Language Disorders Language Disorders of Young Childrenof Young Children

CDIS 5015CDIS 5015

Language Impairment or Language Difference

You saw those ten baby mice in the house, right?

(example of the Systems Model)

What Do You Know?

About...• Language development• Populations• Assessment and diagnosis• Treatment and prognosis• How children learn to talk

Terminology

Language disorderLanguage differenceLanguage delayLanguage devianceChildhood/congenital aphasia/disorder

ASHA’s Definition (1993, p. 40)

• An impairment in “comprehension and/or use of a spoken or wtitten and/or other symbolic system. The disorder may involve (1) the form of language ..., (2) the content of language..., and/or (3) the function of language in communication... in any combination” (as cited in Paul, 2007).

Fey’s Definition (p. 31, 1996)

• “a significant deficit in the child’s level of development of the form, content or use of language”?

Paul’s Definition of Language Disorders

“Children can be described as having language disorders if they have a significant deficit in learning to talk, understand, or use any aspect of language appropriately relative to both environmental and norm-referenced expectations for children of similar developmental level.” (p 3)

…significant deficit…What’s Significant & Below What?

Significant deficit• Below the 10th percentile

= 1.25 standard deviations below the mean = standard score of 80

Adjusted Age, Chronological Age or Mental Age?• Are delays of the same amount equivalent across the age

span?• How reliable is the measurement ?

Standard scores, age equivalency, percentiles Assessment instruments

• How do you calculate or measure age?• What are you going to use the information for?

Caseload vs. research vs. administrative vs. counselling

…learning to talk, understand or use any aspect of language…

Bloom & Lahey (1988)

Form

Content Use

Syntax, morphology & phonology

Vocabulary & meaning

Function, context & rules

…environmental and norm-referenced expectations…

Normative Neutralist

• Noticeable by caregivers

• Affects social or academic function

• Adaptive consequences

• Performs significantly below expectations on norm-referenced tests

Problems

Normative Neutralist• caregiver perception -

relative to what?• environmental

expectations• institutional

requirements

• availability of tests - age, communicative area

• standardized or naturalistic

• test construction• applicability to

intervention• “significantly different”

Four Models of Child Language Disorders

1. The Systems Model Language differences Severe disabilities

2. The Categorical Model Medically-based Syndromes of behavior

3. The Specific Disabilities Model Auditory Perceptual Deficits

E.g., FastForWord

Auditory Processing Limitations E.g., The Surface Hypothesis

4. The Descriptive-Developmental Model Detailed description of the child's current level of

functioning Semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology,

pragmatics Comprehension and expression Research in normal language development guides

intervention More direct connection between assessment and

intervention Creation of a profile of strengths and weaknesses

Assumptions:• It is not always possible to know the cause of

the language problem• A detailed profile of the child's language skills is

crucial for intervention• The best treatment decisions are based on

where the child is now and what is next in the normal developmental sequence