What are language differences?
Normal variabilities in language development
What are language disorders?
Variabilites in language that reflect an underlying neurological impairment that is affecting language development
What are the most common type of communication impairments affecting children?
Language disorders
What is LLE?
Late language emergence:
- having a slow start in language
- occurs in an estimated 1 in 5 children
- usually identified at about 2 years old
What is a primary language impairment?
- A significant language impairment in the absence of any other developmental difficulty
- Affects about 7-10% of children over 4 years old
- Commonly known as specific language impairment (SLI)
- Certain conditions appear to contribute to a child’s risk for
- SLI: preterm birth, low birth weight
The risk for SLI runs in families
What is a secondary language impairment?
- Language disorders resulting from or secondary to other conditions
- Common types: intellectual or cognitive impairments, and autism spectrum disorders
How many children exhibit mild to severe intellectual disability?
12 in 1,000 children
Children with mild disability outnumber those with severe disability by:
About 3 to 1
What are direct services?
Diagnosing language disorders and providing treatment to children with disorders through clinical and educational interventions
What are indirect services?
Screening children for the possibility of language disorders and referring them for direct services, as well as counseling parents on approaches to supporting language development in the home environment
Who is frequently the lead direct service provider for children with language disorders?
Speech-language pathologists
How do psychologists contribute to the treatment of child language disorders?
Hold important responsibilities in the identification and treatment of child language disorders, and also conduct research important to our understanding of how to identify and treat these disorders
What branches of psychology conduct research relevant to child language disorders?
Cognitive psychology, perceptual psychology, and developmental psychology
What kind of psychologists often work more directly with children with language disorders?
Clinical psychologists, clinical neuropsychologists, rehabilitation psychologists, and school psychologists
What do general educators do?
Identify children in their classrooms who may show signs of difficulty with language within the educational context (one of the most important referral sources for children with suspected language disorders)
What do special educators do?
- Support the educational progress of children with identified language disorders
- Special educators work with students to deliver general and specialized interventions geared toward helping children with disabilities succeed academically
- Lead responsibility is to design, deliver, and monitor individualized education programs (IEPs) and individualized family service plans (IFSPs)
Who are early interventionists?
- Professionals with specialization in intervention for infants and toddlers
- Work with children with language disorders during the best “window of opportunity”
What is a specific language impairment?
Developmental disability in which an individual shows a significant impairment of expressive or receptive language that cannot be attributed to any other causal condition
What are the defining characteristics of an SLI?
- Have typical hearing, intelligence, and no obvious disturbances
- Typically diagnosed after the third birthday (to make sure they’re not just a late talker)
Five common traits
- Strengths in some areas of language and weaknesses in others
- Have a history of slow vocabulary development (produce their first word at 2 vs. 1, learn words slower)
- Show considerable difficulties with grammatical production and comprehension (omitting key grammatical morphemes, problems with pronoun usage, verb development)
- Difficulty adjusting academically (may have problems with social skills, behavior, and peer relations, as well as literacy and mathematics)
- Most children have long-term difficulties with language achievement (as many as 60% of children who exhibit SLI in kindergarten will continue to show language weakness in adolescence and adulthood)
Children who have immediate family members with language impairment are:
More likely than other children to develop SLI (20-40% of children with SLI have a sibling or parent with a language disorder)
What is ASD?
Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Developmental disability that affects an estimated 1 in 68 children, with a higher prevalence among boys and among children with affected family members
Defining characteristics
- Present at birth (though characteristics may not be apparent until later)
- Major areas of difficulty required for an ASD diagnosis:
- Difficulties with social-emotional reciprocity
- Difficulties with nonverbal communicative behaviors
- Difficulties developing and maintaining relationships with others
- Can be mild to severe
What is an intellectual disability?
Condition of arrested or incomplete development of the mind, which is especially characterized by impairment of skills manifested during the developmental period
What are the defining characteristics of an intellectual disability?
- Diagnosed in children younger than 18 years old who have both significant limitations in intellectual functioning and significant limitations in adaptive behavior
- Ranges from mild to profound (more commonly mild)
- Most children with ID also have at least mild language impairment
- Typically the result of an injury, brain abnormality, or disease
- Young children, adolescent males, and older people have the highest risk, and males are affected twice as often as females
- The most common type is a closed-head injury (CHI): brain matter is not exposed or penetrated
- Open-head injuries (OHI): brain matter is exposed through penetration
- In both CHI and OHI, the immediate brain injury is often accompanied by secondary brain injuries that result from the primary trauma
- Typically damages the frontal and temporal lobes
Influenced by the severity, site, and characteristics of the child - About 75% of children with severe CHI have problems with discourse
What are the causes of intellectual disability?
- Falls (28%)
- Motor vehicle crashes (20%)
- Being struck (19%)
- Assaults (11%)
