Lecture 13 - Language Impairment Flashcards

1
Q

several conditions are related to difficulties in spoken language acquisition:

A
  • hearing impairment
  • intellectual impairments
  • autism/PDD
  • specific language impairment
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2
Q

hearing impairment

A

spoken language learning issues because they’re not getting language input

not an intellectual impairment!

  • 1 million kids in US, 90% to hearing parents
  • Most prelingually deaf (occasionally they’ll get an infection that causes them to lose hearing but mostly born deaf)
  • Trouble developing oral language (no auditory model to serve as a teaching signal: no representation of adult models)

• This cascades into difficulty in language
comprehension, reading

• Difficulty is usually related to how profound the hearing loss is

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3
Q

intellectual impairments

A

down syndrome, William’s syndrome

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4
Q

specific language impairment

A

not terribly well defined: diagnosis of exclusion:

can’t find anything other intellectually wrong with a child except they have a lot of trouble with language

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5
Q

a note of skepticism

things to keep in mind

A

particularly with respect to autism, symptoms could be made better but not curable

parents are very motivated to seek solutions, and there are plenty of people to take advantage of them for lots of money - insist on higher standards of evidence

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6
Q

evidence-based practice

A

if it really works, it should stand up to a simple t-test

should be scientifically tested with an experiment that shows a statistical significance at the end

wide range of autism treatments have not gone through this process

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7
Q

hearing impairment

can we just fix it?

some solutions

A
  • Not exactly.
  • sometimes hearing aids can be used
  • Cochlear implants (surgical) show some efficacy*
  • Just lip-read? Is not as easy as it sounds.
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8
Q

Cochlear implants

A

– take a bunch of electrodes and stick it into the cochlea and the electrodes directly stimulate different places along the auditory nerve: MAJOR surgery: work well with adults, because they’re already learned speech (can fairly readily start understanding things), but with kids it’s trickier (babies can’t communicate comprehension or what they’re struggling with)

 – Stimulate auditory nerve directly, past site of  problem 

 – Still not the same as actual speech input 

– See improvements in language skills, esp. if implanted young, but not like real hearing
• Still need lots of educational support

– controversial: insult or threat to signed language/signed culture
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9
Q

why not lip reading as a solution for hearing impairment?

A
  • Kids with residual hearing can have more success. The lips alone do not provide sufficient info to tell you what someone is saying (“olive juice” = “I love you”) = massive overlap of sounds that are different but look alike
  • Some sounds not visible (Ex.: /l/, /g/, /k/): can’t see what is going on
  • Some sounds look alike (/m/, /b/, /p/): what you see in places of articulation and duration
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10
Q

hearing impairment

phonology

A

– Not very intelligible, even with training

– CI: more intelligible, but still not great articulation

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11
Q

hearing impairment

language development, lexicon

A

– Reading skills, vocab max out @ 4th grade level

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12
Q

hearing impairment

grammar

A

– Poor grasp of English syntax (e.g. passives, etc.
that are hard for younger non-deaf children)

– Better to teach use of [written] language to
communicate effectively

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13
Q

Hearing impairment

• Educational philosophies

A

1) oral/aural
2) total communication
3) bilingual/bicultural

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14
Q

oral/aural

A

(verbal-auditory therapy)

trying to get kids to communicate in the spoken word modality

really didn’t work before cochlear implants

– Can be effective if cochlear implant, residual
hearing; resurgence due to implants

– Cued speech: handshapes to supplement lips (when lips aren’t producing visible differences)

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15
Q

Total communication

A

in response to poor outcomes from oral/aural

made up a sign system (NOT a langauge) that was yoked to English

Make up sign systems yoked to English (SEE - signed exact english)

problem: can’t do prosody, content words are more important in spoken english but function words (a, the, ing) get equal weight in SEE

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16
Q

Bilingual/bicultural (bi-bi)

A

– Learn ASL first, then transition English as second language = medium to teach English as spoken or written

– Good in principle, limited by teachers’ expertise (if you don’t live in a metropolitan area, don’t have access to a good ASL teacher)

– in a perfect world this is the best solution

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17
Q

intellectual disabilities (ID)

A

• Down syndrome (poor language)

• Williams syndrome (don’t have preserved language)
- extremely rare

  • Fragile X syndrome: deletion of one of the X chromosomes: if you’re female it’s not so bad, but if you’re male you’re fucked.
  • Range of cognitive difficulties (obviously not language specific)
  • Sometimes, physical difficulties: e.g. heart problems in William’s syndrome
  • Poorer categorization, generalization (can’t transfer knowledge to different settings and new situations)
  • much much better outcomes if there is Early intervention!!
18
Q

Down syndrome

A
  • caused by an extra copy of the 21st chromosome: Trisomy 21 (trisomy of any other chromosome it’s fatal)
  • level of achievement related to working memory skills
  • Look like younger TD (typically developing) children, mostly
    – Behind by 20 months at age 3, 24 months at age 4     – Big trouble with English morphosyntax (word order, function morphemes)   – Later, pretty good narrative, pragmatic skills  

• 10%+ diagnosed with autism

19
Q

Williams Syndrome

A
  • Genetic, pretty rare
  • Characteristic appearance, health issues (heart problems)

• Old claim: bad cognition, seems pretty verbally fluent, good language (reverse of Down Syndrome)
– do they have a preserved language module? and damaged cognition module?

• New claim (see Karmiloff-Smith’s work):
language abilities in keeping with overall
cognitive abilities; still behind for chronological age

20
Q

Down Syndrom (DS) vs. Williams syndrome

A
  • DS: holistic (looking at the overall form)
  • WS: analytic split (look at individual pieces) w/DS

some relation to cognitive function but not language specific

21
Q

Fragile X

A

• Problem with X chromosome (mostly boys
affected; biggest source of intellectual disability w/known source in boys)

  • Delayed language onset
  • Poor oral-motor skills, articulation
  • A little better than DS for language skills
  • Perseveration in language
  • As many as 25% diagnosed with autism
22
Q

how do we deal with these intellectual disabilities?

A

Language instruction (DS especially):

  • Catch it early
  • Teach real-life language skills (grocery list instead of Hamlet)
  • Teach so as to generalize skills (transfer skills learned in one situation to a new situation)
  • Train learning/rehearsal of new info (chunking strategies, working memory strategies)
  • If severe, try augmentative or alternative communication (AAC)
    – Symbols/pictures     – Signed system (complex but can mold a handshape better than a speech sound!!) 

• For DS, keep teaching throughout adolescence (because they’re still developing)

23
Q

Autism is part of a “spectrum” of disorders, including…

A

– Rett syndrome

– Autism [spectrum]

(no longer Aspergers)

Categories change from time to time

24
Q

Is Asperger different from hi-functioning

autism?

A

DSM-V: says they’re the same thing

25
Q

Are all cases of autism from same source[s]?

A

we don’t know

there is no gene

no blood test

26
Q

nominal fallacy

A

error in logical thinking where we assume: we have name for it, so we must understand it and know what it is

just because we’re calling a bunch of things “autism” doesn’t mean we understand what it is

we’ve named this cluster of behavioral symptoms but it might a different disorders with different symptoms, etc…

27
Q

Diagnostic Criteria for Autism

A
  • Highly delayed onset/absence of language
  • Impaired conversation starting, responding
  • Use language skills in stereotyped, repetitive way (e.g. imitative speech)

• Lack of age-appropriate pretend-play or
socially-imitative play

28
Q

age of discovery of autism

A

around 2 years old (much later than down syndrome)

but it’s really hard to diagnose early: how do you know whether it’s individual variation or not

29
Q

signs of autism before 2 years

A

– Aberrant eye gaze (don’t do joint attention)

– Lack of responsiveness to name

– Hand flapping, toe walking

– Pierce et al. 2011

30
Q

Pierce et al. 2011:

autism

A

visual preference for geometric patterns over people (which is super strange cause little typically developing kids love looking at people, faces, bodies)

31
Q

regression in autism

A

1/3 are reported to show regression

seem like they’re doing ok and then they seem to recede into more autism-like behavior patterns

is that really what’s going on or it was there all along and just noticed at this time?

32
Q

seeming increase in autism cases over time

A

– MMR vaccine? NOOOOO—original article discredited and yet the myth lives on because people want a scapegoat

– Corresponding decrease in other kids of ID (intellectual disabilities) diagnoses

33
Q

likely genetic basis for autism

A

– Siblings at risk

– Families tend to have some of the behaviors even if they don’t have a clinical diagnosis

– Heritability likely, a little hard to tell b/c autistic people don’t have
kids as often

34
Q

many brain differences for autism

A

– Accelerated growth of the brain during time when symptoms first identified: may be that if the brain is growing at at time when it’s not supposed to be that indicates problems

35
Q

Autism: Social &

communicative problems

A

1) poor joint attention
2) symbol use is difficult
3) theory of mind is underdeveloped

36
Q

poor joint attention

A

– On 1st birthday, lack of pointing/showing

– Didn’t look @ faces, respond to name

37
Q

symbol use is difficult

A

– Conventionalized gestures (waving, pointing)

– difficulty with pretend play: Banana phone

38
Q

theory of mind is underdeveloped

A

– difficulty understanding others’ intents, perspectives

39
Q

alternative to theory of mind

A

ability to control your own attention vs. you need some kind of planning function to maintain continuity

impaired executive function or weak central coherence

40
Q

autism and language

language outcome strongly linked to:

A
  • age of diagnosis
  • initial cognitive profile
  • initial language profile
  • amount of speech language intervention
41
Q

language and autism

A
  • Receptive, expressive correlated, both related to IQ
  • poor pragmatics
  • Phonological skills better than others (tend to have pretty good pronunciation)
  • Problems with intonation and stress (unusual prosody)
  • Confuse you and I (theory of mind issues)
  • Difficulty imitating (but echolalia - where they say something over and over again)
  • Hard to tell how very early behavior predicts b/c diagnoses late
  • demotivated to learn/pay attention to language: Not catalyzed by desire to socially interact