Language Disorders Across the Lifespan Study Guide Unit 1

Which language domain is most directly responsible for understanding and producing grammatical sentence structure?

Syntax

A child produces long lists of familiar nouns but rarely combines words into grammatically complete sentences.

Which language domain is most likely disproportionately affected?

Syntax

Difficulties in one language domain can occur independently of other domains.

True

A child who understands classroom instructions but rarely initiates conversation demonstrates a weakness primarily in language use rather than language form.

True

Briefly define the difference between receptive and expressive language.

Receptive language refers to the ability to understand language input (e.g., listening or reading),

whereas expressive language refers to the ability to produce language output (e.g., speaking or writing)

Which of the following best distinguishes developmental language disorders from acquired language disorders?

Age at which language difficulties first appear

A 10-year-old child developed typical language skills but lost expressive

and receptive language abilities following a traumatic brain injury. This pattern is most consistent with:

Acquired language disorder

Genetic and chromosomal conditions can contribute to developmental language disorders.

True

A child with language delays due to prenatal alcohol exposure should always

be classified as having an acquired language disorder.

False

Name two causes of developmental language disorders and one cause of acquired language disorders

Developmental causes may include genetic/chromosomal syndromes (e.g., Down syndrome), prenatal environmental exposures (e.g., alcohol), or unknown factors (e.g., DLD). Acquired causes may include stroke or traumatic brain injury.

Which of the following is considered a language difference rather than a language disorder?

Use of code-switching in bilingual speakers

A 5-year-old sequential bilingual child recently exposed to English speaks very little in the classroom but demonstrates age-appropriate comprehension and strong skills in the home language. This pattern most likely reflects:

Typical second-language development

Socioeconomic status directly determines a child’s language ability.

False

A child who uses features of African American English in school should

be identified as having a language disorder if standardized test scores are low.

False

Name two typical characteristics of bilingual language development and briefly

explain why they should not be considered signs of language disorder

Examples include silent period, code-switching, translanguaging, or uneven proficiency across languages. These patterns reflect normal bilingual language use and adaptation to context rather than impairment.

Which cognitive weakness is most strongly associated with syntactic difficulties in children with Down syndrome?

Auditory short-term memory limitations

Jason, a 7-year-old with Down syndrome, produces many familiar nouns

but frequently omits tense markers (e.g., Yesterday I go park). Which underlying factor best explains this pattern?

Weak auditory short-term memory

Children with Williams syndrome typically show stronger auditory verbal memory

than visuospatial processing, which supports relatively strong vocabulary learning.

True

A child with Down syndrome and chronic otitis media is at greater risk for delayed syntactic development due to reduced auditory access interacting with cognitive memory limitations.

True

Name two cognitive characteristics commonly observed in children with Down syndrome and briefly explain how one of these characteristics affects language development.

Weakness in auditory short-term (phonological) memory

• Attention regulation difficulties

Link to language (one example required):

• Weak auditory short-term memory limits the ability to hold phonological and sentence-level

information, which negatively affects word learning and syntactic development

Which cognitive deficit is most consistently associated with language difficulties in children with

FASD?

Attention and executive function deficits

A 6-year-old child with prenatal alcohol exposure tells fragmented stories and frequently goes off topic in conversation. Which underlying deficit best explains this language profile?

Executive function and attention weaknesses

Children with FASD may have significant language impairments even in the absence of characteristic facial features.

True

Name three language or cognitive characteristics commonly associated with children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).

Examples include: (1) attention regulation difficulties, (2) executive function deficits, (3) memory impairments, (4) reduced syntactic complexity, (5) pragmatic and narrative discourse difficulties