4710 Language Disorders in Children MIDTERM

Language Disorder

Impaired comprehension and/or use of spoken, written, and/or other symbol systems.

Form of Language

phonology, morphology, syntax

Content of Language

semantics

Function of Language

pragmatics

Language Delay

Lag in language emergence, “late talker”, some will catch up on their own or with intervention, or some will never catch up

Language Difference

variation of symbol system, reflects shared, regional, social, or cultural/ethnic factrs

Behaviorist Theory

learning occurs when an environmental stimulus triggers a response or behavior

when we reward or punish behaviors, we can increase positive behaviors or decrease negative behaviors

Implications of Behaviorist Theory

Drill and DTT (Discrete Trial Training), focus on discrete, isolated aspects of language, focus on observable, measurable behaviors and

Constructivist Theory

based on how children think, reason, problem-solve, and sequence of progressively sophisticated cognitive skills (Primative→advanced)

Which Theory states that children actively contribute to the language learning process?

Constructivist Theory

Social Interactionist Theory

Language is a means of making social connections and communicating ideas, children construct their own knowledge, but cognitive development is socially mediated

Zone of Proximal Development - what is it and which theory does it belong to?

Social Interactionist Theory

what a child can do with minimal assistance

Implications of Social Interactionist Theory

much of assessment and intervention is based on this theory, encourages pactitioners to incorporate caregivers into intervention programs

Emergentist Theory

Language learning is an interconnected system, involves more than genetics or environement, child must be actively engaged in environment

Which theory states that a child’s biology adapts to his or her environment?

Emergentist Theory

What are the 5 subdomains of Form, Content, Use?

1. Early Pragmatics

2. vocabulary

3. multiple-word combinations

4. morphosyntax

5. discourse

Early Pragmatics - 5 subdomains of form, content use

aka prelinguistic communication, pre-intentional, and intentional (9-10 months)

Vocabulary - 5 subdomains of form, content use

first words (around 1 year), continues to grow and advance

Multiple-Word Combinations - 5 subdomains of form, content use

child has about 50 words and starts combining (around 18-24 months)

Morphosyntax - 5 subdomains of form, content use

emergence of syntax and morphemes (24-36 months)

Implications For Educators

Development can’t be….

taught, only supported

Implications For Educators

Exposure promotes but…

does not speed up development

Implications For Educators

A child’s level of thinking impacts/limits how and what…

they are capable of learning

Learning

occurs when a child applies the developmental skills they have to acwuite new function/pre-academic/academic skills

Development

Occurs when a child acquires a new cognitive skill (ex; imitation) or a more advanced level of thinking/reasoning

Piaget’s Stages of Development - what are the 4, pus ages

1. Sensorimotor: birth-24 months

2. pre-operational: 2-7years

3. concrete operational: 7-11 years

4. formal operations: 11+ years

Important Early Milestones (8)

1. Intent 9-10 months

2. Joint Attention 10-12 months

3. First Words 12months

4. object permeance 18-24 months

5. delayed imitation 18-24 months

6. word combinations 18-24 months

7. Symbolic Attachment 2-4 years

8. emergence of morphology and syntax 2-3 years

IJF ODW SE

5 Principles of Language is Predictable 1

development is….

predictable

5 Principles of Language is Predictable 2

developmental milestones are attained at…

or about the same age in most children

5 Principles of Language is Predictable 3

developmental opportunity is…

needed

5 Principles of Language is Predictable 4

children go through

developmental phases or periods

5 Principles of Language is Predictable 5

Individuals…

differ greatly

Phonology

speech sounds

Lexicon

vocab

Semenatics

meaning of words

Morphology

parts of words

Syntax

sentences

Pragmatics

use

Sub Domain 1: Early Pragmatic Skills

Prelinguistic Communication

0-8 months, pre-intentional, become intentional around 9-10 months but still prelinguistic

Sub Domain 1: Early Pragmatic Skills

Joint Visual Attention (JVA)

10-12 months, one of the first interactive communication acts

Sub Domain 1: Early Pragmatic Skills

Early Pragmatic Functions

8-15 months - requesting objects/activities, refusal, comments

16-23 months - requesting info, answering questions, acknowledging a response

Sub Domain 1: Early Pragmatic Skills

Early Discourse Skills

begins in preschool, initiating a convo, taking turns during a conversation, maintaining an ongoing topic, conversational topic switching, making conversational repairs, code switching,

Subdomain 2: Vocabulary Development

begins towards end of 1st year and continues to develop throughout ones life, first words typically produced around 12 months, by 2 years children typically produce 200-500 words and understand more words than they can produce

Subdomain 3: Multiple Word Combinations

Begin to emerge when?

after approx 50 individual words, around 18-24 months

Subdomain 3: Multiple Word Combinations

children create combinations of words by…

naming objects/people of interest

stating the actions of objects or people performing

Describing the object/person’s characteristic

describing who owns or possesses the object

Subdomain 4: Morphosyntax

occurs when?

24-36 months

Subdomain 4: Morphosyntax

childrens utternces begin to demonstrate characteristics of syntax and morphological development

What are the 2 types of morphemes

Free & Bound

This type of morpheme can stand alone, convey meaning and form words or parts of words

free morpheme

This type of morpheme must be attached to a free morpheme in order to be meaningful

ex; -s,-ed,-ing,un-,in-

bound morpheme

A measure of utterance length based on the average number of free and bound morphemes contained in a designated set of spontaneously produced utterances

MLU - Mean Length of Utterances

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

He eating

present progressive, stage 2, 27-30months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

Juice in cup

preposition in, stage 2, 27-30months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

Sleep on bed

preposition on, stage 2, 27-30months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

My toys

regular plural inflection, stage 2, 27-30months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

I ate cookie

past irregular, stage 2, 27-30months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

Mommy’s shoe

possessive inflection, stage 3, 31-34months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

“Here it is!” “This is mine”

uncontractible copula, stage 3, 31-34months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

“A boy took the ball” “A ball” “The ball”

Articles a/the, stage 3-5, 31-46months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

He walked fast

regular past tense, stage 5, 41-46months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

She bakes cake

regular third person singular, stage 5, 41-46months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

“He has some”, “Baby does patty cake”

irregular third person singular, stage 5, 41-46months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

“Is she reading?”, “Are you reading?”, “She was running”

uncontractible auxiliary, stage 5, 41-46months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

“Tommy’s tall”, “It’s tall”

contractible copula, stage 5, 41-46months

Brown’s Grammatical Morpheme

“She’s reading”, “Mommy’s crying”

contractible auxiliary, stage 5, 41-46months

Subdomain 5: Advanced Pragmatic & Discourse Development

occurs when?

3-7

Subdomain 5: Advanced Pragmatic & Discourse Development

includes ability to use language to…

reason and to reflect on past experiences

predict events, express empathy

maintain status and interactions with peers

use and understand sarcasm and politeness forms

code switch

Students engage in challenging behavior because….

it works for them

2 types of behavior students engage in

appropriate or challenging, whatever is easiest and gets their needs met most efficiently and effectively

Function of behavior

the purpose that the behavior serves

to get, obtain, have, or access something

to avoid, delay or escape something

Behavior Strategies - Proactive

environmental changes help reduce the occurrence of that behavior, what you do ahead of time to reduce or eliminate behavior

Behavior Strategies - Reactive

interventions used in the moment to end the problem behavior and keep the child, peers, and staff safe - what you do after

Behavior Supports - Reinforcements

a consequence that results in increasing or maintaining the future occurrence of the behavior it follows, upon demonstration of desired behavior, something is given or taken away (removal of undesired work)

Elements of Reinforcement

Reinforce desired behaviors rather than punishing undesired behaviors

frequency and immediacy of reinforcement

Reinforcement Rules - Reinforcing

should be chosen by the individual whose behavior you want to change

Reinforcement Rules - Contingent

reinforcers should only be available when the desired behavior occurs

becareful on letting reinforcers be accessed at times other than when the target behavior occurs, this can decrease the value of the reinforcer

Reinforcement Rules - Consistent

the more predictable the reinforcer, the more likely the target behavior will occur

Reinforcement Rules - varied

change it up, maintains the power of the reinforcer, reduces the likelihood of your student becoming bored by

Reinforcement Rules - Thinned

initially, reinforcement immediately provided everytime, overtime, the frequency and/or immediacy of the reinforcer should be decreased (thinned)

First/then contingency

requires student to complete a short task “first” “then” student immediately gets reinforcer

Token Economy

a system of contingency management based on the systematic reinforcement of target behavior. Reinforcers are symbols or tokens that can be exchanged for other reinforcers (preferred items or activities)

Behavior Supports - Transition Objects

an item that helps the student transition to a new area/activity

Behavior Supports - Work Systems

Ex; colored bins

visually organized activities that communicate what to do, how much to do, when the student is finished, what’s “next” after the student finishes their works

Behavior Supports - Structured Choices

opportunities to select order of instructional tasks and the preferred activities he engages in during breaks, grants students a sense of ownership,

Behavior Supports - Errorless Learning

occurs when the adult supports the student in completing a task that is too challenging or helps to correct error so he earns 100%, once they become proficient the level of support is faded

Behavior Supports - Interspersing Success-Level Activites “sandwiching”

sandwiching more difficult task between two success-level tasks

more socially acceptable forms of attention seeking

tapping shoulder, vocalizing, buzzer, raising hand

more socially acceptable forms of requesting

reaching, pointing, object choice, picture exchange,

more socially acceptable forms of rejecton

pushing away, all done bin, all done button

“Don’ts” of Assessment

DONT: just interpret, only consider standardized test assessments, solely rely on parent or teacher reports

“Do’s” of Assessment

collaborate with team members, think outside the box, incorporate reinforcement and behavior supports, assess over multiple days, analyze and interpret information

Assessment Tools - Norm Referenced

compare child to same aged-peers

snapshot of abilities at a point of time

average/below average

Assessment Tools - Criterion Referenced

child;s performance compared with pre-specified standard

items usually organized in developmental sequence

attempts to observe multiple example of a skill

reflects students mastery

Assessment Tools - Dynamic Assessment

process-orientated, not static

opportunities for instruction - not just testing and documenting correct/incorrect

Norm Referenced Assessment ADVANTAGES

guidelines are clear

psychometric properties lead to standard scores - to determine if below average

Norm Referenced Assessment DISADVANTAGES

administered in unfamiliar context usually

may not capture best performance

can over identify children from minority cultures

limited sample

rigid and rule-bound

Reliability

is almost free from errors and produces consistent results

Validity

it measures what it says it measures