Children with specific language impairment (SLI) show a significant deficit in spoken language that cannot be attributed to neurological damage, hearing impairment, or intellectual disability. More prevalent than autism and at least as prevalent as dyslexia, SLI affects approximately seven percent of all children; it is longstanding, with adverse effects on academic, social, and (eventually) economic standing.
This book gives an account of developmental language impairment from the perspective of language evolution. Components of language acquisition and specific language impairments can be mapped to stages in the evolutionary trajectory of language. Lian argues that the learning of procedural skills by early ancestors has served as pre-adaptation of grammar. The evolutionary perspective gives rise to a re-evaluation of developmental impairment with respect to diagnostic terminology and methods of treatment.
Language Competence Across Populations: Toward a Definition of Specific Language Impairment
The Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem, Israel. Text presents an attempt to define Specific Language Impairment, relating it to children of normal and disordered language capabilities. Examines language development, methodological concerns, dialects, signed languages, and linguistic approaches. Includes charts, graphs, and halftone illustrations.
Pragmatics - the way we communicate using more than just language - is particularly problematic for people with speech disorders. Through an extensive analysis of how pragmatics can go wrong, this book not only provides a novel and clinically useful account of pragmatic impairment, but it also throws new light on how pragmatics functions in healthy individuals.
Professionals will find a wide range of topics relevant to their work with hearing impaired children or those suspected of having an impairment in this book.
