Ch. 4: Language Disorders in Children Flashcards
Specific Language Impairment (SLI)/Language-Learning Disability (LLD)
Language disorders in children who are otherwise typically developing. Impairment is specific only to language. No known etiology or association. Often associated with speech sound problems. Often late talkers with a slow rate of vocabulary acquisition. Often demonstrate overextension, underextension, and word-finding problems.
Overextension
E.g., calling all adult males “Daddy”
Underextension
E.g., a child may only call the family pet “dog” and fail to use the term for other dogs
Intellectual Disability
Characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. The disability originates before the age of 18. A diagnosis is based on subaverage IQ scores. Limited communication skills is a significant feature.
Autism Spectrum Disorder/Pervasive Developmental Disorder
Diagnostic criteria includes impaired social interaction, disturbed communication, and stereotypic patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. Typically diagnosed before age 3. Characterized by generally below-average intelligence, lack of responsiveness to and awareness of other people, preference for solitude and objects rather than people, lack of interest in nonverbal and verbal communication, stereotypic body movements such as constant rocking, insistence on routines and strong dislike of change, dislike of being touched or held, self-injurious behaviors such as head banging, unusual talent in some area, seizures (in 25% of children), and hypo- or hypersensitivity to sensory stimulation.
Focal Injury
Injury restricted to one area of the brain.
Diffuse Injury
Injury to the brain that is widespread and involves multiple areas.
Cerebral Palsy
A disorder of early childhood in which the immature nervous system is affected. This results is muscular incoordination and associated problems. Associated problems may invude orthopedic abnormalities, seizures, feeding difficulties, hearing loss, perceptual disturbances, and intellectual deficits, however not all children with the disorder have these problems. Not a progressive disease and generally occurs following a brain injury.
Prenatal Brain Injury
Injury to the brain of a fetus due to maternal rubella, mumps, accidents, or other factors.
Perinatal Brain Injury
Brain injury due to difficulties in the birth process such as prolonged labor, prematurity, or breech delivery.
Postnatal Brain Injury
Brain injury due to anoxia, accidents, infections, and diseases such as scarlet fever and meningitis.
Hemiplegia
One side of the body is paralyzed.
Paraplegia
Only the legs and lower trunk are paralyzed.
Monoplegia
Only one limb (or part of that limb) are paralyzed.
Diplegia
Either two legs or two arms are paralyzed.
Quadriplegia
All four limbs are paralyzed.
Ataxic CP
CP which involves disturbed balance, awkward gate, and uncoordinated movements (due to cerebellar damage).
Athetoid CP
CP which is characterized by slow, writhing, involuntary movements (due to damage to the indirect motor pathways, especially the basal ganglia).
Spastic CP
CP which involves increased spasticity (increased tone, rigidity of the muscles) as well as stiff, abrupt, jerky, slow movements (due to damage to the motor cortex or direct motor pathways).
NA
Neglect and abuse.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
A pattern of mental, physical, and behavioral defects that develop in infants born to some women who drink heavily during the pregnancy. A leading cause of intellectual disabilities in the Western world. Characterized by pre- and postnatal growth problems, microcephaly, CNS dysfunction, abnormal craniofacial features, malformations of major organ systems, behavior problems, hyperactivity, ADD, poor play and social skills, learning and academic problems, poor reading and writing skills, speech problems and articulation delay, swallowing problems, impaired sucking at birth, language delay, cognitive problems (reasoning, memory, learning), auditory processing problems, and hearing problems.
Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE)
Signs that have been linked to the mother’s drinking during pregnancy. E.g., mild physical and cognitive deficits
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Manifests in language and auditory processing problems. Children have chronic difficulties in the areas of impulsivity, attention, and overactivity to a degree inappropriate to their age and developmental level. Children are more likely to receive lower grades in academic subjects and over half of children with this disorder will fail at least one grade by adolescence. Children tend to experience the most difficulty in auditory processing and social interaction skills.
Language Sampling
A measure of communication skills is vital to a diagnosis of language disorders in children. This is a procedure of recording a student’s language under relatively typical, and appropriate for the client, conditions, which usually involve conversation.
Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)
Number of morphemes / Number of utterances. Allows the clinician to identify the presence or absence of Brown’s 14 grammatical morphemes.
Type-Token Ratio (TTR)
Number of different words in sample / Number of words in sample. Represents the variety of different words the child uses expressively, thus assessing the child’s semantic or lexical skills.
P.L. 99-457 Preschool Amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act of 1986
Public law that provided incentives at the state and federal levels for SLPs to identify and treat infants and toddlers with established risk of language disorders or who experience conditions that put them at risk for developing language disorders.
Factors in Established Risk of Developing Language Disorders
Factors include congenital malformations, genetic syndromes, atypical developmental disorders, sensory disorders, neurological disorders, metabolic disorders, chronic illnesses, severe infectious diseases, and severe toxic exposure.
Factors putting children At Risk for Language Disorders
Factors include serious prenatal and natal complications, early signs of behavior disorders, child’s tendency toward frequent and unusual accidents, chronic middle ear infections, family history of predisposing genetic or medical conditions, chronic or severe physical illness, mental illness or intellectual disabilities in the primary caregiver or both parents, serious questions raised by a professional, parent, or caregiver about the child’s development, chronically dysfunctional interaction between members of the family, caregiver or parental substance abuse, history of substance abuse, parental education below 9th grade, parental unemployment, chronic welfare dependency, isolation of the child or separation of the child from the primary caregiver or parent, unstable or dangerous living conditions (e.g., homelessness), and lack of health insurance, poor family health care, or inadequate prenatal care.
