comm. disorders
Childhood Language Impairments
Language impairments are a complex group of diverse disorders and delays with a wide range of features, levels of severity, and causes
Language impairment– development and/or required disorders and/or delays includes deficits and/or immaturities in the use of spoken or written language
In comprehension or production
Language impairments may involve form content function of language in any combination
Language differences found in dialectal speakers and in individuals with limited English proficiency, learning English as a second language are not considered to be impairments
To understand language impairments, it is important to understand why typical language development involves
Soon after birth infants become responsive to caregiver’s voices and faces
As early as 2 weeks, infants are able to distinguish caregivers from strangers
To maintain attention, caregivers exaggerate facial expressions and voice and vocalize more often
For some children with communicative impairments, the caregiver-child interaction is disrupted
e.g., a child with mental retardation or autism might not respond in the expected manner
Adults’ interactions with infants are important
Turn taking by adults benefits infant sound making
Babbling becomes more speech-like and mature, containing syllables instead of just sounds
Eye gaze is very important –infants are more likely to begin and to continue looking if caregivers are looking at them
During the first three months, children learn the signal value of specific behaviors(i.e., stimulus –response sequence)
For e.g., crying (stimulus) leads to a response (bottle)
By 3-4 months, rituals and game playing emerge
Rituals such as feeding and diaper changing provide children with predictable patterns of behavior and speech
Games such as “peakaboo” and “I am gonnaget you” are rich in communication
They include exchange of turns, rules for each turn, and slots for words and
Language impairments are a complex group of diverse disorders and delays with a wide range of features, levels of severity, and causes
Language impairment– development and/or required disorders and/or delays includes deficits and/or immaturities in the use of spoken or written language
In comprehension or production
Language impairments may involve form content function of language in any combination
Language differences found in dialectal speakers and in individuals with limited English proficiency, learning English as a second language are not considered to be impairments
To understand language impairments, it is important to understand why typical language development involves
Soon after birth infants become responsive to caregiver’s voices and faces
As early as 2 weeks, infants are able to distinguish caregivers from strangers
To maintain attention, caregivers exaggerate facial expressions and voice and vocalize more often
For some children with communicative impairments, the caregiver-child interaction is disrupted
e.g., a child with mental retardation or autism might not respond in the expected manner
Adults’ interactions with infants are important
Turn taking by adults benefits infant sound making
Babbling becomes more speech-like and mature, containing syllables instead of just sounds
Eye gaze is very important –infants are more likely to begin and to continue looking if caregivers are looking at them
During the first three months, children learn the signal value of specific behaviors(i.e., stimulus –response sequence)
For e.g., crying (stimulus) leads to a response (bottle)
By 3-4 months, rituals and game playing emerge
Rituals such as feeding and diaper changing provide children with predictable patterns of behavior and speech
Games such as “peakaboo” and “I am gonnaget you” are rich in communication
They include exchange of turns, rules for each turn, and slots for words and