Children with Specific Language Impairment

What is Specific Language Impairment (SLI)?

It is a "form of language impairment that is diagnosed when language abilities are below age expectations but non-linguistic developmental abilities are within age expectations" (American Psychiatric Association).

Characteristics:

• Relatively common developmental disorder as it affects 7% of the general population
• Diagnosis not until four years old (less then half of "late talkers" later exhibit SLI symptoms)
• Children with SLI show general delays at about two with their vocabulary size, sentence length, and narrative abilities
• Can show delays with the acquisition of late-acquired grammatical morphemes in English (like past tense /ed/, which can be more than two years delayed
• Low language abilities result in functional limitations in effective communication, social participation, academic achievement, or occupational performance
• Exclusionary diagnosis (no presence of hearing impairment, autism spectrum disorder, severe intellectual disability, intact oral-motor structure and function, and no neurological dysfunction)

Possible Specific Language Impairment problems in English:

• core single word vocabulary is almost one year delayed
• difficulty using context clues to understand novel words
• about 25% of children with SLI are slower at naming tasks, have difficulty retrieving common words they know at other times
• receptive and expressive difficulty with multiple meanings (polysemous words like kitchen table and data table, homonyms such as river bank and a bank, and metaphorical uses of language like eyes are windows to souls)
• older children with SLI have difficulty with complex sentences

Does bilingualism affect Specific Language Impairment?

Bilingualism does not make a specific language impairment worse.  A child is still able to learn a second language despite having a specific language impairment.  In fact research has shown that a child with a specific language impairment will have those same impairments in their second language as they have in their first learned language.  Therefore, there is no reason to stop bilingual development on the thought that a child's language learning difficulties might worsen if they have two languages to deal with instead of one.  It is actually more beneficial to a child that has a language delay to maintain their proficiency in the primary language so that parents and siblings can communicate easily with them.

Techniques for working with children with SLI:
(as time goes on the adult's role fades becoming less direct so the child can take over and be more independent)

• Imitation: say the structure and tell the child to repeat it
• Modeling: provide context for the child to use the structure
• Focused Stimulation: use structure often in the same turn before providing context for the child to use it
• Conversational recasting when the target structure is misused, the adult rephrases what the child said
• Expansion: the adult adds new information and structure to what the child says
• Scaffolding: the adult starts structure but leaves fill ins for the child

And lastly we will take a look at children with intellectual disorders.


Resources:

Paradis, J., Genesse, F., & Crago, M.B. (2011). Dual language development & disorders: A handbook on bilingualism & second language learning 2nd edition. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co.

American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Development. 2012. A 04 Specific Language Impairment. http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=488
Griffin, P. Class 9 Printed Word ID and SLI. Retrieved online May 3, 2012.