6/1- Language Development Flashcards
Communication (def)?
Communication- sending and receiving information; requires active participation in sender and receiver.
- There are several ways by which we communicate (nonverbal, verbal, graphic)
Language (def)?
Language- arbitrary symbol system used to communicate thoughts and ideas
Examples of nonverbal communication?
- Social smile
- Eye gaze of infant
- Gesture
- Facial expressions
- Sign language (used by hearing impaired)
Components of verbal/oral/speech?
- Articulation
- Voice
- Fluency
- Language
What is articulation?
Production of speech sounds; interaction/motor movements of lips, tongue, hard and soft palate, teeth
What is voice?
Production of voice quality, pitch, volume, resonance
What is fluency?
Flow or smoothness of speech production
What is language?
Two divisions?
Rule-governed, generative
Two divisions/components:
- Receptive: input/understanding
- Expressive: output/speaking
Need to consider what within each component of language?
Content (semantics):
- Word meaning
- Vocab (dual definitions, variations, metaphorical meanings, and shades of meaning) Forms
- Syntactic (grammar of language; word arrgmt/order- makes a HUGE difference in meaning!)
- Morphologic (structure of word forms; rules that govern changes in word meaning- book vs. books)
Use/pragmatics
- ex) knowing how inflection/tone of voice indicates emotion
- ex) alternating turns in conversation
- ex) differentiating manner of talking/behaving with diff people
- ex) making eye contact
Examples of graphic/written language?
- Drawing
- Reading
- Writing (written language disorders are cognitive disorders; continuum of language, but also developmental)
Development of speech and language requires interaction between what?
Doesn’t require anything sophisticated or special!
Normal language development is interaction between intact mechanism (innate things) and favorable environment (partially learned); reciprocity
Intact mechanism
- Hearing sensitivity
- Motor skills
- Structural integrity
- Perception
- Intelligence
- Memory
- Attention
- Emotional status
- Ability to relate/interact
- General health
Favorable environment
- Stimulation/exposure
- Reinforcement
- Realistic expectations
Disruption in any one area can impede normal speech/language development
Disordered mechanisms in language?
- Hearing sensitivity:
- Motor skills:
- Structural integrity:
- Perception:
- Intelligence:
- Memory:
- Attention:
- Emotional status:
- Ability to relate or interact:
- General health:
- Hearing sensitivity: deafness, conductive hearing loss, otitis media
- Motor skills: needed to manipulate articulators, combine and sequence motor mvts
- Structural integrity: cleft palate, vocal fold abnormality; sucking, feeding, swallowing
- Perception: problems interpreting meaning of sounds (auditory or perceptual disorder)
- Intelligence: cognitive limitations interfere with learning and understanding concepts represented by words
- Memory: inability to learn sounds, sequences of sounds, vocab, grammar, syntax
- Attention: attention deficits interfere with following directions, receptive and expressive vocab development, general info
- Emotional status: anxiety, depression interfere with ability to receive, process information
- Ability to relate or interact: autistic spectrum
- General health: chronic illness interferes with response to stimulation
Sources of disordered environment (broad)?
- Stimulation/exposure
- Reinforcement
- Realistic expectations
Examples of disordered environments in terms of stimulation/exposure?
Does not depend on SES!!
- Failure to speak with, read to children
- Failure to expose to rich language and learning experiences (e.g. grocery store, gas station)
- Excessive, inappropriate stimulation (e.g. electronics) has become societal problem
- Effect of parents with language disorders
- Bilingual environments is NOT a disadvantage, with certain exceptions (if struggling to learn 1, best to wait for 2nd)
Examples of disordered environments in terms of reinforcement?
- Failure to reinforce sounds made in infancy
- Cooing and babbling
- Expanding language produced by child
Examples of disordered environments in terms of realistic expectations?
- Should reflect mechanism and age
- Inappropriate expectations can result in stuttering, anxiety selective mutism
Speech and language milestones: articulation?
Articulation = production of speech sounds (see appendix for development of specific phenomes)
- 2-3 yo: speech understandable to parents
- 3-4 yo speech: understandable to strangers Common articulation problems reduce intelligibility:
- Consonant substitutions
- Consonant omissions
- Reduction of consonant clusters: producing only one consonant
- Sound to mark a cluster
- Distortion of sounds: lisp
Speech and language milestones: fluency?
Children 3-5 go through period of “normal dysfluency” when language is rapidly developing and expanding
- Characterized by tension-free, whole word repetitions (“I see- I see- I see a bird”)
Stuttering- repetitions of prolongations that are struggled or tense (“Wh-wh-wh-who is it?”, “Shhhhe’s here”), blocks, pitch increases
Associated behaviors: eye blinking, head or body movement, avoidance
Speech and language milestones: language?
(See appendices for major milestones)
SEE SYLLABUS FOR MILESTONES birth - 5 yo
- Language development begins with differentiation of crying; continues throughout life
- Language (receptive and expressive) develops concurrently in several areas including semantic, syntactic, morphologic, pragmatic
- By 5-6 yrs, conversation may be adult-like, but subtle development continues, and reciprocity between oral and written language development (reading and writing) also occurs
Why do delays in language development have serious long-term consequences?
What are some of the possible resultant disorders?
Because language:
- contributes to abstract thinking
- allows a child to imagine, manipulate, create and share new ideas
- becomes a mental tool to create strategies for mastery of memory, feelings, problem solving
Children with significant speech/language disorders
- may have mental health issues
- are at high risk for learning disabilities and written language disorders
Etiology of communication disorders (broad)?
- Articulation
- Voice
- Fluency
- Language
Etiology of communication disorders: articulation?
- Neuromotor impairment (dysarthria)
- Difficulty with motor programming and sequencing of movements (apraxia)
- Phenological deficits (rule-based)
- Functional/developmental: hearing, impairment, cognitive limitations, structural abnormalities, environmental influences, deprivation, habituation
Etiology of communication disorders: voice?
- Polyps or nodules on vocal folds may be caused by vocal abuse (e.g. yelling, habitual throat-clearing)
- Structural anomalies (e.g. velopharyngeal insufficiency, cleft palate, large adenoids)
- Impairment of vocal folds
- Gastro-esophageal reflux
- Respiratory difficulties can affect loudness, pitch, quality
Etiology of communication disorders: fluency?
- Familial incidence
- Capacities and demands model: motor, language skills, cognitive development, emotional maturity not equal to demands of environment
