SPTH2002 Lecture 6: Developmental Language Disorder

• School: University of Newcastle
• Department: Speech Pathology
• Course: SPTH2002
• Professor: Jo Walters

Document Summary

Language disorder not associated with a known biological etiology (although can co-occur) that causes functional impairment in everyday life. 3-7% of the population, equal to adhd and more than asd. Can co-occur with other neurodevelopmental disorders, e. g. adhd. Impacts on long term on academic attainment (literacy) and social interactions. Language characteristics include difficulties with form, content and use but may be inconsistent across components. Predicted risk factors include long-term disability, academics and literacy, employment and economic security, socio-emotional and behavioural. Problems with perception and/or production of complex sound configurations in words, phrases & phonologically complex non-words. Phonological awareness: phoneme segmentation and deletion, sound categorisation. Difficulty understanding negative and passive constructions, relative clauses. Some errors in speech but more frequent in writing e. g. shorter and less elaborate sentences. Morphology: delayed acquisition of morphological rules, pronoun reference, s-v agreement, coordination and subordination. Restricted word meanings not understanding multiple word meanings. Excessive use of non-specific terms (e. g. thing, stuff) and indefinite reference.