Events
Highlights of 2026
Child Magazine Collaboration with Child Language Africa!
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FIRST QUARTER CLASS SEMINARS
We would like to introduce our Child Language Africa Seminar Series (CLASS), a
series of six seminars on a theme. This year the theme is bilingualism.
Dr Michelle White presented our first CLASS seminar on 18 February 2026. Dr White
discussed her 2023 article in her talk “Difference or Disorder? Practical Approaches to Bilingual Child Language Assessment”. The talk focused on bilingual child language assessments, their practices and approaches. Dr White presented these with a particular focus on their applicability in South Africa.
Our second-CLASS seminar was presented by Prof. Mikateko Ndhambi on 25 March 2026 Prof. Ndhambi discussed her 2026 article in her talk “What can Xitsonga speaking children teach us about early vocabulary development?” The talk focused on Prof. Ndhambi’s findings on noun bias in the early vocabulary development of 95 monolingual Xitsonga speaking toddlers aged 16-32 months. The vocabulary data was collected with the Xitsonga-adaptation of the MacArthurBates Communicative Development Inventory.
Graduation
We would like to congratulate our Stellenbosch University graduates for
December 2025.
Atshilaho Viola Nethathe (pictured right) graduated with her Master’s (Cum Laude) in Child Language Acquisition. She was supervised by Prof. H.J Brookes. Emma Thom (pictured left) graduated with her Honours (Cum Laude) in Child Language Acquisition. She was supervised by Prof. F. Southwood.
We would like to extend our gratitude and congratulations to our graduates and their supervisors for their commendable work.
Highlights of 2025
Child Magazine Collaboration with Child Language Africa!
Read the article HERE
Highlights of 2024
Graduations
A big congratulations to our CDI team member, Dr Mikateko Ndhambi who graduated from the University of Cape Town with her PhD earlier this month. Her research centered around early lexical and grammatical development in Xitsonga-speaking children. Her work is groundbreaking in South African research as she is one of the first people to work on Xitsonga children’s language acquisition. We look forward to seeing where Dr Ndambi’s future research takes her.
Online networking meeting: Child Language Development Research Node – Introductory Meeting (16th of August, 2024)
On the 16th of August, we had our first Child Language Development Research Node meeting.
We had 23 attendees from all over South Africa presenting their research. There were students, researchers, speech language therapists and academics from fields such as linguistics, anthropology, speech therapy, education and more.
It was a wonderful, collaborative meeting of people who share the same passion: furthering child language development research in South Africa.
16th IASCL Conference (15-19 July, 2024)
Prof Frenette Southwood presented our CDI research at the 2024 IASCL (International Congress for the Study of Child Language) conference which was held in Prague, Czech Republic.
2024 SALALS Conference presentations (25-27 June, 2024)
At the 2024 SALALS (South African Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Society) conference held at the University of Johannesburg, five members of our team (Sibusiso Ndlangamandla, Heather Brookes, Mikateko Ndhambi, Nina Brink and Carmen Coetsee) presented on current research.
Child Language Development Node Scientific Workshop, 16–20 January 2023
The Child Language Development Node hosted a week-long scientific workshop at Stellenbosch University, bringing together team members and collaborators from across eight provinces in South Africa.
Media
In recognition of Universal Children’s Day – 20 November 2022
Motsweding FM, State Your Mind, 26 November 2022
Sefela Yalala o berekela setlhopa sa Child Language Development e ko mmadikolong wa Stellenbosch. Sefela o re bolelela ka ditlhatlhobo tsa puo ya bana, tse di dirwang mo dipuong tsotlhe tse 11 tsa Aforika Borwa. O re gakolola ka botlhokwa jwa go lebelela kgolo ya puo ya ngwana go tswa bonnyennyaneng, bogolo jang mo puong ya gae.
Sefela Yalala works in the Child Language Development Node at Stellenbosch University. Sefela tells us about a child language project being done in all 11 official South African languages. She reminds us of the importance of monitoring children’s language from early on, especially in the child’s home language.
RSG, Taaldinge, 20 November 2022
Prof. Frenette Southwood en Helena Kruger van die Universiteit Stellenbosch en Nina Brink van die Noordwes-Universiteit vertel van ‘n kindertaalprojek wat gedoen word in al elf landstale. Die oogmerk is om kindertaalontwikkeling te monitor en leemtes betyds op te spoor.
Prof. Frenette Southwood and Helena Kruger from Stellenbosch University and Nina Brink from North-West University tell us about a child language project being done on all eleven official languages. The goal is to be able to monitor child language development and spot any developmental gaps in time.
The Child Language Development Node 