Language & Learning Disabilities in Children

What is a Language Disorder?

Communication is essential to everyday life: understanding directions in the classroom, conversing with friends and family, reading instructions or writing an essay.

"Communication" is the ability to comprehend and express oneself in language. Problems in understanding questions, drawing conclusions and in following directions are all signs of a receptive (or comprehensive) language impairment. Receptive language includes the act of processing words and sentences and the interpretation of meaning or comprehension of linguistic information. A breakdown at the processing level can prevent the child from correctly perceiving the information. A breakdown at the interpretation level may result in the child not understanding what he or she has heard or read.

Children can exhibit very specific language impairment (SLI). Examples of SLI include: poor comprehension of time and space concepts, or difficulty comprehending figurative language such as metaphors, idioms, or puns.

Expressive language impairment involves formulation and organization of a message. Expressive language problems are evident in children who have difficulty re-telling stories, instructing others or simply in word finding. We sometimes see repetition of words, incoherent sequencing of details, and "garbled words" or word inventions.

Language and Learning Disabilities

Many children who exhibit language impairment may be diagnosed as "learning disabled". The National Joint Commission on Learning Disabilities has provided a definition which calls learning disabilities a group of disorders in "significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities". These problems, the definition states, are presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction.

Older LD children might have difficulty appreciating humor, understanding idioms or drawing conclusions. They are often described as "concrete thinkers". These adolescents may be deficient in social skills because of their difficulty in using language to communicate and interact with peers and teachers.

Academically, in the early grades, the child may show limited or deficient progress in reading, spelling, writing, or mathematics. However, very bright students may compensate for the learning disability, so that the learning problems may not be evident until later grades. In the upper grades, the language disordered and/or learning disabled child shows a widening gap in academic achievement in comparison to peers.

Evaluation

A comprehensive language evaluation uses standardized testing, language sampling, and writing sampling to assess three components of language:

Receptive Language Therapy

Individual therapy is the most effective course of treatment for students who have fallen far behind academically due to deficits in language comprehension or expression, and for those children who have auditory processing disorders. Regular, intensive therapy (two-to-three times weekly sessions) can help to quickly improve a child's ability to perform in the classroom. In addition to improving specific skill areas, students are taught strategies to help them compensate for their difficulties in the school setting.

Reading

Reading is a natural extension of the whole language environment. Reading mechanics or word attack is based on phonetic decoding, or the ability to sound out words. Reading comprehension is dependent not only on reading the words accurately, but on understanding language as a whole.

Therefore, a holistic approach to language learning must integrate the skills involved in reading, writing and language development into a comprehensive unit. Please refer to our reading brochure for details regarding our integrated reading programs.

Reading Comprehension

Children who have difficulty understanding what they read may not be creating mental images for what they read or hear. Research and clinical experience have verified that imagery is directly related to language comprehension. Children with difficulty in understanding higher level comprehensive skills such as getting the main idea, inferring, concluding and predicting are candidates for a multisensory approach to comprehension.

CPSLC clinicians are experienced in systematically stimulating imagery starting from single words, building to sentence level and moving to whole pages of text. Children and adolescents are able to verbalize their images using "structure words" such as size, color and background to direct their expressive language and form a whole picture or "gestalt".

Expressive Language Therapy and Writing

Although the program described above is focused on stimulating visualization for comprehension, expressive language is remarkably influenced. Children with impairment in receptive language usually exhibit weak expressive language skills. They may have difficulty responding to complex questions, sequencing the steps of a procedure or giving directions.

This programming may be combined with techniques such as semantic mapping or webbing to assist children in organizing ideas for expression. Writing skills are an extension of progressive language skills. Individuals learn to approach writing as a systematic process moving from pre-writing activities (brainstorming) to outlining purpose and audience to making to making specific content revisions for a finished product.

Group Therapy

For students with pragmatic language disorders, our group "Conversations" program may be the right choice of treatment. This program is geared toward teaching students how to initiate and participate in conversations with age-level peers. Linguistics/conceptual skills (for example, vocabulary, concept development, etc.) and social/cognitive skills (that is, using non-verbal skills, taking another's perspective, etc.) are necessary for effective communication in social situations.

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