Lang delays, disorders in children 0-5y/o

Aetiology

Clear anatomical, physio, neuro cause

eg. ASD, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, GDD, acquired brain injury (TBI is secondary to underlying cause, stroke)

Organic, secondary

Majority have no known cause

Functional, primary

Receptive vs. expressive

Receptive

Expressive

Difficulty in comprehension, unds

To test: following step commands

Difficulty in production lang: vocab, grammar, sequencing

Roth & Worthington (2011)

Lang model

Content

Form

Use

Semantics, semantic r/s, vocab. 8m infants dev. intentionally in communication, thru gestures. Vocab: indv's personal dictionary of words and meanings=lexicon

Syntax (very rule governed), sentence structures (simple, compound, complex)

Pragmatics, convey to diff audience, purpose of communication

Also interaction of these areas

Morpho (prefixes, suffixes)- smallest meaningful unit in lang. Free, bound morpheme. Children have diff unds of what each type of morpheme is. Brown's 14 morphemes

Phon (sound system of lang)

Types

Fast, initial mapping: able to acquire new words quickly, w limited meanings, from limited exposure, one way children's vocab grows so quickly, quick incidental learning

Underextensions: child's defn is too restrictive, more limited than in adult use. Only the child's cup

Overextensions: defn too broad, beyond acceptable adult usage. Daddy=all men. Want to reduction in use by 2.5 years

12m: produces >5 words (starting to use first words)

18m: 10-20 words, hoping to see approx 50w to begin using 2 word combinations

2y/o: 50-200 words: want to hear verbs also

3y/o: 900-1200words

4 y/o: 1500-1600w

5 y/o: 2100-2200w

Primitive speech acts: make requests, protest, answer, repeat, label, greeting, practicing

showing feelings, emotions

take turns, use eye contact, initiate interactions

Definitions

Syntax: organisational rules specifying word order, sentence organisation

Morphology: Rule governing change in meaning at intra-word level

Phon: rules governing structure, distribution, sequencing of speech sound patterns

Semantics: meaning of words

Pragmatics: lang use in communication context eg. eye contact

Lang disorder:

Defn

disruption in form, use, content in isolation or combined. An impairment in comprehension and/or use of spoken, written and/or symbol system

May involve

Form of lang, content of lang and/or function of lang in communication in any combination.

Eg.autism, person may have strong semantic, know alot about dinosaurs.

Systems

Form

Wrong, omitted, over-generalised tense forms, plural

omitted aux verbs

comprehension of sentences is variable

wrong word order

reliance on short, simple sentences

Content

small, restricted vocab

word finding difficulties

using words in wrong place/context

using empty speech, non-specific

Use

Inappropriate eye contact (limited/avoids)

X turn-take

Use communication for restricted range of purposes

Terminology

lang disorder

DLD

language impairment

lang disability

lang learning disability

specific lang impairment

Prevalence

7.4% of children had lang disorder, much more freq cf. autism

Disorder vs. delay

Disorder: unusual patterns of maturing. Difficulties in areas of receptive, expressive lang which continue past 5 y/o

Delay: in early years, slowness in maturing, child will eventually catch up bcos they are still following typical course of dev

Lang delay

Defn

Prevalence

13.4% reported to have delayed expressive, receptive lang dev, determined by parent report

Children present with protracted dev of lang, follow typical course of dev, profiles match those of younger, typically dev children rather than chronologically matched peers

Late talkers

Prevalence

Defn

2;0: lang comprehension is normal, <50w in expressive vocab, not using word combi

Early lang in Victoria study: 19.7% children at 2;0

Red flags

1 year

X babbling, X response to name, X communication intent, gestures

2 years

X produce 2 word combi, X follow simple directions, X engage in play pretend, show frustration expressing needs

3 years

X have 50w

X produce 2 word phrase freq

X ask qns

Difficult time being unds by strangers most of time

X respond to yes/no qns

X combine several actions during play

4 years

X use 3-4 word phrases

X use grammatical endings

Repeats/echoes everything heard, little comprehension

X engage in pretend play

Extremely short attention span even for short activities

5 years

X ask several qns

Difficulty formulating sentences by word order omissions, confused word order, delete word endings

X retell simple story w sequence

X talk about past, future

X follow 3 stage commands

Impacts of lang difficulties

Social r/s

Literacy difficulties

Academic difficulties

Associated w behaviour problem

Assessments

Formal

Informal

Compare w normative, standardised sample,

Eg. parent-child interaction, lang sample

How is child communicating: joint visual attention, age appropriate eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, sounds, types of words, single words, word combi

Why is child communicating, play, parent-child interaction eg. Is parent doing nice waiting or just jumping in? Following child's lead? Does child have communication intent? Showing diff toys, making adults do sth for them.

Lang sampling

as impt component of clinical evaluation of children's lang abilities.

Goal: elicit sample of child's most mature lang and/or comm skills

Benefits: realistic interpretation of performance of linguistic capabilities, efficient and valid rationale for assessments of lang

Types

Conversation 1

Conversation 2

Play-based lang sample

W adult partner: rules of discourse eg. turn taking, topic maintenance, conversation repair

Narratives 1

More structured, story telling eg. picture, event, get them to watch model, retell

Narratives 2

Expository/procedural (acquired later in childhood thru adolescence) eg. steps in how you get ready for school. Need to think what is age appropriate for child

Gathering, transcribing