Components of Language Review DES 320

Components of Language  Form  Content  Use  Comprehension and Production  Auditory-Oral System  Visual-Graphic System  Visual-Gestural System

Inter-relationship between language areas Bloom and Lahey (1978)

COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE

COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE: FORM  Phonology  Study of the sound system of a language  Phoneme: a speech sound  Phonological rules: rules that govern which sounds may appear together and where  Variations between languages  English- gnat,  Examples from other languages? Nouveau (Fr), Knockwurst (Ger)

COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE: FORM  How we say things  How sounds are arranged  How words are arranged N+V+O  Structure!!!!

COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE: FORM  Morphology= branch of grammar devoted to the structure or forms of words  Morpheme = the smallest grammatical unit in language  Not necessarily equivalent to syllables

COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE: FORM  Free morpheme  Can stand alone as a word  Cannot be broken apart  Bound morpheme  Cannot stand alone as a word  Changes the original meaning

MORPHOLOGY  Example:  Dog = free morpheme  Dogs= 2 morphemes Dog= free morpheme s= bound morpheme

MORPHOLOGY  happy- 1 free morpheme  unhappy - 1 bound and 1 free morpheme  unhappily- 2 bound and 1 free morpheme  unhappiest- 2 bound and 1 free morpheme

HOW MANY MORPHEMES?  Monkeys  Monkeys eating  The monkeys are eating  The monkeys are eating quickly  The unhappy monkeys are eating in the forest  The unhappy monkeys are eating in the deepest forest

SYNTAX  How words are arranged to form meaningful sentences  Follows a collection of rules for combining words into phrases and sentences  Keeping the same words but changing the order can change the meaning  Examples: The students are sitting in class. Are the students sitting in class?

COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE: CONTENT

CONTENT  Many words have multiple meanings so the meaning is influenced by the use and the form.  Semantics- the study of meaning in language  Ex- The Steelers beat the Cardinals. The criminal beat the dog. The music had a fast beat.

COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE: USE

USE  Pragmatics  The use, function or purpose of the language  Examples: how to…  Enter a conversation  Exit a conversation  Take turns  Answer a question  Change topics  Sharing an opinion  Highly influenced by the situational context and the communication partners  Friends vs. teachers vs. parents, etc

Comprehension and Production  Encoding, expression, production  Decoding, understanding, interpreting, comprehending, reception  In clinical work, comprehension and production are often addressed separately  Debate on how independent language comprehension and production are in the human language processing architecture

Models of Language  Auditory-Oral System  Evolutionally old  Universal  Flexible  Multidimensional  Visual-Graphic System  New  Needs to be taught  Need paper, pencil….  One-dimensional

Models of Language (cont’d) *Visual-Gestural System  Gesturing *Nonverbal communication through gestures, body postures and facial expressions *Thinking for speaking  Sign Languages * ASL  AAC

Models and definitions of language disorders DES 320

ASHA definition of language disorder  A language disorder is an impairment in: -comprehension/production -spoken, written, other symbol system -form -phonology, morphology, syntax -content - semantics -function - pragmatics

Normative/Neutralist  A language disorder exists when….  Normative position  When it affects the child’s social and academic functioning  Neutralist position  The child scores significantly below expectations in a normative test  Problems with assessment instruments  What is “significantly below”?  Varies by institution  Research supports 10 th percentile/ 1.25 SD below mean/ SS of 81

Case  You are an SLP in a school district that implements a kindergarten language screening. In your screening, you discover that Jim scored below your cut- off for language impairment. Additional testing reveals similar results. Jim’s teacher and parents feel like Jim is doing just fine. According to the normative position, does Jim have a language impairment?

Discrepancy criteria  Chronological Age  Discrepancy between chronological age and language testing  Mental Age  Discrepancy between cognitive level (determined by IQ testing) and language testing

Terminology  Childhood aphasia/ dysphasia  Language delay / language deviance  Impairment/ disorder  Disability  Specific Language Impairment (SLI)  Developmental Language Disorder  Person first: children with SLI

Thought Questions  What are the connotations associated with the terms, “dysphasia”, “delay”, “deviance”, impairment”, “disorder” and “disability”?  Does the term imply something more than “not functioning typically”?  Does the term have a negative tone? If you or your child had a language XXX, which term would you like to use to talk about it?

Models of language disorders  Systems Model  Categorical Model  Descriptive-developmental model  Specific disabilities model

Systems Model  Language disorder exists in the relationship between the speakers  A useful concept in the context of  Language differences (dialect, ESL)  Severe language disorders

Categorical Model  Classifications of language disorders based on syndromes  Identification of similarities among children with the same diagnosis  Motor disorders, cush as Cerebral Palsy  Sensory deficits  Central nervous system damage  Social emotional disorders, such as Autism  Cognitive disorders  Specific language impairment (SLI)  Shared etiology  Caution  Not all children within a diagnostic category have the same abilities  You cannot pick intervention goals solely based on the diagnosis

Descriptive Developmental Model  Description of the child’s current level of language functions  Vocabulary, semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology and pragmatics  Determining where the child is in the sequence of normal development  Subtyping based on components of language  Expressive and expressive/receptive  New directions: Vocabulary and grammar  (Tomblin & Zhang, 2006; Toblin, Maniela-Arnold, Zhang, 2007)

Specific Disabilities Model  Profile strengths and weaknesses in cognitive processes  Cognitive mechanisms associated with language development  For example…  Auditory perceptual deficit  Working memory deficit