Organised by the Rotorua Youth Centre, this day brought together many agencies and people who are involved in some way with youth in our Rotorua community. Each organisation had space to showcase and inform participants of the services they provide as well as a three minute opportunity to talk about their service to the crowd.
Judge Louis Bidois was the key note speaker for the day. He emphasised the importance of oral language competency for youth offenders in the youth courts. Presently Speech Language Therapists in New Zealand do not have a large role in the justice system. Given that our whole legal system is based on being able to tell ‘your story’ and given that oral language competency (in its basic form is developed by age five) general research suggests that up to fifty per cent of youth offenders may have clinically significant and previously undetected oral language competency problems.
New Zealand has recently developed Talking Trouble www.talkingtrouble.co.nz to begin addressing this issue. Other research of interest can be found at Trends and Issues in Crime No 435 April 2012 http://www.aic.gov.au titled ‘Youth (in)justice:oral language competency in early life- a risk for engagement in antisocial behaviour in adolescence.’