The 2025 Dorothy Bishop Lecture with Dr Hannah Hobson

RADLD FUNDRAISER: Don't miss this opportunity to support global DLD advocacy!

DLD affects around 7% of children - but if DLD is so common, why is it not spotted more? One reason could be that children and young people “camouflage” their language difficulties to fit in and to avoid getting into trouble. Camouflaging can take many forms, from pretending to write in class, laughing along with friends when you’ve not got the joke, copying other children around you, and avoiding environments that are linguistically demanding. This talk will cover what we know about camouflaging (or “masking”). Starting with the history of masking in autism research, the talk will then explore how camouflaging also occurs in DLD, what some camouflaging behaviours are, and what they mean for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Dr Hannah Hobson

Dr Hannah Hobson is a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of York, where she leads the EMERALD lab (Emotions and Mental health Research in Autism and Language Disorders). Her research explores the links between language and communication and social and emotional processes, including mental health and camouflaging. She previously worked at the University of Greenwich and King’s College London, after studying her DPhil at Oxford under the supervision of none other than Prof Dorothy Bishop!

Access Options

Thursday 2nd October from 8pm - 9pm UK time | Online via Zoom.

Due to the limitations on the number of delegates that can attend a LIVE online event we are offering two access options:

1. Individual LIVE Webinar Entry (1000 tix max. Includes access to the event recording in case you can no longer make the live event) - £10
2. Post-Event Recorded Webinar Access (Unlimited) - £10

Once you have purchased your ticket, we will be in touch closer to the event date via Eventbrite and email to share the online webinar link and access details.