Teaching Students with Communication Disorders

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Teaching Students with Communication Disorders

• Stephanie Bronson
• Joyce Mustafa
• Emily Stretcher
• Linette Banks

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Teaching Students with Communication Disorders

• Communication is the process of exchanging
• ideas, information, needs, and desires.
• (Owens, 2005)
• Communication disorders include difficulties
• transferring knowledge, ideas, opinions, and
• feelings. (Oyer, Crowe, Haas, 1987)

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Speech Disorders

• The major components of speech include
• Articulation involves the production of speech
• sounds.
• Fluency is the flow and rhythm of language.
• Voice is the quality of speech that includes
  resonance, pitch, and intensity.

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Articulation Disorders

• The most common speech disorder.
• Ability to produce speech sounds continues to
  develop through 8 years of age.
• There can be a 3 year difference between early
  learners and late learners.
• Girls usually develop earlier than boys.
• Children's speech should be 90 developed by the
  time they enter kindergarten.

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Articulation Disorders continued....

• Types of articulation errors
• Substitutions - one sound is substituted for
  another. Examples wabbit for rabbit, tat for
  cat, free for three
• Ommissions - when a sound is not included in a
  word. Example Boo for blue, pity for pretty
• Additions
• Distortions

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Fluency Disorders

• Difficulty with the rate and flow of speech.
• Most of us are nonfluent at times. An example of
  this is when we hesitate in the middle of
  sentences, break the flow with fillers such as
  um, you know, like, and ah.
• Stuttering is the most common fluency disorder.
  It is characterized by an interruption in the
  forward flow of speech. (Palmer Yantis, 1990)

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Fluency Disorders continued....

• 98 of cases begin before age 10 (Mahr Leith,
  1992)
• Half of all children that stutter during the
  preschool years recover before the age of 7.
  (Curlee Yairi, 1997)

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Voice Disorders

• 3 Dimensions considered
• Quality (hoarse, breathy, hypernasal/hyponasa
  l)
• Pitch (high or low, monotone)
• Intensity (loud or soft)
• The most common type of voice disorder found in
  school age children is caused by vocal nodules.

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Vocal Disorders

• Vocal nodules develop from using the voice
  incorrectly or from overuse.
• Nodules that are too large make the student lose
  their voice and require surgery.
• Students need to be taught the importance of good
  oral hygiene that includes 1) keeping yelling at
  a minimum, 2) getting breath support from the
  stomach, 3) limiting time spent talking in noisy
  places, and 4) avoiding vigorous coughing
  (Lue,2001).

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School-Age Language Disorders

• Language is the representation of ideas using a
  conventional code.
• Receptive language, or comprehension, is a
  person's ability to understand what is being
  communicated.
• Expressive language, or production, is a person's
  ability to convey an intended message.

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Language Content

• Semantics is the meaning and content of words or
  word combinations.
• Vocabulary is an individual's working knowledge
  of words. A student's ability to grasp abstract
  concepts increase with their vocabulary.
• Word Categories and Word Relationships are
  understood and organized by students during
  school-age years.

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Language Content continued....

• Understanding the relationships among concepts
  are important to successful learning. Types of
  relationships include these categories
• Comparative (taller than)
• Spatial (above, under)
• Temporal-sequential (before, first)
• Causal (because, therefore)
• Conditional (if....then)
• Conjunctive (and)
• Disjunctive (either.., or)

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Language Content continued....

• Contrastive (but, although)
• Enabling (so that, in order that)
• Multiple Meanings - students with communication
  disorders usually have more limited vocabularies,
  and their word meanings are more concrete, and
  have a harder time grasping multiple word
  meanings that include which meaning to apply.
• Figurative Language - represents abstract
  concepts

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Language Content continued....

• Types of figurative language
• Idioms (It's raining cat's and dog's.)
• Metaphor (She watched him with an eagle eye.)
• Similes (He ran like a frightened rabbit.)
• Proverbs (The early bird catches the worm.)

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Language Form

• Language form is the structure of the language
  and includes
• Phonology- focuses on the sounds of language and
  the rules that determine how those sounds fit
  together.
• Phonemes are the smallest linguistic units of
  sound that can signal a meaning difference.
  
  Phonological awareness is the students'

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Language Form continued.......

• ability to understand that words contain
  sounds and that sounds can be used to construct
  words.
• Morphology the rule system that governs the
  structure of words and word forms.
• Morphemes are the smallest unit of language that
  convey meaning.
• Syntax is the rules that govern the order of
  words in sentences.

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Language Form continued......

• Types of Morphemes
• Free morphemes stand alone.
• Examples cat, run, pretty, etc.
  
• Bound morphemes cannot stand alone when added to
  words to change their meaning.
• Syntax is the rules that govern the order
• of words in sentences

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Language Use/Pragmatics

• Pragmatics is the purposes or functions of
  communication, how we use language in a social
  context.

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Metalinguistics

• Involves thinking about, analyzing, and
  reflecting on language as an object in much the
  same way one reflects on a table or a friend.
  

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Prevalence of Communication Disorders

• Approximately 10 of children in elementary
  school have communication disorders.
• 20 of all children with disabilities receive
  services for speech or language disorders
• Over 88 of these students are included in
  regular classrooms (US Dept. of Education, 2001)

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Prevalence of Communication Disorders continued

• Communication disorders occur three to four times
  more often in boys than girls.
• Occurs more often in pre-schoolers

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Identifying a Student with Possible Language
Disorders

• Language Form
• Does the student mispronounce sounds or words and
  omit endings more than the other students do?
• Does the student comprehend and produce types of
  sentences similar to those of the other students?

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Identifying a Student with Possible Language
Disorders continued

• Are the students comprehension and production
• Is the student's language as elaborate and
  descriptive as that of the other students?

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Identifying a Student with Possible Language
Disorders

• Language Content
• Does the student comprehend and produce
  vocabulary as rich and varied as that of the
  other students?
• Does the student comprehend others' ideas and
  express his or her ideas as effectively as other
  students in the classroom?

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Identifying a Student with Possible Language
Disorders continued.

• When talking, does the student have significantly
  difficulty finding the word he or she wants to
  use?

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Identifying a Student with Possible Language
Disorders

• Does the student comprehend and use figurative
  language and multiple meanings of words similar
  to that of other students in the classroom?
• Language Use
• Does the student use language for different
  purposes? including to gain attention?

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Identifying a Student with Possible Language
Disorders continued

• Ask for and tell about information
• Express and respond to feelings?
• Use imagination to understand and tell stories
  and jokes?
• Express opinions and persuade?

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Identifying a Student with Possible Language
Disorders

• For greetings, introductions, and farewells?
• Does the student take turns appropriately in
  conversations?
• Does the student initiate conversations?
• Does the student stay on topic during a
  conversation?
• ,

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Identifying a Student with Possible Language
Disorders continued

• Does the student have more than one style of
  interacting, depending on the listener,
  situation, and topic?
• Does the student recognize when the listener is
  not understanding and act to clarify
  communication for the listener?

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Instructional Guidelines Accomodations

• Facilitating Speech Development
• Goal of classroom teacher
• Provide student the opportunity to communicate in
  the most natural and supportive way possible
• How could we do that?

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Instructional Guidelines Accomodations

• Students with disabilities that cannot
  communicate effectively through speech may rely
  on
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication
  Systems (AAC)

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Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Systems
Can you think of any other examples? Have you
ever seen any of these in action?
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Facilitating Language Development

• Teaching Language in Purposive Contexts
• Try to create as real a situation as possible by
  using simulations and role-plays to create
  authentic learning experiences.

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Teaching Comprehension and Production

• Comprehension- Understanding
• Production- ablity to express
• Form- Structure
• Content- Vocabulary
• Use- Way of using the words

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Teaching Comprehension and Production

• When teaching new vocabulary, provide the
  students opportunities to
• Listen AND
• Discuss knowledge of the vocabulary AND
• Use new the new words in discussions AND writing
• Pause Procedure teacher pauses in logical spots
  and discusses what the students have learned

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Presenting New Concepts

• Use the most effective teaching practices
  possible.
• Can anyone think of any effective teaching
  practices? What about for ELL students?

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Demonstrating Connections between Concepts

• Build relationships with what the students
  already know
• Its like., Its like that but different
  because.
• More advanced students can compare
• Addition vs. Subtraction, WWI vs. WWII,
• Should help students see the relationship between
  concepts and understand semantic relationships.

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Using Conversation

• Create discussion groups instead if questions and
  answer sessions
• When might we do that?
• Engage in conversation
• Let student lead the conversation
• See Tips for Teachers 4.5 pg 113

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Using Wait Time

• Students have trouble with
• Wait time- time provided to allow students to
  understand what has been said and to construct a
  response.
• Word retrieval- finding words from memory

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Using Wait Time

• Ways to help during classroom discussion
• Increase your wait time
• Use multiple- choice formats
• Providing a cue or gesture for a word
• Turn questions into yes-or-no questions

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Adjusting the Pace

• Adjust pace so students have time to process
  language input
• Reduce the amount of information in each segment
• Check for understanding

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Using Self-Talk and Parallel Talk

• Self-talk- teacher describes what they are doing
  or thinking
• Parallel talk- teacher describes what the
  students are doing or thinking
• Example of what the teacher says
• Sally is drawing a purple unicorn on her paper.
  She made it have a happy face. I wonder why? I
  will ask.

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Using Modeling

• Modeling- following examples illustrated by
  others
• What do students have trouble communicating to
  their peers about?
• What are some ways we could model conversations
  to our students?

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Promoting Language through Expansion and
Elaboration

• Expansion- used to facilitate the development of
  more complex language form and content
• In other words Teacher repeats what students
  says in a more complex way express more feeling
  or information
• Do not act like you are correcting the student
  and only hit one element at a time.
• .

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Promoting Language through Expansion and
Elaboration

• Elaboration- teacher extension of language that
  builds on the content of the students language
  and provides additional information on the topic
• In this example, the teacher explains that snakes
  have rough skin
• Yes, snakes do have smooth skin on their bellies
  like lizards. Are there other desert animals like
  that?

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Using Language as an Intrinsic Motivator

• Instead of saying how good a students language
  was and disrupting the flow of communication,
  compliment the student by letting them know how
  useful the information was to the task.
• The teacher asks how to add four-fifths and
  one-third. The student answers. The teacher says,
  Now we know how that works. Lets all try the
  problems.

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Spotlighting on Cultural and Linguistic Diversity

• It is important for ELL students to write so they
  can
• Build vocabulary
• Subject-verb agreements
• Grammar in general
• .

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Spotlighting on Cultural and Linguistic Diversity

• It is important to know what they student knows
  about language and to expect that the development
  of writing will reflect the writing
• Examples on assessing ELL students writing page
  116

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Working with Parents to Extend Language Concepts

• Children are more likely to learn new vocabulary
  and language structures when they are active and
  practice new concepts in a variety of settings.
• Page 116n has many concepts that could be used
  for both younger students and older students

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THE END!!!!!

• Thank you for your attention.
• We are really appreciative of your active
  listening.

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Sources

• Picture one http//www.briserv.com/zygo/products.
  cfm?product31category3subcategory33subsubcat
  egory77moreyes
• Two http//www.als-mda.org/publications/everydayl
  ifeals/ch6/
• Three http//ucpsdtechcenter.org/Augmentative20a
  nd20Alternative20Communication.html
• Four http//www.buyusa.gov/canada/en/usfirmsparti
  cipatingaltes.html