Lights on the Phoenix Park bridge, Pablo Center at the Confluence and Haymarket Plaza will be aglow in purple and yellow Friday, Oct. 16, to bring awareness to a “hidden” language disorder.
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire department of communication sciences and disorders is sponsoring the light display downtown as part of a community outreach project to bring attention to developmental language disorder. Similar lighted events will mark International Developmental Language Disorder Day in 30 countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland and England.
DLD affects a person’s ability to talk or understand language and makes it difficult for children to express their ideas and feelings. Orr said research on DLD shows the disorder affects two children in every classroom of 30 students, or about 7% of children.
