Chapter 4 Childhood Language Impairment MLU mean length of utterance has to do with form measure of linguistic productivity in children It is traditionally calculated by collecting 100 utterances spoken by a child and dividing the number of morphemes by the number of utterances Most utterances contain a subject and verb by the age of 3 What and where then who which and whose then when why and how Fast mapping hypothesized mental process whereby a new concept is learned based only on a single exposure to a given unit of information Set of skills that allow children to expand vocabulary quickly even without fully understanding word meaning Enables the expansion of vocabulary to occur quickly because the use of one word is used without its full meaning being understood Popular in preschool years Specific language impairment language disorder that delays the mastery of language skills in children who have no hearing loss or other developmental delays aka developmental language disorder language delay or developmental dysphasia One of the most common childhood learning disabilities 7 8 of children in kindergarten Cause is unknown but it is suggested that there is a genetic link Symptoms late to talk and may not produce any words until they are 2 years old and at 3 they might not be able to be understood Associated disorders and related causes include Intellectual disability originates before 18 years old severe language delays IQ varies from mild to profound causes are biological or socioenvironmental Learning disability difficulties in listening speaking reading writing reasoning and math cluttering 80 have a reading problem 75 have difficult with symbols Specific language impairment typical nonverbal intelligence it deficits in nonverbal tasks affects more males than females marked deficits with working memory limited capacity for language processing Autism spectrum disorder motor spectrum disorder primary biological causes some use entire verbal routines formuli communication problems are one of the first indicators biological cause eye gazing delayed as well as face detection Traumatic brain injury disorientation and memory loss deficits in pragmatics social disinhibition or issues expressing thoughts Neglect abuse less talkative utterances are shorter and less complex FAS drug exposed children mean IQ is borderline ID CNS impairment and others general delay late talkers delay in pragmatics First words checklist for early language development 7 predictors 1 Emotion and use of eye gaze 2 Use of communication 3 Use of gestures 4 Use of sounds 5 Use of words 6 Understanding words 7 Use of objects Language variation children speak more than one language or more than one dialect variations by themselves are not a language impairment Helps to distinguish if there is a disorder present or not must be careful of language barrier or dialect Dynamic assessment nonstandardized a method of conducting language assessment to identify the skills and learning potential a child possesses Mediated assistance best learning environment for child Developmental expectations in language form content and use across pre language toddler preschool and school age language periods Pre language reciprocal relationship begins like eye gazing at 3 4 months intentionality 8 9months which is shared through gestures phonetically consistent forms or proto words consistent vocal patterns representation symbolization Toddler language 50 words and combinations at 18 months 3 and 4 word combinations appear soon after may use a single word for various purposes By age 2 there is expressive vocabulary of 150 300 words lexicon persona dictionary By age 3 most utterances contain a subject and a verb Preschool language can recount the past and remember short stories increases memory may use substitution caregivers provide feedback by repetition or reformulating it School Age and Adolescent Language most communication occurs outside the home metalinguistic skills semantic and pragmatic development by age 5 children use most verb tenses pronouns and conjunctions adult syntax Chapter 5 Literacy Impairment Print awareness understanding of the nature and uses of print closely associated with his or hers word awareness of the ability to recognize words as distinct elements of oral and written communication Decoding segmenting a word and blending the sounds together to form a word word level reading includes print knowledge letter knowledge phonological awareness and lexical knowledge Phonological awareness ability to notice think about and work with individual sounds in spoken words Phonological disorders disorders of conceptualization of language rules that also affect speech production words we must know to communicated effectively spoken read Phonics the relationship between the letters graphemes or written language and the individual sounds phonemes of spoken language Reading fluency ability to read a text accurately quickly and effortlessly Vocabulary Reading comprehension understanding the meaning of text decoding critical literacy is the ability to explain read content whereas dynamic literacy is relating content to another source of information or knowledge Phonology rules and patterns by which phonemes are combined into words and phrases Morphology Structure of words including the smallest meaningful units of language that modify word structures to change the meaning of the word Syntax a rule system that governs how words are combined into larger meaningful units of phrases clauses and sentences Semantics encompasses the ability to distinguish word meanings including multiple meanings and subtle nuances and relationships between words Pragmatics ability to use language in specific contexts and for specific purposes How areas of language within language form content use influence areas of literacy development Emerging literacy reading development begins around age 1 when books are shared with toddlers dialogic reading print awareness children with good language enjoy reading and also pretend to read by age 4 children notice phonological similarities and syllable structure may find rhyming funny 1 Letter identification 2 Sentence imitation 3 Phonological awareness 4 5 Maternal education Rapid automatized naming Children with SLDL have poor word recognition or decoding as well as problems with phonological processing Differences between spoken and written language Oral Language Phonics phonological awareness fluency