Understanding Students with Communication Disorders

1. Understanding Students with Communication Disorders Chapter 6

2. Speech vs. Language Disorders • Speech Disorder- difficulty producing sounds & the disorders of voice quality. As well as fluency (aka stuttering) • Language Disorder- difficulty receiving, understanding or formulating ideas and information Receptive Language Disorder Difficulty receivingor understanding information Expressive Language Disorder Difficulty formulatingideas and information • Cleft Palate or Lip- a condition in which a person has a split in the upper part of the oral cavity or upper lip. These disorders can occur alone, in combination or in conjunction with other disorders

3. Speech & Language Disorders • “Differences DO NOT always mean disorder” • Students from different cultures have speech or language differences. • Accents • Dialects

4. Speech Development • Speech- oral expression of language. • Language- structured, rule-governed symbolic system for communication. • Phonemes- the sound of a single letter. • Morphology- the sound of an entire word when phonemes are put together. • Syntax- the arrangement of morphemes into a sentence. (appropriately) • Semantics- the meaning of what is expressed. • Pragmatics- the use of communication in contexts. • A child’s language development is associated with social interactions • -Lev Vygotsky

5. Types of Speech Disorders • Articulation- a speaker’s production of individual or sequenced sounds • Substitutions- a speaker’s substitution of sounds in phonemes • Omissions- a speaker leaves out a phoneme from a word • Additions- a speaker places a vowel sound between two consonants • While these are common in preschoolers and school age children, in most cases these speech difficulties will disappear with maturation. It is when these difficulties do not disappear with maturation that we get concerned. • Apraxia- affects the way a student plans to produce speech

6. Determining the Causes • Organic Disorders • Caused by an identifiable problem in the neuromuscular mechanism on the person • Can originate in the nervous system, muscular system or the chromosomes. • Can include hereditary malformations, prenatal injuries, tumors, trauma, etc. • Functional Disorders • -no identifiable organic or neurological cause Congenital Disorder Disorder that occurs before birth Acquired Disorder Disorder that occurs after birth

7. Evaluating These Students Observation From teacher or medical personnel of child not achieving developmental milestones Screening Assessments performed in areas where child is having difficulty Prereferral School based team will make suggestions Referral After attempts of interventions, child is referred to a multidisciplinary team Nondiscriminatory evaluation & procedures Records of health, curriculum-based assessment & direct observations Determination If the team finds a disorder, the IEP team develops appropriate options

8. Assistive Technology (AT) • A piece of commercial or hand-made equipment that assists an individual to perform communication functions. • Augmentative and alternative communication system (ACC) can assist students with gestures, speaking or writing. • Teams of parents, teachers & aids should collaboratively make decisions for implementing an ACC. • These AAC’s can be individualized to meet the specific vocabulary needs of each student. • Plans set in place by the student's educational team will evaluate and regulate the usage of the ACC.

9. Instructional Strategies • Facilitating Language Development • In Early Childhood: • A child’s educational center should promote social interaction during all parts of the day in order. • In Elementary and Middle Schools • Help bridge the gap between learning reading and writing to reading and writing to learn. • Use of graphic organizers • Secondary and Transitional Schools • Working towards the child’s ability to communicate without an ACC

10. Inclusion • Because speech is highly based on social interactions, it is important that students with a speech disorder spend 80-100% of their day in a general education classroom.

11. Assessing & Accommodating • Assessing Progress • Curriculum-based Assessments • Best form of assessment because it measure’s a students progress in the general curriculum. • Work towards lowering the discrepancy between the student's current communication skill level and the curriculum standard. Making Accommodations for Assessments What is being assessed? Where does the child need help communicating? -Word processor, extra time, etc. -Use formats of tests that best compliment a student’s most common means of expression.