Research/Awareness Project

                                                               By

                                                      Teresa Burford

                                                         SEED 3554

 

 

                                    LANGUAGE DISORDERS

 

 

 

                                                    

 

                                                          

 

                                                       

                                                    

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                Language disorders   2

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Criteria

Summary of Involvement

Development of child and Professional development

Summary of related research

References

Special provisions

Learning center and Lesson plans

Appendages:  IDEA

                       Arkansas Severity Ratings Assignment

                       Arkansas Severity Ratings for Language

                       Arkansas Severity Ratings for Fluency

                       Arkansas Severity Ratings for Voice

                       Arkansas Severity Ratings for Articulation

                       Due Process Timelines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I. Introduction

     The area of exceptionality that I researched was that of speech and language difficulties.  Speech or language impairment means a communication disorder.  This could take the form of stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or voice impairment.  Some children do not develop speech or language as expected.  They may have trouble with moving the muscles that control speech or the ability to understand or use language at all.  These can range from mild to severe and some may be corrected while others may be long-term.

     According to the Arkansas regulations, which are compatible with the Federal definition  “Speech or Language Impairment” means a communication disorder such as deviant articulation, fluency, voice, and/or comprehension and/or expression of language, spoken or written, which impedes the child’s acquisition of basic cognitive and/or affective performance skills as established by the Arkansas Department of Education.

     There are several forms of speech and language impairments.

q      Speech apparatus – the mouth, tongue, nose, breathing and how they are coordinated and operated by muscles

q      Phonology – the sounds that make up language

q      Syntax or grammar – the way that words and parts of words combine in phrases and sentences

q      Semantics – the meaning of sentences, words, and bits of words

q      Pragmatics – how language is used in different situations and how feelings are conveyed

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q      Intonation and stress – the rhythm and music of the way we speak

     Children may have difficulty in one or a combination of these areas.  According to NHS Center for Reviews and Dissemination:  Pre-school hearing, speech, language and vision screening (Effective Health Care volume 4 no 2 1998), 6 in 100 children will at some stage have a speech, language or communication problem.  At least 1 in 500 children experience severe, long-term difficulties, David Hall, Health for all Children (1996).

       Speech disorders present a combination of physiological and psychological problems.  They are categorized as language, articulation, voice, and fluency disorders.

Language disorders can result from brain injury, stroke or brain disease.  Development of the language center in the brain may also cause language disorders due to use of drugs by the mother during pregnancy.  Genetic abnormalities or bilateral pre-linguistic deafness may also cause language disorders.  Voice disorders usually occur in middle-aged adults and may have emotional connections.  May be due to a neurological problem, cerebral palsy or other conditions.  Articulation problems may be a result of cleft palate, misaligned teeth, hearing loss, cerebral palsy, paralysis or others.  Fluency disorders appear in the form of stuttering, cluttering and rate of speech.  The cause of stuttering is unknown.  A combination of psychological and physiological factors produces it. 

     The following chart shows how the amount of some disabilities in the US has been reduced.  People with multiple disabilities have decreased.  Hearing, visual, and orthopedic impairments are on the rise.  Other impairments have gone down.  Learning disabilities have increased by 10%.  Speech Impairments have gone down by 70%.                     

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Mental retardation has remained the same.  Behaviorally disturbed individuals have increased by 10%.

  

             Multiple    Hearing   Visual Orthopedic  Other   LD       Speech        MR      Behaviorally Disturbed

                    Disabilities

 

II

     The criteria used for making classification decisions in the school district where I observed were if the disorder impeded the child’s acquisition of basic cognitive or performance skills as mentioned above.  Possible referral characteristics are: 1. Intellectual, although this is not as strong an indicator as are other referral characteristics.  2.  Academic, overall achievement may be below expectancy in relation to age, mental age or both.  This includes math, reading, spelling, written composition, and/or grammatical usage.  Word knowledge may be lower than expected and word substitutions may occur frequently.  3.  Behavioral, the child does not participate in verbal activities, inattentive, distractible, poor concentration, difficulty attending. He may have difficulty following directions.  Embarrassed by his speech or has monotone voice, usually nasal,           

 

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Abnormal rhythm, unintelligible speech and more. 4.  Physical, cleft lip, palate, cerebral palsy, deviant dental structure and more.

     Screening would be required to include; hearing and vision, formal and informal.   Then evaluation of social history, individual intelligence and/or achievement would be made.  In addition to this the student would be rated for mild to sever condition.

     Anyone may referrer a student.  The parent, teacher or other party involved with the child, can do it. The first step is to get the permission of the parents to test the child.  Only after this may screening and testing begin.

III

     During my school visits I observed the students.  I did get to talk with the students briefly at the beginning and/or end of the speech session.  Each session was 30 minutes and has two or three children.  The work was intense and the therapist has to observe, listen and record each child’s response. 

     Upon my arrival into the speech therapy classroom, the therapist welcomed me and work with the children began immediately.  The room was small, approximately 12 feet by 8 feet.  There was a small round table in the center with four chairs.  The room also contained a filing cabinet, desk with computer, bookshelves, closet and chalkboard.

       The first session I observed was with two students.  Occasionally there would be three students and this was a real time crunch.  Three students seemed to be the maximum amount of students that could be taught in the 30 minutes allowed. 

     I noticed the students liked to share their personal experience with the therapist.  This was beneficial to the student so he could practice his speech in conversation.  This is

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critical to the development and confidence of the student.  Some of the students with speech difficulties are quite around others and might not participate in conversation as readily as the student without speech difficulties.  This initial conversation also benefits the therapist as she gets the opportunity to listen the student’s speech.  I noticed most of the children were motivated and wanted to do well.

     Once the initial evaluation of the type of speech difficulty that the student has, his program can be tailored to work on those areas of deficiency.   The type of program they receive is also based on their age and level of capability of reading, understanding and following directions. 

     I observed the therapist using many tools to aid the student in making the correct sounds.  One of the tools used was a mirror, so that the student could see what his tongue was doing and so that he could see when he was moving his head too much.  Also to see when there was unnecessary tension on face.  Another was a stethoscope so that the student could identify the correct sound.  Flash cards, games, straws and others were incorporated.  Some of the methods I observed were repetition, usually three times.  Echoic, saying “you do what I do”, saying “er” as you touch each symbol.  The child would respond by saying “er” as he touches each symbol.  Spontaneous “er”.  Say “now do it by yourself”.  The child responds by saying “er” as he touches each symbol.  Association was used also, an example of this would be, “brr”  (like cold) to get the word bird.

     The students learn key words and phrases to use to help facilitate learning.  An example of this would be when the student described his speech as “bumpy” when he

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talks too fast.  They learn the meaning of “easy on set”.  This means flow one word to another, stretch out 1st letter.  Stop sound go to 2nd letter to flow.  They used examples of times when they might start going too fast.  This was primarily used for stuttering. Stutters seem to get hung up on stop letter sounds like “b” in ball resulting in b-b-ball.  This condition never goes away, teaching children to be ready for the bumps and how to smooth out the words is the goal for this particular speech difficulty.

     Other skills were incorporated like reading, listening, learning to recognize new words, counting/math, visual identification, social skills and following direction. 

     There were classroom rules like the raising of hand to speak, sitting up straight and listening quietly when someone else was speaking.  Much praise was given when students followed direction and did a good job working on their sounds.  One I especially liked and now use when dealing with my child and other children is; “I like how you made the “t” sound”, or “I like the way you said please and thank you”.   As each student successfully completed a task, the therapist would chart this on his folder.  Also noted was the number of words correct out of number possible. 

     Criteria in determining when a student may be dismissed from speech therapy services, the evaluation/programming committee should review the safeguards on the “Use of Criteria for Dismissal” on page 22 of the “Arkansas Guidelines and Severity Ratings for Speech/Language Impairment”.  Speech and language therapy services may be terminated when certain criteria has been met.  1.  The problem is no longer a disability.  2.  The student’s IEP objectives and goals have been met.  3.  The student’s cognitive and/or affective performance skills are no longer affected.  4.  The student’s

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level of performance will not get any better.  5.  The student no longer shows benefit from the therapy.

IV.

     The development of children with speech difficulties is usually good.  Speech is an area where great improvements can be made unless the child has severe limited cognitive functioning, structural anomalies, neurological disabilities or severe hearing impairment.

It seems the area most affected is socially.  This would get better as their speech improves.  Most of the children I observed were bright, intelligent, friendly and motivated to improve.  I think this gave me a greater insight to the student that is unusually quite or does not socialize much.  This could be due in part to a speech problem and the student is too embarrassed to speak.

     This experience has been a good “eye opener” to the world of language disorders.  Going into this I had no knowledge of this area.  From this experience I will have a better understanding of how to better facilitate learning both academically and socially for those students with a language disorders.  Academically they will have to be evaluated on an individual bases and approaite accommodations made to provide a learning environment so that the student will receive an appropriate education.  Socially, I will be more empathic with what the student is going through in his daily struggle to make friends and belong to a peer group.  Being careful not to single him out for any difference he might have. 

 

 

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V. Related Research

Article 1                                                                                 

      Effective Health Care is about the importance of early health care screening.  The screening includes hearing, speech, language and vision.  By annual screening and early screening children can be better served.  The earlier a problem is diagnosed the better the prognosis will be.  Evaluation of screening is to identify those impairments, which are not obvious, or apparent, which will cause significant disability or handicap if early treatment is not started.  The three individual screening tests must be seen in the context of an overall health program.  NHS Center for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, (1998).  Effective health care.  Bulleting on the Effectiveness of Health Service Interventions for Decision Makers, (4), (2).

Article 2.

     Language disabilities have been linked to learning disabilities as the main cause of them.  Language comprehension and expression have been included as identifying characteristics of a learning disability.  Late talkers usually outgrow this but do display some form of delayed learning.  They may outgrow this delay but not the underlying disorder.  Currently there are studies on going to determine if the relationship between language delays can be linked to later learning and social problems.  According to this article, a language disorder may disappear; it will reappear in some different form.  So the “wait and see” approach is not a good one.  Children with language difficulty should get assistance as soon as it is diagnosed.  The Relationship Between Language and Learning Disabilities.  Diagnosis and Management of Learning Disabilities An

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Interdisciplinary/Lifespan Approach, Third edition.  Brown, F.R. III, Ph.D., Aylward, E.H., Ph.D. & Keogh, B.K., Ph.D.                                                                                                     

Article 3.

     This article addresses the complex nature of language and mathematics.  Semiotics is the study of meaning, and how meaning is generated.  This is the approach the author of the article takes.  Meaning is an active process, created during social interaction.  A word, spoken or written is a linguistic sign.  In math if one does not understand the meaning of a sign or word then he cannot perform the task.  Chapman, A. (1993).  Language and learning in school mathematics:  A social semiotic perspective.  Issues in Educational Research, 3, (1), 35-46.

Article 4.

    This article is about how a child’s voice can be a major factor in the child’s self-esteem, social and psychological development.  The quality of voice is dependent on the structure of the vocal folds, function of neuromuscular controls within the vocal apparatus and behavior.  Dysphonia in children may be attributed to physiological factors.  This could be an immature and changing larynx. The muscles are not coordinated or other causes.  Treatment for this must be a careful balance of the condition and the child’s life, family, and school conditions.  Hunt, J. & slat, A. (1996).  Child dysphonia – harmony and balance.  Speech & Language Therapy in Practice, August/September.

 

 

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Article 5.

     This article is about a child with cerebral palsy.  He has a special language therapist to help him communicate better.  As a child with a cognitive impairment, the child is not able to consent for therapy, so his parents must do this on his behalf.  What if the child                                                                                             

does not want therapy?  What if the child does not cooperate with this therapy?  This article address this issues.  Communication is so important for this child yet he does not want to participate in the language therapy.  Other methods of communication must be made available to this child.  Stansfield, J. & Hobden, C. (1999).  Whose right? – Who’s right?  Speech & Language Therapy I Practice, Winter.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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VI.            References

Brown, F.R. III, Ph.D., M.D., Aylward, E.H., Ph.D. & Keogh, B.K., Ph.D. (1996).  Diagnosis and Management of Learning Disabilities An Interdisciplinary/Lifespan, (3rd ed.).Singular Publishing Group.

 

Chapman, A. (1993).  Language and learning in school mathematics:  A social semiotic perspective.  Issues in Educational Research, 3 (1), 35-46.

 

Hunt, J. & Slat, a. (1996).  Child dysphonia – harmony and balance.  Speech & Language Therapy in Practice, August/September.

 

Dirk,S.A., Gallaher, J.J., & Anastasiow.  Educating Exceptional Children (9th ed.).  New Jersey

 

NHS Center for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, (1998).  Effective

health care.  Bulleting on the Effectiveness of Health Service Interventions for Decision Makers, (4), (2).

 

Stansfield, J. & Hobden, C. (1999).  Whose right? – Who’s right?  Speech & Language Therapy in Practice, Winter.  Retrieved October 5, 2001 from http://www.speechmag.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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VII.  Special provisions

     Special provisions for the students that I observed were in the form of outside of the regular classroom work.  The student met with a trained speech therapist for three hours per week to work on the specific problem of that student. 

VIII. Learning center

This set up allows for the teacher to work with three students at a time and meet specific speech requirements for that child.  This could be done in the regular classroom or a separate room. 

                                                               Teachers Desk

Desk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Lesson Plan

Subject – Math

Grade Level 6 – 8

The goal of this lesson is to review integer operation and practice integer operations. 

First review integer addition and subtraction.  Asking students for rules and principles. For the student with the speech problems more time should be allow for answering. 

 

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Another option for the disabled student he may be allowed to write his answer on the board instead of verbalizing it.  Ask them for examples and to write them on the board.

Procedure:

Show transparency of examples. Divide students into groups of three.  One will be Journal keeper, one, record keeper, and one doer.  Record keeper makes a chart as shown on example and journal keeper writes down the group’s prediction on how it will do.  The group will have approximately 5 minutes to match as many of the 20 sets of 2 cards and one stick as possible.  Only the doer may actually touch the cards and sticks, the other may only coach.  At the end of the time, the record keeper records how many sets the group was able to match.  The journal keeper records this also.  The journal keeper records how the group felt before and after the first round.

Switch sets of cards.

After 3-5 rounds the record keeper averages the group’s score. 

This activity takes approximately 30 minutes. 

Closure:

The journal keepers explain their group’s activity and scores. 

This may or may not be done by a student with a speech problem depending on what the goals for that child are.  If one of the goals were for the child to practice speaking to a group this would be a good practice session for that.

 

Lesson plan #2

Subject – Earth Science

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Grade 5-8

Time for this lesson is approximately 1 hour.

Collect pieces of bark for example purposes and examining.

Show students the different types of bark.

Hold disscussion with class about bark and wood types.

Have students collect bark or pictures of bark. 

Have students chart their findings.  Location and basic description.

Closure

After gathering samples, students will make observations about different textures and types.  Student is to write a report to detail what they have observed from each sample.

 

For students with language disorders these lessons might need to be translated, repeated, or reworded.  This would be in order to establish clarity to the student.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                               APPENDIXES