Exam 1 (ch. 1, 2, 3, part of 5) Flashcards
What is the Normativist position?
“normal”/regular people in child’s environment notice, social/academic limitations, focus on the impact the language impairment has on the child’s overall development and every day functioning, societies values/expectations are taken into consideration
When should language impairment be diagnosed according to the Normativist position?
when the level of impairment interferes with every day social expectations
What is the Neutralist/Naturalist position?
based on comparative results with peers (standards), helpful because it covers broad language behaviors, but does not help with deciding what differences in language behavior are considered to be at the level of impairment needing intervention
Which position, Normativist or Neutralist is more ecologically valid?
There is little consensus between the two perspectives
Explain language differences as opposed to language impairments.
Difference - a rule-goverened language style that deviates in some way from the standard usage of the mainstream culture, does not necessarily require treatment but we do need to know about it
Impairment - significant incongruity in language skills from what would be expected for a client’s age, or developmental level, significant language deficit in relation to the environmental expectations
What are the Pros/Cons of discrepancy-based criteria? (cognitive referencing)
PROS:
-Mental age still provides guidelines to help in determining the goals for intervention (what behaviors are reasonable to target)
CONS:
- Uneven profiles of language skill and deficit
- The majority of non-verbal tests incorporate verbal directions and many linguistically able children use verbal strategies to help them reason out the answers
- Puts children with DLD at a disadvantage
- The degree of discrepancy between verbal and non-verbal abilities doesn’t necessarily predict a child’s responsiveness to intervention
- Some have cut-off scores limiting access to children who may need intervention
Why is World Health Organization’s “people first” language important?
because it looks at the individual as a whole - looking at how the disorder impact everyday well-being (body function, body structure, activities, participation, and contextual factors/environment)
According to the WHO ICF human functioning is expressed in body functions, structures, activities, and participation. How is that a different focus from terms such as disability, impairment, and handicap?
Disability, impairment, and handicap focus on the negative “problem” aspect of the person’s disorder whereas the ICF model looks at the person as a whole and how the disorder affects their daily life.
If the problem is neurologically based, can we do much to shape development and influence outcome?
Yes, because the environment has been found to have a strong influence in genetic expression and neurobiological development. So, intervention can be considered as a powerful environmental tool that can shape development and positively influence behavioral outcomes.
What is the current thinking about comorbidity of DLD and ASD?
- Overlap in structural language (vocal/grammar)
- Children w/ DLD more likely than children w/ ASD to have impairments in speech production
- Demonstrated that articulation deficits are rare in children with ASD
- Language of children with ASD is more likely characterized by unusual features that would not be regarded as typical at any age
- Pragmatic skills in ASD are universally impaired, while DLD are more variable (DLD enjoys social interactions, seeks friendships, wants to communicate)
- Many children present with a symptom profile that doesn’t align with either disorder
- Children with ASD and DLD appear to have significant impairments in language comprehension (“double deficit”)
What is the current thinking about comorbidity of Language Learning Disabilities and DLD?
- Reading skills requires reading accuracy (ability to decode words) and reading comprehension (understanding decoded text)
- Majority of children with dyslexia have phonological processing difficulties that disrupt their decoding abilities
- Studies have found that 50% of children identified as having a specific reading disability also met the criteria for DLD and similar percentage of children identified as having DLD achieved significantly low scores on a measure of reading accuracy
- DLD places children at a greatly increased risk for reading impairments
- Behavioral overlap between reading disorders and DLD (possibly symptoms of the same disorder, representing points on a continuum of severity)
- Severity of language impairment does not necessarily predict severity of reading
- Evidence for consistent overlap between DLD and reading disorders at the biological/genetic level is lacking
What are the tenents out of which the “descriptive developmental” model for assessment/treatment grow?
- Role of etiology in developing assessment/intervention for children with DLD (detailed description of child’s current language function)
- Detail the child’s language skills themselves than to have extensive information on memory, auditory perception or perceptual-motor abilities or skills typically tested (work directly on the language forms/functions)
- Determine where the child is in the sequence of normal development and what the next phase of normal development for that form/function would be (use the normal sequence as a guide to intervention)
In the client history and interview, what are some critical items to consider?
- Sensitive interviewing require mutual respect
- Case history should highlight the family’s major concerns
- Pre-, peri-, or postnatal risk factors that may affect language development and any family history of speech, language, and literacy difficulties
- The interview should also be a way to find out from parents: clear examples of child’s communicative attempts, how the child communicates, with whom the child communicates, and what he or she does when communication fails.
What is the purpose of screening?
to identify children at risk for speech or language impairment, if more extensive assessment will be needed
What is the purpose of baseline assessment?
to find out not only the areas in which the child is experiencing difficulty but also the areas in which the child is functioning well
How might low structured observation help in setting up an assessment plan?
provides the clinician with a working hypothesis of the nature and severity of the child’s language impairment
(expressive, comprehension, and pragmatic/social abilities)
What does assessment of social functioning include?
- Influence on daily living
- Effects on emotional adjustment and behavior
- Family perception of child’s needs and their priorities
- Family strengths and needs
- Cultural and linguistic differences home/school
What are Developmental Scales and how are these different from standardized tests?
- Interview or observational instruments that sample the behaviors from a particular developmental period
- Can’t compare with typical because they are not fully standardized
What is the purpose of criterion-referenced procedure?
- To determine whether the child can attain a certain level of performance (compare the child with themselves)
- Establish baseline function and identity targets for intervention by finding out precisely what the child can and cannot do with language
What are some considerations for use of criterion referenced procedures in assessing comprehension?
- Avoiding over-interpretation
- Controlling Linguistic Stimuli
- Specifying an Appropriate Response
What are 3 approaches using criterion-referenced procedures in assessing production?
- Elicited imitation
- Elicited production
- Structural analysis
What is dynamic assessment?
manipulate context in order to support the child’s performance so that an optimal level of achievement can be identified
What is functional assessment?
designed to measure those impacts in a structural way, and may also gather information about the contextual factors that support or hinder the child’s communicative progress
Curriculum-based assessment?
to effectively assess curriculum based language use and may be more sensitive to tracking the progress of student from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
Describe a “hard to test” child.
-Usually means the child does not respond to standardized test Children who are: 1. Extremely shy/quiet 2. Non-compliant 3. Hyperactive and impulsive 4. Physical handicaps
What might help to obtain information from/about these (hard to test) children?
- Using criterion-referenced and behavioral observation (this way it can be adapted to the needs/interests of the child)
- To note that something can be learned about every child with a communication problem, even if standardized testing does not seem the most fruitful douce of information
