CSD 2230HUMAN COMMUNICATION

DISORDERS

Topic 6Language DisordersChildhood Disorders

Causes and Associated Disorders

Language Impairment

“A heterogeneous group of developmental and/or acquired disorders and/or delays principally characterized by deficits and/or immaturities in the use of spoken or written language for comprehension and/or production purposes that may involve the form, content, and/or function of language in any combination.”

Causes and Associated Disorders Important to Childhood Language

Disorders

Hearing Impairment

1. Language is learned through hearing2. Deafness reduces the amount of auditory

stimulation available to the child during the critical language learning period

3. All components of language can be affected

4. In general, the degree of hearing loss is related directly to the magnitude of the delay

Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities

Occurs in about 2.5% of the populationCharacteristics

1. substantial limitations in present, overall functioning2. significant sub average intellectual function

• Severity is based on IQ• Mild (52-68)• Moderate (36-51)• Severe (20-35)• Profound (below 20)

3. limitations in adaptive skills, communication, self-care, home living, social skills, community use, self-direction, health and safety, academics, leisure, and work

4. limitations apparent before adulthood

Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities

Causes:Biological

1. Genetic 2. Maternal infections3. Toxins4. Metabolic causes5. Problems before birth6. Complications during pregnancy7. Brain diseases acquired after birth

Social-environmental1. Stimulation deprivation2. Poverty—poor housing, poor medical care, poor

nutrition, poor hygiene

Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities

Some general characteristics of children with MR (mild-to-moderate degree):

Difficulty selecting which stimuli to attend to

Limitations in the ability to discriminate relevant cues

Organization and categorization of new information is impaired

Memory is much poorer than non-MR kids, especially short-term auditory memory

Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities

Specific language characteristics of MR:

1. Language impairments are their single most important limitation.

2. The differences in their language skills, compared to age-matched non-MR kids are qualitative and quantitative• Initially, their language characteristics are

normal but delayed• Utterances are shorter and less elaborate

3. In later years, the differences are more qualitative

Learning Disabilities

National Joint Committee on Learning Disability“a generic term that refers to a heterogeneous group

of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities. These disorders are intrinsic to the individual and are presumed to be due to CNS dysfunction. Even though a LD may occur with other handicapping conditions or environmental influences, it is not the direct result of those conditions or influences.”

Learning Disabilities

Different forms of learning disability1. Motor

Hyperactivity, problems attending and concentrating,hypoactivityattention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

2. AttentionShort attention spans, inattentiveness, excessive

distractibility, and perseveration

3. PerceptionProblems interpreting incoming stimuli, trouble integrating

information from a different sources, and dyslexia

4. MemoryProblems with short term and long term retrieval

Learning Disabilities

Specific language characteristics:

1. All aspects of language are usually affected2. Delayed in morphological rule acquisition

and in the development of syntactic complexity

3. Overall oral language develop may be slow4. Preschoolers exhibit little interest in books

and language

Specific Language Impairment

significant limitations in language functioning that can’t be attributed to hearing loss, problems with oral structure and functioning, IQ or perception deficits

Specific Language Impairment

Language characteristics:

The primary characteristic of these kids is language delay, but it’s not the only thing

Difficulty extracting regularities from the language around them

Difficulty registering different contexts for languageDifficulty constructing word referent associations for

vocabulary growthDifficulty with auditory processing

Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder

Autism is the most severe form of PDDAmerican Psychiatric Association defines

autism as an impairment in reciprocal social interaction with a severely limited behavior, interest, and activity repertoire that has its onset before 30 months of age

Likely causesBiological

65% have abnormal brain activity Anatomical brain differences Increased seretonin Prenatal complications, Fragile X syndrome, family

history

Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder

Autism is characterized by the following deficiencies:

1. Rate and sequence of the development of motor, social-adaptive and cognitive skills

2. Response to sensory stimuli3. Speech and language, cognition and

nonverbal communication4. Ability to relate to people, events, and

objects appropriately

Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder

Specific language characteristics:

1. Lack of communication development is usually the first indicator of the disorder

2. About 50% remain non-speaking3. Echolalia4. Pragmatics and semantics of language are

generally more disrupted than linguistic forms

Brain Injury

Causes: Traumatic brain injury Cerebrovascular accidents Congenital malformations Convulsive disorders Diseases of the brain

Brain Injury

Characteristics of kids with TBI1. Cognitive deficits

Perception, memory, reasoning, and problem solvingPermanent or temporaryPartially or totally affect functioning

2. Psychological deficits:Social disinhibition , lack of initiative, distractibilityInability to adapt quickly, perseveration, low frustration

levelsPassive-aggressiveness, anxiety, depressionFear of failure.

Brain Injury

Specific language characteristics

1. Pragmatic aspects of language are most affected

2. Lengthy, inappropriate, and off-topic utterances

3. Language comprehension is lacking4. Higher linguistic abilities affected

Early Expressive Language Delay

“Late Bloomers”No apparent etiologyLanguage characteristics:

1. Substantial delays in expressive language

2. Initially seen as delay in vocabulary development

3. Other linguistic forms fall behind in later years

Neglect and Abuse

Issues related to the poor development of early child language skills in these families

Poor maternal health Substance abuse Poor or nonexistent pediatric services Poor nutrition Physical abuse Poor mother-child bond

Specific lang characteristics:All aspects of lang are usually affected Less talkative, few conversational skillsLless likely to spontaneously enter into conversationreluctant to discuss emotions and feelings

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Accounts for 1 in every 500/600 birthsAt the extreme end of the condition:

Premature birth with low birth weight Central nervous system problems Hyperactivity Motor problems Attention deficit Cognitive problems

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Specific languages characteristics Delayed development spoken language Echolalia Profound comprehension problems Infants have few vocalizations, inappropriate

gestures and delayed language Preschoolers exhibit word retrieval

problems, short sentences, and inappropriate conversational skills

Older kids have problems with abstraction, multiple meanings of words, temporal and spatial terms, and reading

Some Examples of Childhood Language

DisordersCD ROM Ch.17.01 Errors of Language

FormThis segment shows a 5 year old girl

playing with cars. She is pretending to be a 15 year old boy learning to drive. She makes agreement errors as she interacts with the SPL. She also uses the general verb “get” rather than drive, which is a content-based error.

Some Examples of Childhood Language

DisordersCD ROM Ch.17.02 Content based expressive

difficultiesThis segment shows a 3 year old girl looking

through a “touch and feel” book. This child has some difficulty understanding the content of the book. Although she can understand language in context, she has difficulty understanding and expressing concepts such as color, descriptions and actions.

Some Examples of Childhood Language

DisordersCD ROM Ch.17.03 Content based expressive

difficultiesThis segment shows a 5 year old girl playing

with a giraffe and a doctor’s kit. This child uses nonspecific language. The toys are used as props that provide context for listener understanding. Children with content-bases difficulties often use more general language in interaction. There are several instances of this in this segment.

Some Examples of Childhood Language

DisordersCD ROM Ch.17.04 Expressive language

delayThis segment shows a 3 year old girl playing

with the SLP with food and dishes. She used very few words, typically one-word utterances. Notice though that she does understand quite a bit of contextualized language and demonstrates appropriate social pragmatic responses to adult requests (use).