Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

Question 1

Diagnostic Categories

Answer 1

Many categories of disability and/or diagnoses involve language deficits. We will focus on the following categories…

A. Mental Retardation/Intellectual Disability (MR/ID)
B. Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
C. Language Learning Disability (LLD)
D. Pervasive Development Disorder/Autism Spectrum Disorder (PDD/ASD)
E. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
F. Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA)
G. “Other” Language Impairments: Neglect and Abuse, Nonspecific Language Impairment (NLI), Late Talkers, Selective Mutism, Otitis Media, Deafness

Question 2

I. Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

Answer 2

• Significant limitations in language functioning not attributed to hearing, oral function, or intelligence
• 10 to 15% of all children may be “late” with language development by 2 years (“Language Delayed”)
• Many seem to “outgrow” this
• 20 to 50% have language problems persisting into school

Question 3

II. Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

Answer 3

• About 7.4% of Kindergarteners are in this category
• 2/3 of these kindergarteners will still have difficulty with language as adolescents
• Do not usually demonstrate the perceptual difficulties of LD (learning disabled) or the intellectual difficulties of ID (Intellectually Disabled)

Question 4

III. Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

Answer 4

• Language performance scores are lower than intellectual performance scores on nonverbal tasks: Nonverbal IQ usually above 85 and a low verbal IQ
• Difficult to sometimes identify

Question 5

IV. Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

Answer 5

-Some suggest that it is not a distinct disorder, but is merely a category of children with limited language difficulties resulting from genetic and/or environmental factors combined

Question 6

What’s in a name?

Answer 6

-Often times, we simply diagnose mixed receptive-expressive language disorders or language impairments. These children may meet the criteria for SLI…

Question 7

SLI Characteristics

Answer 7

• May appear delayed in usually one aspect of language (usually “Form”- syntax/morphology)
• May not possibly catch up without intervention
• Expressive abilities are usually below receptive

Question 8

Other SLI characteristic may vary – including:

Answer 8

• Perceived more negatively by teachers and peers
• Behavior problems may emerge
• May take minor roles in cooperative learning because they contribute little
• Later in school self-esteem becomes affected
• Self perception decreases wit regard to school and social abilities

Question 9

I. Language Characteristics of SLI

Answer 9

• May be primarily receptive or expressive or a combination
• Usually language/language form (syntax/morphology) stands out
• These characteristics may change as child matures

Question 10

II. Language Characteristics of SLI

Answer 10

• These early language delays can affect later reading (decoding and comprehension) and writing skills
• Oral errors may appear in writing

Question 11

III. Language Characteristics of SLI

Answer 11

In general, these kids have trouble in:
-learning the rules of language
-using learned language in different context
and……..
-using word associations to increase vocabulary
~Because of this, morphology and phonology rules are not learned and applied correctly and vocabulary does not develop
~Difficulty also with tense markers. Most tense markers are mastered by age 4 in TD children but children with SLI can take up to an additional 3 years to master these tense markers
~Pragmatics problems can develop because of difficulties with language use

Question 12

SLI and Reading

Answer 12

-“Although SLI is not a reading disability, 50 to 75% of children with SLI also have reading disabilities”

Question 13

SLI- What does it look like?

Answer 13

In terms of:

• Semantics
• Syntax/Morphology
• Phonology
• Comprehension
• Pragmatics

Question 14

What does it look like? - Semantics

Answer 14

• Slow vocabulary growth and lexical errors
• Less able to recognize physical features (color, size, and shape), thematic elements within a topic (throw, hit, catch go with game), and/or causation (who caused something, who or what received something)
• New words are not learned and stored quickly
• Naming difficulties secondary to less elaborate storage of words

Question 15

What does it look like? - Syntax/Morphology

Answer 15

• Fewer morphemes used correctly, affecting verb endings, auxiliary verbs, infinitives, and irregular verbs
• Also difficulty using articles and prepositions
• (Morphology errors are a HALLMARK of SLI, especially past tense and use of the verb “to be”)
• *Grammatical Morpheme problems are “hallmark” issues of SLI
  
  • Instead of age 4, may be age 7 by the time they master verb tenses. Late appearance of past tense-ed. Mophological marker problems may persist.
  • Pronoun errors are also common

Question 16

What does it look like? - Phonology

Answer 16

• SLI children vocalize less and usually have varied and less mature syllable structures
• Poor non word repetition (biledodge, viversumouge)
• Working memory may have limitations– which may affect and create difficulty in terms of short term memory storage for phonological representations

Question 17

What does it look like? - Comprehension

Answer 17

• Poor discrimination of units of short duration like bound morphemes such as plural endings, etc..
• Ineffective sentence comprehension
• Reading errors are often not related to the text in terms of actual decoding or meaning
• Series of events presented visually or verbally are difficult to reconstruct (like event retell or story retell)- difficulty with sequencing

Question 18

What does it look like? - Pragmatics

Answer 18

Inability to use effective Form to accomplish language intention can result in difficulties in pragmatics…

• May act younger than age
• Less flexible with language use and don’t understand communication breakdowns
• Trouble getting a turn to speak
• Inappropriate responses to topic
• Incomplete, confusing narratives
• Failure leads to decreased social interaction

Question 19

What are some other possible effects of SLI?

Answer 19

• Less likely to interact
• Less successful at play interactions-particularly if expressive language is significantly affected
• Fear of approaching others
• Reticence
• Often ignored by peers which leads to decreased interactional opportunities
• May result in social skills problems more likely to possibly be victimized by peers
• By Junior High, these kids perceive themselves negatively scholastically and socially
• Oral and text based uses of cell phones: exchange text messages less often than TD peers

Question 20

SLI Possible Causal Factors- Biological

Answer 20

-Neurological disorder suggested:
~brain asymmetry/different patterns of brain activation (per owens)… May have deficits in neural circuitry responsible for procedural memory which is responsible information such as language
-Strong familial connections: 60% with SLI have an affected family member – 38% have an affected parent
-Pre term births: 32 weeks or less are at considerable risk
-Predominance of males over females

Question 21

SLI Possible Causal Factors- Social Environment

Answer 21

-While no one has suggested this is a cause, there is some evidence that parental interaction with SLI children is decreased

Question 22

SLI Possible Causal Factors- Processing Factors

Answer 22

-Executive function weaknesses
~reduced processing and storage of phonological information (the building blocks) leads to inefficient recognition of different words, ability to produce nonsense words, etc., inefficient word learning, slow word recognition, ineffective comprehension of sentences. Problems with incoming information, with memory, and with transfer
-Phonological awareness difficulties are not as profound as those with Dyslexia, however..
~ for many but not all, working memory deficits restricts information processing (difficulty comprehending longer and more complex utterances- Imagine having a rapid conversation with weak working memory. You can’t keep up– keep losing information as more comes in. Cant relate new information to processed old information. Orient more slowly to information, have more limited capacity to focus and refocus and shift focus

Question 23

SLI Intervention Strategies

Answer 23

• Naming objects
• Recalling spoken sentences
• Using melody as a memory aid
• Listening to and repeating stories (storyboard) and nursery rhymes (Dr. Seuss)
• Acting out pictures and rhymes
• Using gestures to aid in recall
• Repeating novel and “nonsense” words (gets at phonology)
• Verbal rehearsal (a stick of butter, a pint of milk)
• Categorization games with words and objects (Matching games with picture cards/objects, Guess who, etc
• Sequencing activities and using visual cues