elementary language learning difficulty Flashcards
What are the five language domains?
syntax, morphology, semantics, phonology, pragmatics
what are the three components of language?
form, content, use
what are the three levels of language?
sublexical, lexical, supralexical
What’s the role of phonology in spoken language?
Listening: Ability to identify and distinguish phonemes while listening (phonological awareness)
Speaking: appropriate use of phonological patterns while speaking
What’s the role of phonology in written language?
Reading: understanding of letter-sound associations while reading (phonics)
Writing: accurate spelling of words while writing
What’s the role of morphology in spoken language?
Listening: understanding morphemes while listening
speaking: using morphemes correctly when speaking
What’s the role of morphology in written language?
reading: understanding grammar while reading
writing: appropriate use of grammar while writing
What’s the role of syntax in spoken language?
listening: understanding sentence structure elements while listening
speaking: using correct sentence structure elements when speaking
What’s the role of syntax in written language?
Reading: understanding sentence structure while reading
Writing: using correct sentence structure when writing
What’s the role of semantics in spoken language?
Listening and speaking vocabulary
What’s the role of semantics in written language
reading and writing vocabulary
What is the relationship between language and literacy
literacy is a reflection of language skills. a child will not have stronger literacy skills than they have language skills.
Kids with language difficulties are at risk for what?
reading difficulties because language predicts literacy
What is the mathew effect?
the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Kids who start off with strong literacy skills learn more. Kids who have weak language/literacy skills miss out on a lot of learning, especially around third grade when you stop learning how to read and start reading to learn (Poor reading leads to poor reading as well as poor background knowledge, vocabulary, complex syntax, etc.)
Can instruction in spoken language have effects on written language?
Yes, and instruction on written language can generalize to spoken language
What is the SLP’s role in regards to literacy?
-screening
-prevention (language emergent literacy)
-assessment
-Working on spoken language – phonemic awareness, vocabulary, complex sentences, narrative, listening comprehension
-Working on written language – phonics, decoding, spelling, reading comprehension, writing
What are SLP’s indirect roles in regards to literacy?
-Collaborating with teachers and others on all aspects of language and literacy
-Advocating - for the client, for our role, for best practices
What are the 6 components of an effective reading intervention?
systematic and explicit instruction in
-phonemic awareness
-fluency
-phonics
-vocabulary
-reading comprehension strategies
-morphology
what are the reading development phases?
-Pre-alphabetic phase: Emergent readers
-Partial alphabetic phase: Early readers
-Full alphabetic phase
-consolidated alphabetic phase
-automatic phase
what is skilled reading?
fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension
What are the components of language comprehension?
-background knowledge
-vocabulary
-language structures
-verbal reasoning
-literacy knowledge
What are the components of word recognition?
-phonological awareness
-decoding
-sight recognition
what is the simple view of reading?
word recognition (decoding) x listening (language comprehension) = reading comprehension
Reading disabilities are broken into which two categories?
dyslexia, and language/environment based disabilities
What are at risk for struggling with reading disorders?
-family history
-speech/language impairment
-other disabilities
-low SES background
-English not primary language
Phonological awareness is
-Sensitivity to the sounds within the language.
-Very strong predictor of later reading skills.
-Common area of deficit in dyslexia.
-Very responsive to instruction, especially when paired with phonics.
Which poor reader subgroup has poor word recognition, but good listening comprehension
Dyslexia
Which poor reader subgroup has poor listening comprehension, but good word recognition
poor comprehenders
Which poor reader subgroup has poor word recognition and poor listening comprehension
Mixed RD (reading disorder)-
dyslexia and LLD (language learning deficit/disorder)
poor comprehenders struggle with which domains of language?
semantics, syntax, working memory, higher level language processing
which skills are measured in preschool, before formal reading instruction begins, that best predict word reading status (good vs. poor reader) at the of kindergarten:
Oral language (broad language - CELF-P)
Alphabet knowledge
Print concept knowledge
What is Dyslexia?
phonological deficits
-poor decoding/spelling
-nonfluent word recognition
Which skills are predictive of dyslexia?
-phonological skills
-letter identification
What components should be part of a reading screener?
-phonological processing
-non word repetition (short term verbal memory)
-Letter-sound/letter knowledge
-Rapid automatized naming
-Vocabulary
-Oral listening comprehension
-family history
-ses
phonological awareness can be assessed by
-rhyming
-first-sound matching
-blending
-elision (omission of sound or syllable)
phonological short term memory can be assessed by
non word repetition
Areas of Language to Assess in School-Age Children
Semantics (depth, not just number of words known)
Morphology (especially in early school age)
Syntax (complex sentences)
Discourse (story/text level): narrative and expository
Comprehension and production
Oral and written
Pragmatics/social
Metalinguistic awareness (to be discussed in our class on reading assessment)
Phonemic awareness
Morphological awareness
What does a dynamic assessment measure?
how a student responds to intervention and the difference between what the student can learn unaided, and what he or she can learn with assistance.
What are methods of dynamic assessment?
Graduated prompting, test-teach-retest, and testing the limits
What 3 purposes is the TILLS validated for?
1) Identify language/literacy disorder (core identification score; uses a cut-point)
2) Show patterns of relative strengths and weaknesses (all subtests and composites)
3) Track change over time (at least 6 months apart; change score - true change interval)
DLD leads to impairment in
phonology
morphology
syntax
semantics
discourse
pragmatics
In a dynamic assessment, what can you expect to see in a language difference vs. disorder
Dynamic assessment – word learning, morpheme learning, narratives
Children who show learning potential likely have a language difference; children who don’t change much and/or need more support (e.g., a lot of prompting and teaching) likely have disorder
What are good ways to assess word level semantics?
Depth – how well you know words and the connections/relations between them – use multiple, functional tasks. CELF-5, WORD test, others?
Synonyms, antonyms
Categories
Definitions
Similarities & differences, etc.
Word learning – fast mapping, also called quick incidental learning (see dynamic Ax examples on Leaders Project)
Word retrieval
Multiple meanings
Figurative language and humor
grammar is made up of what two components?
morphology and syntax
How do you assess morphosyntax?
Measure complexity
MLU – appropriate for younger children
T-units – appropriate for school-aged children – defined as a “main clause plus any subordinate clause or nonclausal structure that is attached to or embedded in it”
What areas are assessed in discourse level?
Language sample analysis
Narrative assessment
Comprehension
Pragmatics and social communication assessment
Narrative assessments look at
Production (generation or retell) and comprehension
Oral and written
Macrostructure
Microstructure
Language productivity
story grammar elements are
Character
Setting
Episode
Ending
Episodic complexity/number of episodes
Informativeness
(can vary with culture!!)
Episode structure includes
Initiating Event (e.g., Problem)
Internal Response (Feeling)
Plan/Attempt (Goal Directed Action)
Consequence
Resolution (Ending)
Reaction (End Feeling)
A minimally complete episode includes
Initiating Event
Attempt
Consequence
what are the types of narratives?
Descriptive sequence
Action sequence
Reactive sequence
Abbreviated episode
Complete episode
Complex episode
Multiple sequential episodes
The components of microstructure are
Cohesion
Conjunctions
Coordinating: and, but so,
Adverbial: next, later, therefore, etc.
Pronouns / referential cohesion
Sentence structure complexity
Simple, elaborated (noun and verb phrases), compound, complex
Lexical diversity and complexity
2 narrative tests are
CUBED – NLM-listening and reading – benchmark and progress monitoring
Narratives are a great way to monitor children’s progress in language – see Petersen & Spencer tutorial (2014)
Uses some dynamic procedures (also, note DYMOND)
SLAM cards and scoring
What skill is a proxy for reading comprehension and can be treated early by SLP’s to prevent future reading disorders?
Listening comprehension
Name 5 higher level language skills
Inference – including causal inferences
Comprehension monitoring and detecting inconsistencies
Integrating background knowledge (essential for both of the above)
Figurative language – idioms, analogies, metaphors
Text structure
what are the types of expository texts?
-descriptive
-sequence/procedural
-cause/effect
-problem/solution
-compare/contrast
-enumerative
what’s the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness?
Phonological Awareness is the ability to consciously analyze, identify and manipulate (blend, segment, delete, add, substitute, sequence) units of sounds (syllables, onset-rimes, phonemes) of a spoken language.
Phonemic Awareness is the ability to consciously analyze, identify and manipulate (blend, segment, delete, add, substitute, sequence) the smallest units of speech sounds within a word that differentiate meaning: It is the ability to consciously identify and manipulate the phonemes of a spoken language.
Name 5 phonological skills that are predictive of reading and beneficial intervention targets.
-word recognition
-responsiveness to rhyme and alliteration during word play
-syllable awareness
-onset and rime manipulation
-phoneme awareness
name 5 phonological skills and the order in which they normally develop
Identification
Elision/deletion
Segmenting (segment all individual phonemes in a word)
Blending
Advanced manipulation (e.g., substitute, delete, add, sequence)
Develops from larger to smaller phonological units (words, syllables, onset-rime, phonemes) – also referred to as shallow and deep PA
Longer words are harder; consonant clusters are harder; manipulations in the middle of words are harder
prefixes, suffixes, and connecting vowel letters are examples of what type of morpheme?
Bound
Inflectional suffixes
signal grammatical function, of tense, number, possession, comparison. They do not change grammatical class or meaning of a word.
Only 8: plural -s, possessive –s, present tense –s, past tense –ed, past participle –en, present participle –ing, comparative -er, superlative –est.
Derivational suffixes
have some lexical meaning; change the grammatical class of a word
Can form nouns (happiness, education), verbs (visualize, simplify), adjectives (dangerous, windy), or adverbs (quickly)
Which of the 5 language domains is most predictive of literacy skills?
Morphology since it integrates decoding, meaning, and encoding
Morphology draws from what three components of word recognition?
semantics, orthography, and phonology
What are four types of morphology assessment tasks?
Judgment
Require students to make decisions, without manipulating the structure of the word or set of words, by applying their morphological knowledge (Kirby et al., 2012)
Production
Tests a student’s ability to spell words by applying knowledge of morphology and morphological rules
Decomposition
Students must identify the correct base of a given derivation or inflection
Production & Decomposition
Students are required to combine multiple components of morphological awareness
True or false teaching spelling can improve reading
True
Which type of spelling error has incorrect number or sequence of phonemes represented (omission, addition, wrong order)
sop for stop; flod for fold
PA
Which type of spelling error has unacceptable letter pattern (phoneme spelled ‘illegally’, or spelling pattern not followed – e.g., within word doubling, long vowels)
kit for kite; sdop for stop
OPA (orthographic pattern)
Which type of spelling error has acceptable or ‘legal’ spelling but not correct for that word (phonetically correct spelling)
berd for bird; ritch for rich
MGR (morphographemic?)
which type of spelling error has word is misspelled based on meaning (e.g., homophones)
team for teem; to for too
SEM (semantic)
RAISE is an acronym for areas of therapeutic focus in literacy intervention. What does it stand for?
-Repeated opportunities
-Attention and engagement
-Intensity
-systematic support
-Explicit skill focus
school age language therapy should
-Should be meaningful ( = contextualized = curriculum-based, for educational success)
-Targets (skills), techniques, and activities that matter for school
-Students should know the purpose of the activity – how it connects to school
-You will choose specific skills to target in therapy, and you may work on compensating for other skill weaknesses
What is tier 1 vocabulary?
Basic words; used orally every day; rarely require explicit instruction
What is tier 2 vocabulary?
Words that frequently appear in text but are not commonly used in spoken language; common across subject areas
What is tier 3 vocabulary?
Words that are domain-specific; closely tied to content knowledge; occur in a single subject area
