1. Language Disorders of Young Children
CDIS 5015

2. Language Impairment or Language Difference
You saw those ten baby mice in the house, right?
(example of the Systems Model)
Have the students in the class identify on the map where they came from and then say the sentence either the way they do now or in a way consistent with those in their region. Think about phonology and sentence structure.
yous have saw those ten baby mice in the house, eh?

3. What Do You Know? About... Language development Populations
Assessment and diagnosis
Treatment and prognosis
How children learn to talk
One word by one. Two words by the time they have 50 words in their vocabulary. Single sentences by 3. Storys by 4.
Blind children context and pragmatics. Form is good and synatx is but, cant see jestures and turn taking.
Sensory, nero, gentic, environmental, international adoptions, cognitive are all examples of problems in learning language.
Screening- is there a problem or isn’t there?

4. Terminology Language disorder Language difference Language delay
Language deviance
Childhood/congenital aphasia/disorder
Language disorder:
A significant discrepancy in language skills from what would be expected for age or developmental level
Language difference:
Rule-governed
Deviates in some way from the standard usage of mainstream culture
Language Delay
Language is like that of a younger child and they will eventually be “normal”
Seems prognostic, and this is not generally supported by the literature
Language Deviance
Development is not just slower than normal, but I some way different qualitatively
Literature does not entirely support this view either, differences subtle, but sequence and nature of language are intact
Childhood/Congenital Aphasia/dysphasia
Old terminology
Now reserved truly for language impairment related to neurological accident

5. 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).

6. Fey’s Definition (p. 31, 1996)
“a significant deficit in the child’s level of development of the form, content or use of language”?

7. 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)
She likes this def best.

8. …significant deficit… What’s Significant & Below What?
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
How do you tell if it's a problem?
A) Compare to standardized assessment: Criteria based decisions
•Below the 10th percentile = 1.25 standard deviations below the mean
= standard score of 80
1 sd = 17% of the preschool population
2 sd = 2% of the preschool population
B) Compare LA to MA or CA: Consistent with expectations
- MA. Importance of equivalent delays across the age span
- a 1 year delay in a 3 yr old is more debilitating that a 1 yr. delay in an 8 yr old
Problems with MA
- How do you determine - Full scale IQ vs. PIQ
- are performance tasks alone representative of intellectual abilities
- splinter skills
- are there stronger relationships between some performance tasks and language than others?
- Test instrument dependent
• CA.
- With CA there is determination of age is 100% reliable
- but there may be variation with test stated age equivalencies
- tests have different normative characteristics, populations, ranges, standard error of measurement, variability
This makes comparison by age across test instruments difficult
• CA. Language > MA e.g. Williams' Syndrome
• MA. Language < MA
Purpose
Make your decision about what is significant and how you are going to measure it based on your purpose:
CA: caseload decisions. Who should be on the caseload? CA allows children with cognitive deficits to be on the caseload
MA: therapy targets. Developmental order for target selection
MA: administrative criteria
MA: research. homogeneity of research participants
research vs. admin

9. …learning to talk, understand or use any aspect of language…
Bloom & Lahey (1988)
Syntax, morphology & phonology
Function, context & rules
Form
Most formal assessment tools examine form and content in some manner
Some tests assess only one area
Very few examine use
Therefore we need to use other assessment methods
Represents Basic Goals
Content
Use
Vocabulary & meaning

10. …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
Normative vs. Neutralist : Mary Kate and Ashley ”Full House” example
While infants, twins are hired to play a single acting role in a series
What would happen if their language did not develop in the same way and at the same rate?
What if one is normal and one is delayed?
What if one is precocious and one is normal?

11. 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”
Normative Problems
- caregiver perception - relative to what
- environmental expectations
- institutional requirements
Neutralist Problems
- availability of tests - age, communicative area
- standardized or naturalistic
- test construction
- applicability to intervention
- “significantly different”

12. Four Models of Child Language Disorders
The Systems Model
Language differences
Severe disabilities
The Categorical Model
Medically-based
Syndromes of behavior
Categorical
Pros:
Can be prognostic or alert the clinician to concomitant problems or behaviors
Might be needed administratively to qualify for services or financial support, insurance
Understandable, common-sense
Cons:
Not necessarily causative e.g., how does MR cause lang delay? What caused the MR
Same label, different manifestation
Not all children fit into the categories,
Some children fit into more than one category Comerbility – two problems happen at the same time
Does not lead to treatment approaches

13. The Specific Disabilities Model
Auditory Perceptual Deficits
E.g., FastForWord
Auditory Processing Limitations
E.g., The Surface Hypothesis
Research-Based Models
Based on the idea that if we can identify the “source” or “underlying” cognitive-linguistic weaknesses, we could treat them directly and resolve all the surface manifestations
Auditory Perceptual Deficits
children with SLI show difficulty identifying auditiory stimuli that are very brief and/or followed rapidly by another stimulus
Auditory Processing Limitation
Children with SLI have difficulty storing enough information for long enough in memory while also integrating new, incoming information
Also particular difficulty with phonological short-term memory

14. 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
Don’t worry about cause…looking at kids as individuals…how does it compare to typical development?

15. It is not always possible to know the cause of the language problem
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
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
Note: the goals may be developmentally guided, but the materials and activities should be more representative of chronological age.
Problem: it does not lend itself to categorization or sub-typing of problems, e.g., receptive/ expressive, receptive, expressive, phonological e.g., Conti-Ramsden