SLI Key Points

Question 1

Define SLI

Name and date

Answer 1

• Specific Language Impairment
• Significant limitation in language ability with no obvious cause
• Based on diagnosis of exclusion at age 3 (Craig 1991)
• No neurological/emotional disorder, hearing loss or autistic tendencies

Question 2

What is the SLI profile?

Answer 2

• May be genetic weakness in family history for language problems
• More boys than girls
• 7% of 5 y/o have SLI
• A label for language difficulties that don’t stem from other developmental delays
• High percentage of young offenders

Question 3

What are some key features of SLI language?

Answer 3

• Short telegraphic utterances
• Omission of function words
• Issues with tense, inflection, determiners
• Lacks confidence
• Uses blocks = “I don’t know”

Question 4

SLI:

Phonology

Answer 4

• Delayed but follows same path as typical children
• Errors such as substitutions, syllable deletion, cluster reduction
• Compromised in complex constructions

Question 5

SLI:

Lexicon

Answer 5

• Play catch-up forever
• Comprehension typically ahead of production
• Noun-verb shift not made as readily as typical children
• Late acquiring first words (23 months)

Question 6

SLI:

Grammar

Name and date

Answer 6

• Delayed and immature
• Difficulty with function words and grammatical endings
• Omissions follow predictable pattern
• SLI children weak in use of grammatical morphology (Leonard et al. 1992)

Question 7

SLI:

Pragmatics and input

Name and date

Answer 7

• Weak, difficulty mastering social skills (Collins 2013)
• Low social peer status
• Non-optimal input from adults (treating younger than they are)
• Better with 1 on 1
• More directives, less questions
• Teachers accept one word answers

Question 8

SLI:

School

Answer 8

• Frustration and behavioural issues
• Difficulty accessing the curriculum
• Average thinking skills and academic potential
• Difficulties with reading, spelling and maths
  Vandewalle et al. 2012

Question 9

SLI:

Pattern

Answer 9

• Weak phonology
• Smaller number of words
• Real time processing issue

Question 10

SLI:

Explanations

Names and dates x 3

Answer 10

• Universal feature of SLI is well hidden (Leonard 1998)
• Problems with weak phonetic items (Bishop 1993)
• Problems with grammatical representations - remain pre-functional (Radford 1990)

Question 11

SLI:

Support

Answer 11

• Speech and language therapist
• Educational psychologist
• Individual education programme
• Drills
• Computer based programmes
• AAC?
• Info and guidance for parents

Question 12

Why do children need language?

3 points

Answer 12

1. RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE- To understand words, sentences and conversations
2. EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE- Learn how to talk using words and sentences in a cohesive and coherent manner
3. PRAGMATIC LANGUAGE- Use language in a socially acceptable way i.e. listening, turn-taking