MODELS OF CHILD

LANGUAGE DISORDERS
 Introduction
 A model is a way to represent how we think something
works.
 A model embodies/expresses our believes and
assumptions.
 For example if we believe that language disorders arise
from environmental deprivation, we treat it differently.
If we believe it is due to faulty neurological
functioning, we treat it differently.
 It is highly possible for professionals to disagree about
what model best represents the language disorders.
 Introduction

 Language problems can be classified according to

any of a number of taxonomies, each of which may
focus on:
 Descriptive and explanatory stages in language
development
 Many factors that influence language development
 On linguistic processing
 On linguistic categories
 On relationship between communication partners.
 The Descriptive Orientation
 Descriptive stages roughly describe language
comprehension and production that children learn at
certain developmental stages.
 For example, the early linguistic stage (1 year to 2.5
years) can be described roughly by the production of the
first words, followed by a word spurt and the production
of two-word utterances.
 Delays in language development become noticeable when
developmental milestones do not emerge at certain ages.
 Descriptive stages identify changes in language
development.
The Explanatory Orientation

 Explanatory stages seek to give reasons for

those changes.
 Explanatory stages are intended to consider
how children acquire language, based on
linguistic input.
 For example, before children produce their
first words, they must discover which sound
sequences are words.
 Children must discover units that belong to
their native language from a continuous
sound stream.
The Categorical Orientation

 In the categorical orientation,

language development can be defined
according to influencing factors.
 The development of the speech and
language system is possible only if
children have sufficient opportunities
for hearing, moving, learning, and
language input.
 Disorders in one of these aspects may
give rise to language problems.
The Categorical Orientation

 The categorical orientation is based on

the medical model.
 Attempts to identify the best categorical
or diagnostic label to apply according to
known medical conditions. Eg. Mental
retardation, hearing impairment,
autism, specific language impairment,
acquired childhood aphasia etc.
 Easily understood, a common-sense
way to identify the child’s problem.
 The Categorical Orientation
 But two clients with the same problem may present
very different picture.
 Secondly, clients do not often fit into one of the
diagnostic classifications. Eg. Many children with
autism may also have some degree of mental
retardation.
 The classification or diagnostic label does not help in
the intervention process.
 The Specific Abilities
Orientation
 The specific disabilities model studies the deficits in underlying
cognitive abilities which may lead to language disorders.
 More detailed categories of abilities that are considered
necessary for learning and using language include aspects of
language processing, such as those involved in information
processing, memory, discrimination, and association.
 These categories comprise the specific abilities orientation.
 Within this orientation, children with language problems can be
described in terms of the relative strengths and weaknesses of
certain processes or abilities.
 The categorical orientation and the specific abilities orientation
are both based on the etiology of language problems.
 In addition, language problems may subsequently
interfere with a child’s further development, as
language plays an important role in cognitive and
social-emotional development.
 Language problems may be related to behavioral
problems.
 Language problems have also been linked to learning
difficulties.
The Linguistic Orientation
 In the linguistic orientation, language
problems are described in detail
according to several symptom-oriented
manifestations.
 Problems with language can occur at
several levels of language, including
phonology, morphology, syntax,
semantics, and pragmatics.
 The System Model

 Viewing language disorder from system

perspective means that we do not assume
that all of the communication problems are
“in” the child but rather in the relationship
between communication partners.
 Intervention involves changing the
environment and the child.
 This model is useful for deciding
management of culturally different clients.
 Useful in treating clients who have severe to
profound disabilities.
 The Auditory Perceptual Deficit
Approach (The Specific Abilities Orientation)
 Spoken language relies primarily on
processing of auditory information.
 Hence the ability of auditory processing is
thought to be associated with oral language
disorders.
 Some practitioners believe that
identification and remediation of these
specific abilities in the auditory domain will
lead to improved language.
 The Auditory Perceptual Deficit
Approach (The Specific Abilities Orientation)
 If this hypothesis is accepted then all children
with Language Impairment (LI) should exhibit
auditory impairments and all children with
auditory impairment should exhibit LI.
 This is not true! So should this theory be
abandoned?
 Although, there is no one to one
correspondence there is a strong association
between LI and auditory processing deficits.
 Auditory processing deficits may act as one
of the risk factor for LI.
Limited Processing Capacity Model
(The Specific Abilities Orientation)

 Many researchers have noted that language

deficits are more severe if they occur
together with limited processing capacity.
 Spoken language is a transient code.
New information comes in all the time.
 Successful comprehension depends on the
ability to retain information in temporary
memory storage, while integrating new
incoming linguistic information.
 This is termed as working memory.
Descriptive-Developmental
Model
 Developed by Naremore in 1980.
 Lahey (1988) called it as communication-
language approach.
 This model addresses the entire range of
language performance including form, content
and use.
 Model believes that normal developmental
sequence provides the best curricular guide to
teaching language to children with LI.
 Believes that it is not always possible to know
the cause of language disorder.
 Descriptive-Developmental Model – Bloom
& Lahey’s Model

 It describes in detail the child’s current level of language

function in terms of:
 Content
- Vocabulary
- Meanings expressed
 Form
- Use of syntax and morphological markers
- Pronunciation of words
- Knowledge of phonological rules
 Use
- Appropriate use of language for communication in
social context.
 Bloom & Lahey’s Model

 Bloom & Lahey (1978) looked at defining what is

language. They ultimately separated language into
three major aspects: form, content, and use.
 Form: includes the building blocks of language such as
morphology (grammar), syntax (sentences) and
phonological awareness (sound awareness).
 Content: includes factors such as semantics, including
word knowledge and world knowledge, and vocabulary.
 Use: the area of pragmatics. That is, the understanding
and use of language in a social context. This includes
the ability to use appropriate language in a
communicative and social context, and understand
social rules.
 Form: Include the linguistic elements
that connect the sounds & symbols with
meaning.
 Linguistic elements include,
 Phonology
 Morphology
 Syntax
 Phonology
• System of rules that govern sounds & their combination
• Each lg has specific sds or phonemes characteristic of that lg.
• Phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit of sp signal.
• Change in phoneme lead to difference in meaning.
Eg: pat & bat; differ from each other in only one way, i.e
initial sd.
• /p/ & /b/ are 2 different phonemes
• Phoneme are classified by their acoustic properties (sound
waves), articulatory properties (oral cavity; production)-
place & manner of production.
 Use of phonemes is governed by 2 set of rules.
(1) Distributional rules : how sds can be
used in various word positions.
Eg : /ng/  long, /ng/ will never appear in initial
position.

(2) Sequencing rules: Occurrence of sound in

a sequence- car

– Phonological rules; govern sds, their

distribution & sequencing within a language.
Morphology
 Governs word formation.
 Morphological rules are concerned with
internal structure of words and how they
are constructed from morphemes.
 Morphemes are the smallest linguistic unit
with meaning.
 Morphemes cannot be broken into smaller
parts that have meaning,
 Words consist of one or more morphemes.
 For eg. Wds like - tall /toy; consists of one
morpheme.
 Stand alone; termed as free morpheme.
 Morphemes; fixed to free morphemes are
termed as bound morphemes.
Eg: unhappy, tallest.

 Bound morphemes; modify tense,

person- are called inflectional morphemes
 Eg: cats, played ,
Syntax
 Rule system that governs the structure
of sentences.
 Order of words in a sentence.
 Organization of diff sentence types

 Combine wds/ phrases/ sentences

 Transform sentences into other sentences

Eg: The boy is writing

Is the boy writing?
 As children produce longer sentences, they
begin to build sentences according to
syntactic rules.
 Learn to construct negative sentences,
questions, and imperative?
 Add complex structures like compound
sentences & embedded forms.
Content
 Involves meaning.
 Knowledge about objects, events, people,
relationship among them.
 Rules governing semantics ,Word meaning
conveyed
 Listeners mental dictionary; called as
lexicon.
 Wds are used differently in children than by
adults.
 children may use wd as adults, but may not
mean the samething as adult linguistic
system.
 Eg; 2 yr old says: doggie – this wd may be used to all animals.

• Content lg; indvls knowledge about concepts & also relationship that
exist b/w events / objects / people.

• Utterance semantic relations

eg : push car Action object
Mommy eat Agent Action

• Most meaning is literal, but few wds can be non literal too.
Eg; dance of life = life patterns in terms of movement and change.

– Meaning in a wd will depend on the context.

– Meaning in lg is conveyed thro’ use of wds & their combinations.
 Use
 Rules that govern use of language in social contexts.
 rules ; pragmatics
 reasons for communicating ( intentions)
 choice of codes to be used when communicating

 eg: greeting, asking questions, answering questions,

requesting information, giving information - requesting
clarification, language functions.
 Speaker uses information regarding listener &
nonlinguistic context to achieve communicative
intention.
 Speaker; consider what listener knows & information
about context.
 Speaker- learn to organize their conversation to make
them coherent(logical)
 Speaker learn how to enter, initiate, maintain
conversations, take turns, respond appropriately.
Integration
 Integration of components of Lang

– language forms appear as distinct entity.

– Bloom & Lahey (1978) pointed out that Form, Content ,Use are all
interrelated.
– Eg; 2 .6 yr old child looks thro’ window into yard – mother is in the
same room reading book – child sees kitten in the yard & says ‘look,
baby cat’
– Here child has accomplished 3 things
• linguistically coded 2 communicative intentions (getting
attention & describing word look)
• Knowledge of seen event (baby cat).
• Acceptable word order
To summarize: child has successfully communicated by
integrating.
• Pragmatic
• Semantic
• Syntactic rules
• In Normals —integration across Form, Content ,Use is present

• Child with disability – disruption of the components are found

in lg.
HI—may possess content, but may be deficient in linguistic
form.
• HI—Their vocabulary & their communicative ability may be
age appropriate, but phonological, morphological
• & syntactic skills often lag behind
• HI—Semantics- age appropriate
MR— Their vocabulary & their communicative ability may not
be age appropriate, if content and Use is appropriate but
Form may not be appropriate
• Autism---- Use may not be appropriate
• Aphasia---- interaction affected
 Limitations
 Important areas of attention, listening,
memory not included.

 Does not separate understanding from

expression.
Wepman’s Model

 Developed by Joseph M. Wepman,

Director of the Speech and Language
Clinic at the University of Chicago in
1960s.
 He was aware that patients with
superficially identical lesions in brain
often had strikingly different speech and
language deficits.
 He recommended using models of
human cognitive architecture to assist
their assessment and treatment.
 Wepman’s Model
 The result was a model with three sub-stages
to both the vertical and the horizontal aspects.
 The three vertical divisions represent levels of
the motor hierarchy, from reflex at the bottom
to fully conscious at the top.
 The three horizontal divisions represent stages
of processing - input on the left, integration in
the middle, and output on the right - within
any one level.
 This makes nine processing sectors in all, as
shown in the following diagram:
 Wepman’s Model
 An example of a three-layer A-shaped diagram.
 Within-level reflex pathways at both the lower
levels.
 Note the three horizontal stages of processing -
inward transmission, integration, and outward
transmission - and the three levels of processing,
higher, intermediate, and reflex.
 Includes clinical diagnostics (red, uppercase).
 These captions are positioned to indicate the
nature of the externally observable speech or
language deficit which would be associated with
a lesion at the point shown.
The Speech And Language Processing
Model (SLPM)

Components of the SLPM- It has three

major components

 The speech and language environment

component

 The speech and language processing

components

 The speech and language product

 SLPM - ENVIRONMENT
COMPONENT

 The first language learner functions in a multidimensional

environment filled with innumerable influences that can affect
speech and language. It has two major divisions:

 a) The Speech & Language input

 b) The multidimensional environment context.

 SLPM - ENVIRONMENT
COMPONENT

 Speech and language input- the primary task of a language user is

to learn to speak as others in his environment speak.
 From his direct sensory experiences and interpersonal
communicative interactions the child receives his primary speech
and language stimulation (input) for processing.
 To acquire a complete speech and language system the child must be
exposed to all the parameters and levels of speech and language like
communicative intention, sentences, words, sounds, voice qualities,
resonance patterns and prosodic features of those important people
in his environment.
 Multidimensional environmental context- this includes
factors such as family constellation, ethnic membership,
and birth order.
 Historic speech and language environment
 Immediate speech and language environment
 SLPM - Processing Component

 It is based on the assumption that different internal

processing events takes place at different anatomic levels
within the human being.
 The processing component is divided into 3 segments-
 auditory- reception segment
 central language – thought segment
 speech production segment
 SLPM - Processing Component

 These processes are involved in receiving, coding,

analyzing, transmitting, and programming the auditory
stimulus.

 Sensation and perception are the two behavioral

correlates that results from the pre linguistic physical
process taking place within the auditory reception
segment.
 SLPM - Processing Component

 Central language thought segment- on SLPM this

segment is considered as a linguistic – cognitive
processing system. It include 3 processes-

 Auditory programming
 Language- cognitive representation
 Speech programming
 SLPM - Processing Component

 These physical processes interactions allow the

individual to understand (decode) what he hears, to
integrate previously learned cognitive- language
information and experiences with new information to
create (encode) message to be spoken, and to repeat
what he hears.
 The physical processes within the central language –
thought segment give rise primarily to four
measurable behavioral correlates that are
comprehension, formulation integration and repetition.
 SLPM - Speech Production
Segment
 It is considered as a primary production system. The
processes that take place in this segment are referred to
as post linguistic processes, i.e. motor events occur
after a message has been formulated. This process turns
the message into spoken form.
 The physical processes involved are-
 speech programming
 speech initiation
 speech coordination- transmission
 speech actualization
 SLPM - Speech Production
Segment
 Speech product consist 5 parameters- vocal tone
(loudness, pitch quality), resonance (oral,
resonance), phonetic structure (physiological,
perceptual, acoustic system), prosody (stress,
intonation, timing rhythm).
 Language product consists of 4 parameters-

phonologic, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic.

 SLPM

This model also allow us to understand:

 The events that take place in the speech and language

functioning.
 Any disruption in the underlying physical basis of

speech and language.

 The speech and language input and output behaviors to

isolate and define the speech and language disorders

further, helping in client management.