Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Teachers and therapists are well aware that language-impaired children, particularly as they get older, present with a variety of linguistic difficulties. After a brief review of earlier typological studies, this paper addresses the issue of identifying sub-groups of school-age language- impaired children, using a language production process model. The analysis involves, in addition to measures of syntactic ability, features of the children's performance such as mazes, and the full range of 'errors' exhibited in their output. Results indicate that variation among the children on the measures applied can be utilized to construct profiles which identify distinct sub-groups in terms of their language production performance.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aram, D. and Nation, J. 1975: Patterns of language behaviour in children with developmental language disorders. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 18, 229-41.

Bishop, D. 1989: Autism, Asperger's syndrome and semantic-pragmatic disorder: where are the boundaries? British Journal of Disorders of Communication 24, 107-21.

Chapman, R. 1987: Child talk. Unpublished paper, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Chiat, S. and Hirson, A. 1987: From conceptual intention to utterance: a study of impaired language output in a child with developmental dysphasia. British Journal of Disorders of Communication 22, 37-64.

Crystal, D. 1986: The diagnosis of language disorders in children . Final report on MRC grant No. G8306096 NA.

Crystal, D. , Fletcher, P. and Garman, M. 1989: The grammatical analysis of language disability: a procedure for assessment and remediation (second edition). London : Whurr.

Curtiss, S. and Tallal, P. 1990: On the nature of language-impaired children. In Miller, J. , editor, Research in child language disorders: a decade of progress, Boston : College Hill Press.

Fletcher, P. 1987: The basis of language impairment in children: a comment on Chiat and Hirson. British Journal of Disorders of Communication 22, 65-72.

Fletcher, P. and Garman, M. 1988: Normal language development and language impairment: syntax and beyond. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 2, 97-113.

10.

Garrett, M. 1982: Production of speech: observations from normal and pathological language use. In Ellis, A. W. , editor, Normality and pathology in cognitive functions , London: Academic Press.

11.

— 1988: Processes in language production. In Newmeyer, F. , editor, Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey Vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

12.

Lesser, R. 1987: Cognitive neuropsychological influences on aphasia therapy . Aphasiology 1, 189-200.

13.

Levelt, W. 1983: Monitoring and self-repair in speech. Cognition 14, 41-104.

14.

— 1989: Speaking: from intention to articulation. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

15.

Miller, J. 1987: A grammatical characterisation of language disorder . In Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Specific Speech and Language Disorders in Children, London : AFASIC.

16.

Rapin, I. 1982: Children with brain dysfunction, New York: Ravens Press.

17.

Rapin, I. and Allen, D. 1982: Developmental language disorders: nosologic considerations . In Kirk, V. , editor, Neuropsychology of language, reading and spelling, New York: Academic Press.

18.

Wilson, B. and Risucci, D. 1986: A model for clinical-quantitative classification. Generation I: application to language-disordered pre-school children. Brain and Language 27, 281-309.

19.

Wolfus, B. , Moscovitch, M. and Kinsbourne, M. 1980: Subgroups of developmental language impairment. Brain and Language 10, 152-71.

20.

Wren, C. 1980: Identifying patterns of language disorder. In Proceedings from the First Wisconsin Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders, Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sub-groups of school-age language impaired children

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References