön monet kasvot]. Astract submission deadline: 7.1. Further information: www.puhejakieli.fi/tapahtumat

2018

2017

  • A new book on the care and development of preterm children has been published. The book is targeted for all who take care and want to support the development of preterm children. Full reference: Stolt, S., Yliherva, A., Parikka, V., Haataja, L. & Lehtonen, L. (Eds.), 2017. Keskosen hoito ja kehitys. Helsinki: Duodecim. Further information: https://verkkokauppa.duodecim.fi/6532.html
  • Pikkukeskosen kielen­ke­hitystä voi tukea
2025