Chapter 14

Communication Disorders

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Communication Disorders

Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today’s Schools (4th ed.)

Defining Communication Disorders

How Do You Recognize Students with Communication Disorders?

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How Do You Recognize Students with Communication Disorders?

• Communication entails receiving, understanding, and expressing information, feelings, and ideas.

• Communication and language include both the content and the medium used.

• Speech and language disorders (often associated with other disorders)– Speech disorder refers to difficulty in producing sounds (cleft palate).– Language disorder refers to difficulty in receiving, understanding, and

formulating ideas and information.• Cultural diversity

– Difference does not always mean disorder.– Dialects are various forms of language.

Describing the Characteristics

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• Typical speech development– Follows a typical and predictable pattern and time table– By the age of 8, children can produce nearly all the consonants and vowels that make up the

native language.– There is variation among children in the time of acquisition.

• Speech disorders– Articulation: production of individual or sequenced sounds

• Substitutions, omissions, additions, and distortions• If these problems interfere with peer interactions or educational performance: REFER

– Apraxia of speech: motor speech disorder affecting the planning of speech• Difficulty with the voluntary, purposeful movement of speech (stroke, tumor, head injury, developmental)• Can produce individual sounds but cannot produce them in longer words or sentences

– Voice disorders: pitch, duration, intensity, resonance, and vocal quality– Fluency disorders: interruptions in the flow of speaking

• Stuttering: frequent repetition and/or prolongation of words or sounds

How Do You Recognize Students with Communication Disorders?

Describing the Characteristics

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• Typical language development– Language development is complex– Depends on biological preparation, successful nurturance, sensorimotor

experiences, and linguistic experiences• Five components of language

– Phonology: the use of sounds to make meaningful syllables and words• Phonemes: individual speech sounds

– Morphology: the structure of words• Morphemes: the smallest meaningful unit of speech (e.g., s)

– Syntax: the rules for putting together a series of words to form sentences– Semantics: word and sentence meanings for what is spoken– Pragmatics: social use of language

How Do You Recognize Students with Communication Disorders?

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• Characteristics of language impairments– Language disorders may be receptive, expressive, or both.– Language disorders may be related to another disability or may be a

specific language impairment.• Phonological disorders – difficulty in discriminating differences in speech

sounds or sound segments• Morphological difficulties – problem using the structure of words to get or give

information (e.g., proper tenses)• Syntactical errors – problem with the correct word order in sentences that

meaning is lost for listeners• Semantic disorders – problems using words singly or together in sentences• Pragmatic disorders – problems in the social use of language (e.g., eye

contact, body language, organization)

How Do You Recognize Students with Communication Disorders?

Describing the Characteristics

Identifying the Causes and Prevalence

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• Two types of speech and language disorders– Organic: caused by an identifiable problem in the neuromuscular

mechanism of the person (hereditary malformations, prenatal injuries, toxic disturbances, tumors, traumas, seizures, infectious diseases, muscular diseases)

– Functional: those with no identifiable origin

• Speech and language disorders can also be classified according to when the disorder began.– Congenital: present at birth– Acquired: occurs well after birth

How Do You Recognize Students with Communication Disorders?

Determining the Presence

How Do You Evaluate Students with Communication Disorders?

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How Do You Evaluate Students with Communication Disorders?

• Speech assessment: speech pathologist uses a standardized articulation test to measure articulation, voice, and fluency problems.

• Voice evaluations: includes both quantitative and qualitative measures (interviews and case history)

• Fluency assessments: evaluated through a conversation with the student and interview with parents

• Three areas to be assessed relative to language interactions in the classroom:– The student’s ability to use language effectively by speaking and listening tasks– The teacher’s language– The language requirements of the lessons and textbooks

• Assessments for students who are bilingual or multilingual• Evaluation teams need to take a holistic view of the student’s communication skills

using ecological assessments.

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How Do You Evaluate Students with Communication Disorders?

Determining the Presence

Figure 14-4

Including Students

How Do You Assure Progress in the General Curriculum?

Describe how students with communication disorders are supported in the general education curriculum.

Figure 14-5

Planning Universally Designed Learning

Reflect on how communication disorders can be accommodated in the general curriculum.

• Adapting Instruction– Ask varied types of questions to encourage students’ self-expression– Expand student utterances by using modeling more elaborate language– Augment or alter classroom language by providing statements that explain a

student’s nonverbal behaviors– Allow students opportunity to practice public verbalizations– Keep in mind the need of some students for AAC systems– Figure 14-6 (page 417)

• Augmenting Instruction– Repetition of the curriculum– Visual supports: graphic organizers, photographs, gestures, sign language– Direct instruction in social skills

How Do You Assure Progress in the General Curriculum?

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

• ACC systems are an integrated group of components that supplement the communication abilities of individuals who cannot meet their communication needs through gestures, speaking, and/or writing.

• An AAC device is a physical object that transmits or receives messages.

• Types of AAC: communication books, communication boards, communication charts, mechanical/electrical voice output, computers, etc.

• Using the AAC devices:– Using eyes to look at the symbol– Touching the symbols with fingers– Using a laser beam attached to the head– Scanning– Encoding