Language Disorders

Many individuals come to speech and language services for many different reasons. Not all are looking for help with articulation; many are having difficulty learning language skills. Language disorders often accompany difficulties such as attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, developmental delays, or cluttering. Some children who have sustained a physical injury, such as a closed head injury (eg: concussion/stroke), or have perceptual difficulties, such as a hearing impairment, may also have difficulty learning language.

Language disorders can be broken down into two areas: Receptive Language and Expressive Language. Receptive language disorders include, but are not limited to: difficulty following directions, difficulty with reading comprehension, difficulty understanding written/ spoken language, difficulty with auditory processing, difficulty with sequencing events, and difficulty with visual relationships. Receptive language can affect performance in reading and math and contribute to disruptive classroom behaviour.

Expressive language disorders include but are not limited to: delayed vocabulary, inability to initiate a conversation, weak grammar skills, poor spelling and writing skills, inability to categorize objects, difficulty defining word meaning, word finding difficulty, and inability to complete sentences. Expressive language disorders are often misinterpreted as “shyness,” or “poor study habits.”

Strategies to help with a language impairment are Phonemic Cues and Semantic Cues as follows.

PHONEMIC CLUES:

Individuals with language disorders may have difficulty labelling an object or remembering a name. This is similar to the feeling of “having it on the tip of your tongue.” A phonemic clue helps the individual produce the word quicker!

Simply give the ‘stuck’ person the first sound of the word:
Math example: 2+2 = (cue “four” by saying the sound ‘f’)
History example: Columbus came to America in …(cue “1492” by saying “f”)
Science example: The gas which humans need is …(cue by saying “ah” for “oxygen”)

SEMANTIC CUES:

Semantic cueing is a technique that allows the therapist to give an individual additional clues to arrive at an answer. For example, you are doing a brainstorming activity to name as many words as possible that relate to Christmas. The individual names things like “stockings”, “Santa”, and “candy canes.” You could prompt a client by saying, “What about the thing we decorate. It’s green, it has pine needles, it’s a_______.”

Here are a few ways to give a semantic cue:

1. Sentence Completion:

“You put juice in a ______.” (glass)
“The day before Thursday is ________.” (Wednesday)

2. Providing Attributes:

“It’s red, it’s a fruit, it grows on a tree.” (apple)
“You sit at it, it has four legs, you eat meals at it.” (table)

3. Opposites:

“Not up, but…” (down)
“The opposite of new is …” (old)

4. Combined with phonemic cues:

“It’s up in the sky, it’s hot and orange. The “s”. (sun)

These can be used with an entire class, group, or individual. Phonemic and semantic cues replace giving the answer, helping the struggling individual feel some independence. These cues can also be used in the written form to help with homework, be it from the teacher or speech pathologist.