What is a written language disorder?:

A written language disorder is one that involves significant impairment or difficulty across written language, including reading and writing comprehension, word recognition, and ability.

About written language disorders:

Written language disorders can occur alongside another language disorder, or may be in the presence of another condition, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disability (ID), or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Spoken and written language are often thought to go hand in hand, so a written language disorder is often diagnosed with a spoken language disorder, or vice versa. Symptoms often vary across individuals, so signs and symptoms of one individual may be different from that of another. Symptoms are influenced by the language domains affected, age, severity, and state of linguistic development. Individualized treatment plans are implemented by a speech-language pathologist for individuals diagnosed with a language disorder. 

Difficulties may occur among the various reading and writing components:

     Reading decoding – the ability to transform the patterns of alphabetical letters into the phonological patterns of corresponding words. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle with reading a word or letters and expressing the corresponding sounds.

     Word Recognition – the ability to identify words when reading. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle with identifying specific words when reading, either through processes of decoding or sight word recognition. 

     Reading Fluency – the ability to read words quickly, smoothly, and accurately. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle with reading words accurately in a set amount of time, and the ability to quickly identify words through decoding or sight word identification.

     Reading comprehension – the ability to understand written text. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle with making sense of different structure and understanding vocabulary. 

     Writing process – the ability to plan, organize, draft, reflect on, revise, and edit written text. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle with one or more aspects of the writing process. 

     Written product – the end of the writing process. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle on the word, sentence, or text level.

     Click here for a more comprehensive list of signs and symptoms of written language disorders from The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 

 

Note: This is by no means a suggestion of self-diagnosis or  unknowledgeable diagnosis of a child that may have a written language disorder or any other disorder or disability, and should not be used as a supplemental measure to diagnose any individual. If you believe that your child may have an written language disorder, visit a speech therapist for a professional evaluation. The information provided is strictly informational.

 

 

What is a Spoken Language Disorder?:

A Spoken Language Disorder, or SLD, is an impairment in the use and understanding of language across the five language domains. An SLD may be lifelong, but symptoms can change over time. Therefore, it is important to monitor the symptoms of a child with an SLD. If a professional diagnosis suggests that an SLD is present, assessment and/or treatment on a regular basis is important. SLDs may be accompanied by other conditions, such as intellectual or developmental disabilities. When they occur without the presence of another condition, they are considered a Specific Language Impairment, or SLI. They may also occur with another language disorder or difficulties in reading and writing, and social communication could also be an issue.

 

Five Language Domains and Potential Deficits:

Phonology – Phonology is defined as the system of relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of a language.

Phonological deficits may include:

• Delay of phonological skills (unable to understand the differences or relationships among sounds).
• May vocalize less or with less complexities when they do speak than children their age
• (in younger children) problems with early speech sounds
• Difficulty learning speech sound systems that may progress into later life with poor skill sets and abilities

 

Morphology – Morphology is defined as the structure and construction of words,  and skills that require an understanding and use of the appropriate structure of a word.

Syntax – Syntax is defined as the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Morphological and syntactic deficits may include:

• Late understanding of definitions
• Restricted mean length of utterance (MLU) (restricted number of morphemes per utterance (morphological unit that cannot be further divided or broken down)) and shorter utterances in words
• Errors in verbs, function words, and pronouns
• Errors of omission and misuse
• Difficulty comprehending grammatical morphemes
• Difficulty in understanding prefixes, suffixes, past, present, future markers, etc
• Difficulty in judging grammar mistakes and/or correcting them
• Difficulty in identifying parts of speech
• Problems comprehending syntactic structure
• Simple utterances and issues with comprehending complex words/utterances

 

Semantics – Semantics is defined as the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. There are a number of branches and subbranches of semantics, including formal semantics, which studies the logical aspects of meaning, such as sense, reference, implication, and logical form, lexical semantics, which studies word meanings and word relations, and conceptual semantics, which studies the cognitive structure of meaning.

Deficits in semantics may include:

• Slower vocabulary development
• Delayed first words or word combinations
• Delays in verb skills
• Difficulty understanding new words
• Overuse of filler words
• Difficulty in asking for clarification or understanding verbal questions
• Problems with figurative language, synonyms and antonyms, etc
• Problems with organization of thought process when it comes to expression

 

Pragmatics – Pragmatics refers to the branch of linguistics dealing with language in use and the contexts in which it is used, including such matters as deixis, taking turns in conversation, text organization, presupposition, and implicature.

Deficits in pragmatics may include:

• Difficulty in socializing or playing with peers
• Problems understanding others
• Immaturity in language
• Difficulty expressing oneself
• Difficulty initiating and sustaining conversation
• Trouble with turn taking in conversations
• Uncertainties about appropriate and inappropriate language/conversations
• Trouble with organization and story cohesion/connecting thoughts out loud

 

The Role of a Speech Therapist:

Speech therapists play a crucial role in evaluating, assessing, diagnosing, and treating children that have an SLD. They can provide resources to individuals and parents of individuals that have or are at risk of having an SLD, as to suggest treatment options or the need for an evaluation, and they conduct assessments maintained for your child and the diagnosis your child has if they do have an SLD or other language disorder. Speech therapists can also provide referrals for other services. Children with an SLD all have unique attributes, so a specialized treatment plan is often implemented during therapy.

 

Note: This is by no means a suggestion of self-diagnosis or unknowledgeable diagnosis of a child that may have an SLD or any other disorder or disability, and should not be used as a supplemental measure to diagnose any individual. If you believe that your child may have an SLD, visit a speech therapist for a professional evaluation. The information provided is strictly informational.

Hearing and speech are two very important skills for children to build upon as they grow older. They help us listen and communicate with others, which leads to important developments, and there are always ways for parents to facilitate speech and language in the home with their child. There are numerous milestones that children are generally able to accomplish between certain years of their childhood. This week, we’ll focus on the milestones for children from birth to six years of age. If you feel that your child is not meeting these age-appropriate milestones, call our office for an evaluation, or speak to your child’s pediatrician for a referral for a speech therapy evaluation. For more information, you can access the website for The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

 

Birth to Two Years:

Your child will certainly be retaining a lot of information in their first few years of life, and it’s important that you help them learn skills that are valuable to their growth! For children two and under, you will want to be encouraging the formation of sounds. You can do so by making simple sounds, like ma, ba, and, da. Younger children like to mimic the movements and noises you make, so it can often be helpful to make movements and gestures while you make sounds. Peek-a-boo is a simple, yet fun, example of doing this. When they begin to mimic your sounds, repeat them back! Have silly conversations in gibberish. You’d be surprised just how much it helps! You can also talk to your child while performing daily tasks. While doing this, you can simply explain what you’re doing, where you’re going, who you’re going to see, etc. If you are giving your child a bath, you could say “You are taking a bath! There are lots of bubbles. Look at the bubbles!” Also try pointing out everyday objects and saying what it is called, such as pointing at some of their toys and saying “ball!” or “toy!”. Repetition can make more of a statement, so be sure to repeat these words a few times whenever you say them. You can also help them make connections between words and sounds, or even pictures. Saying things such as “The dog says woof!” or showing them simple pictures in a picture book and saying the name of the object can be really helpful in establishing these connections for your child. When reading picture books, be sure that the pictures are simple and plain. Your child may easily get tired of looking at a busy picture and lose interest in what you are showing them.

 

2 to 4 Years:

    When your child transitions into their toddler years, you’ll want to begin speaking more clearly and precisely. Your child’s speech becomes a sort of reflection of yours. You can start using more advanced words and creating simple sentences that he or she can repeat. This can include yes or no questions that they can answer, such as “Do you want juice?”. Questions that give them a choice are also helpful in creating an option for them to speak in phrases. You could ask “Do you want apple juice or orange juice?” Begin pointing out more objects and asking what they are called, as to create a better connection between the name or sounds and the visual. Singing songs is also a very good activity because it helps your child to develop a rhythm of speech. This will develop their skills to speak in clear sentences as they get older. Asking your child about familiar people and what their names are will help him or her to recall the information they have heard and repeat it back to you.

 

4 to 6 Years:

    At this stage, your child will begin to understand more complex language. You should start incorporating new words and language skills into your conversations, such as directions (the car is on the left), opposites (up and down, quiet and loud, etc), requests (go get your jacket please), and rhyming (cat, sat, that, mat, etc). You can start asking questions or stating sentences that require your child to fill in the information or guess the answer, such as “What do we say when someone gives us a gift?”. As they have a more complex understanding of the things you are saying, they can start following 2 or 3 step requests, such as “Go to the closet and get your jacket”. You can practice communication skills in any situation, while at the grocery store or while making dinner.

 

Next week we will be addressing speech and language by grade level and later years, which may involve children with dyslexia, down syndrome, autism, etc. Check back for an updated post, and thanks for reading!