My two year old isn’t talking!
Sarah Kuppen in Little Kids, Big Dilemmas, 2018
When a child is unable to produce speech correctly or fluently, she has a speech disorder. However, when there are difficulties understanding spoken language or expressing thoughts or ideas, then it is a language disorder. Developmental language disorder (DLD) is most often recognised through a difficulty in expressing meaning in words and sentences, in the absence of another intellectual or developmental condition. However, children with this impairment may also have difficulties understanding meaning in language. Estimates suggest that around 7 per cent of children have DLD (see www.asha.org). Amongst this group, a seven or eight year old might speak at the level of a typical three year old. She will say things such as ‘Anna goed there’ instead of ‘I went there’. She might also have difficulties understanding meaning, confusing who did what in the sentence – ‘The boy chased the cat’. The causes of developmental language disorder are not well understood. However, twin studies show clearly that genetic make-up is a strong indicator of which children will develop language impairments (Bishop, 2006).
Disorders of Speech and Language
John C Watkinson, Raymond W Clarke, Christopher P Aldren, Doris-Eva Bamiou, Raymond W Clarke, Richard M Irving, Haytham Kubba, Shakeel R Saeed in Paediatrics, The Ear, Skull Base, 2018
Language disorders are identified when a child presents with a language score on standardized tests two standard deviations from the child’s age and where there is no neurological, sensory, developmental or physical impairment that could account for the poor performance.12 Language disorders can therefore be accurately diagnosed only by a process of exclusion and it is vital that thorough and comprehensive assessments are carried out to rule out the presence of other difficulties. This group of children is a significant one, with studies suggesting that 5–7% of children starting school have such a disorder. The most commonly used term to describe this condition is developmental language disorder (DLD), and children with DLD may have difficulty in only one or in a combination of language and speech areas. There is no single known cause of DLD, with both intrinsic and extrinsic factors playing a part.13 However, genetics are known to have an influence, with evidence of strong family histories for DLD. More boys than girls present with DLD, with studies estimating ratios of around 3:1.
Are Discrepancy-Based Definitions of Dyslexia Empirically Defensible?
Kees P. van den Bos, Linda S. Siegel, Dirk J. Bakker, David L. Share in Current Directions in Dyslexia Research, 2020
Rather than becoming further distracted by the IQ issue, it may well be more fruitful for the field to explore the implications of conceptualizing reading disability as residing on a continuum of developmental language disorder (see Bishop & Adams, 1990; Catts, 1991; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1987; Kamhi, 1992; Kamhi & Catts, 1989; Scarborough, 1990). For example, Gathercole & Baddeley (1987) argue that “although language problems are typically detected prior to the children receiving reading instruction….it is possible that the alphabetic literacy skills required in reading may be more sensitive to the adequacy of speech analytic skills than other aspects of normal linguistic development, such that a mild deficit may only be detectable in reading performance. More severe subjects may result in the more generalized symptom complex associated with developmental language disorder… This is also clearly consistent with the notion that the two populations may quantitatively differ rather than qualitatively” (p. 464).
What counts as evidence? Swimming against the tide: Valuing both clinically informed experimentally controlled case series and randomized controlled trials in intervention research
Published in Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention, 2019
Wendy Best, Wei Ping Sze, Anne Edmundson, Lyndsey Nickels
In some clinical fields clients may share characteristics sufficiently for them to be, in Cohen et al.’s (2004) terms, “acceptably similar” in the relevant dimensions. However, in the case of communication difficulties, people’s profiles of ability and difficulty differ greatly. For example, within traditional classifications such as “global aphasia” there is enormous variability: some individuals may use gestures to communicate, others retain a set of phrases and still others may be able to draw to aid communication. Similarly, the label “developmental language disorder” entails a wide range of profiles, including children with varying receptive and expressive skills, with and without accompanying speech difficulties, with and without pragmatic language difficulties, etc. (Bishop, Snowling, Thompson, & Greenhalgh, 2017). In order to overcome this issue, studies may set stringent inclusion criteria to maximize homogeneity. However, use of highly restrictive criteria in studies of cognitive rehabilitation runs the risk of excluding participants such that the sample is not representative of the population. Moreover, Cicerone (2005) notes that “Since patients who consent to participate in clinical trials are by definition a self-selected group, they may not be representative of patients who either fail to meet enrolment criteria or refuse to participate” (p. 45). They are likely, for example, to have fewer comorbid health and/or cognitive problems, be more motivated and have better cognitive processing than participants who do not volunteer to participate.
Non-word repetition in bilingual children: the role of language exposure, vocabulary scores and environmental factors
Published in Speech, Language and Hearing, 2022
Gianmatteo Farabolini, Pasquale Rinaldi, Maria Cristina Caselli, Alejandrina Cristia
Different authors underlined the need for early identification of atypical language development in order to promote early language intervention and improve language and overall outcomes in children with persistent language difficulties (Chilosi et al., 2019; Fisher, 2017; Lüke et al., 2017; St Clair, Forrest, Yew, & Gibson, 2019). In monolingual children, before the age of 3 years, atypical language developmental paths are usually detected through low performance in expressive vocabulary assessments, often relying on parental reports (Fenson et al., 2007; Rescorla, 1989). One such instrument is the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MB-CDI), a parental questionnaire often used to identify toddlers with an expressive delay, who are usually called late talkers (Desmarais, Sylvestre, Meyer, Bairati, & Rouleau, 2008; Marini, Ruffino, Sali, & Molteni, 2017). Following Bishop, Snowling, Thompson, and Greenhalgh (2017), we will talk about language difficulty rather than delay. After the age of 4 years, children with language difficulties in toddlerhood can evolve in several ways. Some of them receive a diagnosis of developmental language disorder (DLD), showing persistent language difficulties in one or more language domains (Bishop et al., 2017). Others, called late bloomers, bridge their linguistic gap and show similar language performance as their peers without a history of language difficulties (Desmarais et al., 2008; Reilly et al., 2018).
Oral literal and inferential narrative comprehension in young typically developing children and children with developmental language disorder
Published in International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2019
Emily Dawes, Suze Leitão, Mary Claessen, Clara Lingoh
The Squirrel Story Narrative Comprehension Assessment is a reliable, practical, and efficient way of assessing both literal and inferential oral comprehension in young children, particularly between the ages of 4 to 6 years. It is sensitive to developmental changes in typically developing children, particularly between the ages of 4 and 5 years, and to differences in both literal and inferential comprehension between typically developing children and children with developmental language disorder. Effective discourse comprehension is a vital skill for effective communication and learning, and this study provides clinicians and teachers with reference data which can be used to guide interpretation of the performance of children aged 4 to 6 years and inform goal setting for intervention and the classroom context.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Autism Spectrum
- Intellectual Disability
- Language Development
- Specific Language Impairment
- Verbal Memory
- Aphasia
- Language Disorder
- Brain Damage
- Tip of The Tongue
- Phonological Awareness