Adolescent Language Disorders

Question 1

General info on language disorders in adolescents

Answer 1

•Language problems can affect personal relationships, academic
success, choice of vocational and professional careers, and
subsequent earning power.

•Language difficulties are also a risk factor in behavioral problems which may lead to school expulsion/exclusion.

Question 2

General info cont.

Answer 2

•Undereducation and underemployment are common outcomes of alanguage impairment.
•At high risk for leaving school before earning a full high school diploma –about 1/3 of those with speech or language impairment and 36% of thosewith specific learning disabilities.
•These individuals have difficulty finding long-term gainful employment are
more likely associated with juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse and youth suicide.
•Students with SLD were almost four times more likely to be arrested thanother students with disabilities.
•Students with poor social and/or personal adjustment were 2.3 times morelikely to be arrested than other students with disabilities.
•Students with disabilities who left school without graduating were almostsix times more likely to be arrested than other students with disabilities.

Question 3

Service Delivery Model

Answer 3

•Traditional service delivery, such as the pullout model, are not
effective if used as the sole intervention approach.
•Usual daily schedule is disrupted
•Walking in and out of classrooms is going against social conformity.
•Intervention can be viewed as punitive as adolescents receive no credit for work that me be difficult for them.
•One to one intervention fails to promote communicative interactions.
•Close collaboration and consultation among professionals is essential.
•Deliver language intervention in the classroom with SLP as teacher,
planned as a part of their day.

Question 4

Teaching Strategies for adolescents

Answer 4

•Direct Teaching: Adolescents with language impairments have not
learned a great deal of language, a great deal about how to learn, and
a great deal about how to use their language to learn; they have to be taught these things directly.

Question 5

Teachinf Strat Cont.

Answer 5

•Teach, expect, and reward self-activation and self-initiation in applying
strategies and skills and stress independent learning.
•Ensure overlearning and stabilization, plan for and build in redundancy, and
incorporate repetition in different situations. Build in regular monitoring
and checking of skills.
•Replace habituated guessing and response impulsivity with a strategy that
allows them to delay responding and provides for processing time.
•Employ concrete, hands-on activities to work on abstract “meta” tasks.
•Reduce information processing demands by keeping needed information in
the immediate environment.