Language Assessment in Children

Assessment of Language in Children

• Cognition is not a component of language, but a child's cognitive abilities affect language in all aspects
• Mental processes for learning, remembering, and using knowledge are crucial for language acquisition
• Cognitive abilities to note during assessment include attention, focus, reasoning, perception, memory, organization of self, thoughts and executive function
• Executive function describes a child's ability to plan, make decisions, and regulate behaviors or emotions

Language Disorder Categories

• Language disorders can be classified into several diagnostic categories
• Language deficiencies are not always the sole clinical feature of these conditions
• Specific language impairment (SLI) is a language disorder where children have difficulty acquiring language at a slower rate while following the typical developmental order
• Language-learning disability (LLD) encompasses difficulties in acquiring and using skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, and mathematics, linked to central nervous system dysfunction

Other Disorders

• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or pervasive development disorder (PDD) involves impairments in communication and social skills, and stereotypical behavior patterns
• Acquired brain injury (ABI) describes neurological conditions resulting from brain injury, damage, or trauma, including traumatic brain injury, stroke, tumors, convulsive disorders, infections, or congenital malformations
• Mental retardation (MR) is characterized by intellectual function significantly below normal, caused by biological medical conditions or syndromes
• Deafness involves minimal to no hearing, with profound effects on language development and use

Assessment of Early Language Development

• By age five, most children achieve communication skills comparable to adults
• The first three years of life are crucial for language development and a solid foundation for later growth
• Early language problems can persist throughout school years and impact academic performance
• Research indicates early language problems can affect academic performance across all areas
• Table 7-1 summarizes milestones of language development

Assessment Process

• Primary data sources include observation of a child's play, parental input, and structured testing
• Clinicians manipulate play situations to observe and test abilities, ideally in a natural environment
• Parents are active participants, vital to provide history, skill information, and validate observations
• Parent-child interactions provide representative language and behavioral samples
• Clinicians may use picture books to assess reluctant children or those who are shy by asking them to identify objects shown in the books

Early Intervention Assessment Categories

• Nonverbal or preverbal children are assessed on behaviors like gestures, vocalizations, eye contact, toy usage, word imitation, and pointing to objects
• Minimally verbal children are assessed by factors including naming familiar objects, understanding words, using word combinations, grammatical usages(e.g., -ing, -s), mean length of utterance, and conversational turns
• Children who speak in short phrases are assessed on their ability to follow multi-step commands, usage of appropriate syntax, diversity in descriptive words, clarity of speech, phonological procedures, and engaging in back-and-forth communication
• Conversational children are assessed on narrative ability, understanding humor, and responding to complex commands, along with their temperaments, attention span, coping behaviors, determination, ability to seek help, and visual focus on objects of interest

Developmental Concepts for Language

• Imitation involves acknowledging and repeating behaviors
• Deferred imitations are behaviors following a delay
• Means-end refers to a purposeful action to achieve a goal
• Object permanence is recognizing an object's existence even when unseen
• Functional use of objects aligns with intended usage
• Symbolic play utilizes objects to represent something else

Late Talkers vs Language Disorder

• Some children are "late bloomers" who have difficulties in verbal expression initially but overcome this later
• Language delays not resolved by age 3 often persist, impacting areas like grammar, vocabulary and syntax pragmatics
• Children with less than 50 expressive words before age 2 are at a higher risk for long-term language difficulties

Language Development Survey (LDS)

• A useful tool for identifying expressive language delays in young children
• Used for screening purposes, not diagnostic
• Late talkers may eventually catch up
• Language disordered clients may require intervention

Additional Risk Factors

• Family history of language disorder
• Medical conditions, such as frequent ear infections and hearing loss
• Prematurity, especially concerning the mother's drug or alcohol use, and low birth weights
• Poor nutrition
• Limiting use of gestures and poor eye contact

Informal Assessments

• A flexible assessment tool that allows for individualized observation, discussions, and tailored evaluations instead of standardized tests
• Real-life situations are used to determine the client's language usage
• Cognitive abilities can be observed
• Informal assessment may be a main source of diagnostic information, particularly for receptive or expressive skills, which often require creative tasks from the clinician

Formal Assessments

• Structured assessments assessing language proficiency based on linguistic theories and research
• These standardized tests evaluate skills such as grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing
• These tests focus on particular language aspects (E.g.,semantic, syntactic, and phonological memory, and vocabulary)
• Appropriate tests vary based on each individual case

Questions to Consider

• Client's age
• Specific language concerns
• Ethnic background
• Available testing time
• Client's ability to participate in testing
• External factors requesting a particular test (insurance, employers, etc.)

Language Sampling and Analysis

• A comprehensive language sample is extremely useful for evaluating clients' functional use of language
• Factors for sampling include language use, rate of speaking, event sequencing, and utilizing computer-aided profiling
• Analyzing the language sample requires observing language form, understanding semantic intent, situational language use, rate of speaking and sequencing of events

Assessment of Morphologic Features

• Assessing the correct and incorrect usage of morphologic structures, including free and bound morphemes (inflection and derivation)
• Using structured questions if features are missing in the sample

Mean Length Utterance (MLU)

• MLU is the average number of morphemes or words in an utterance.
• It helps determine language delays or disorders. This tool must be utilized carefully due to variances in language developmental rates

Roger Brown's Stages of Language Development

• Brown's study defines preschool language development stages
• Different stages for MLU are marked by the presence of first words, simple sentence structure, and grammatical elements
• Stage 1:2 years - includes early words, linear, simple sentences;2:2.5 yrs - the usage of morphemes in simple sentences; 2.5:3yrs - involves noun phrases, auxiliary verbs, various modalities (e.g., different questions, negatives, imperatives)

Pragmatics Assessment

• Pragmatics is the study of how language is used in communicative interactions, including both verbal and nonverbal behaviors
• Assessment of pragmatic skills is valuable in identifying a variety of situations and includes evaluating 15 pragmatic behaviors with guidance on eliciting responses

Making a Diagnosis

• A child with language disorder may display various deficiencies
• These defects include delayed language onset, academic problems, limited understanding of language, limited conversational skills, and deficits in cognitive skills

This quiz explores the relationship between cognitive abilities and language acquisition in children. It also covers different categories of language disorders, including specific language impairment and language-learning disabilities. Test your understanding of how cognition influences language skills and disorders in young learners.