Ch. 4: Language Impairments in Children

language impairment (LI)

a heterogenous group of developmental and/or acquired disorder and/or delays that are principally characterized by deficits and/or immaturities in the use of spoken or written language

intentionality

when a child’s behavior is meant to influence the other person, usually around 8-9 months

representation

the process of having one thing stand for another

symbolization

using an arbitrary symbol, such as a word or sign, to stand for something

lexicon

person dictionary

metalinguistic skills

enable a child to consider language in the abstract, to make judgements about its correctness, and to create verbal contexts, such as in writing

specific language impairment (SLI)

limitations in language functioning that cannot be attributed to deficits in hearing, oral structure and function, general intelligence, or perception