WHAT IS LANGUAGE BASED LEARNING DISABILITY?
Language-based learning disability refers to a heterogeneous group of difficulties in the acquisition and use of language as related to listening, speaking, reading, writing, mathematical abilities, and/or social skills.
RISK INDICATORS
- Difficulty with rhyming, segmenting, blending, and discriminating
- Limited variation in vocabulary
- Limited development of complex sentence structures
- Difficulty responding to open ended questions
- Frequent conversational topic shifts and/or irrelevant comments or responses
- Difficulty in word retrieval and formulation of expressions
- Difficulty with peer social interaction
- Inattention as language load increases and becomes more complex with respect to content and structure
ACADEMIC IMPACT
There are four major interactions between language and academic performance:
- Language and reading/writing
- Language and word mathematics
- Language and spoken/written text
- Language and metalinguistic awareness
THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
- Formal assessment procedures
- Comprehensive language assessment batteries
- Informal assessment
- Associated verbal and nonverbal tasks
- Natural context analysis
- Discourse samples
- Reading and writing
- Problem-solving
- Observing listening skills
AREAS OF TREATMENT
Language Formulation
- Word retrieval
- Complex sentence formulation
- Oral narratives
- Written narratives
Language processing
- Auditory attention
Auditory phoneme discrimination
Auditory closure
Auditory memory
Phonemic segmentation
Phonemic blending
Following multi-step verbal commands
Reading Comprehension
Higher level language
- Problem solving
Idioms and figurative language
Absurdities
Metaphors
Similes
Inferences
Pragmatics
- Affect
Topic maintenance
Turn taking
Code switching
Metalinguistic skills
Social cues