DNE: Lecture 7***

• Categories of communication disorder

  • Speech (e.g. pitch, loudness, repetitions in sounds)
• Pre-requisite skills to language

  • Attention skills
  • Visual skills
  • Auditory skills
  • Tactile skills
  • Imitation skills
  • Cognitive skills
  • Referential skills
• Language


  Thinking, remembering (working memory, long term memory), reasoning, predicting, language without speech (e.g. writing, sign language)
• Language disorders


  • Difficulty following verbal instructions
  • Difficulty matching letters with sounds
  • Unable to create rhymes
  • Unable to break words into syllables
  • Have limited vocabulary
  • Difficulty forming concepts
  • Difficulty understanding verbal and non-verbal message with others
  • Difficulty expressing personal needs/ideas
• DSM 5 - communication disorders

  • Language disorder
  • Speech sound disorder
  • Childhood-onset fluency disorder
  • Social (pragmatic) communication disorder
  • Unspecified communication disorder
• Language disorder


  Disorder involving processing of linguistic information, problems may involve grammar, semantics, or other aspects of language, receptive or expressive language disorder or both
• Speech sound disorder


  Some speech sounds (phonemes) in child's language are not produced, produced incorrectly or not used correctly (substitutions, omissions, additions, distortions)
• Childhood-onset fluency disorder

  Stuttering, fluency and rhythm of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetition or prolong of sounds/syllables/words/phrases, impact on functioning and emotional state
• Social (pragmatic) communication disorder

  Difficulties in social use of verbal and nonverbal communication in naturalistic contexts, ASD must be ruled out
• Unspecified communication disorder

  Clinically significant symptoms of communication disorder, fails to meet full criteria of any communication or neurodevelopmental disorder, cause distress or impairment
• Other disorders that affect language

  • Autism spectrum disorder
  • Intellectual disability
  • Physical disability
  • Hearing impairment
  • Emotion and behavioral difficulties
• Speech treatment plan


  • Developed depending on subtype, intellectual ability, behavior, personality, three goals: help develop and improve skills and communication abilities, help children develop coping strategies and alternatives, generalize skills to natural environment
• Speech language therapy


  • Learn new vocabulary
  • Organize thoughts and beliefs
  • Correct word errors
  • Correct pronunciation through practice
• Naturalistic speech intelligibility


  Creates opportunities for child to use target words in distributed learning opportunities, follow child's focus of attention or interest, use antecedent and consequence stimuli naturally associated with particular communication response
• Classroom supports

  • Get down to the child's physical level
  • Maintain eye contact with the child when listening and speaking
  • Slow down your rate of speech
  • Wait for response time
  • Take equal communication turns
  • Model good communication skills
  • Provide assistance to the child if necessary
  • Avoid finishing sentences or filling in words for the child
  • Have the child sitting closed to the teacher
  • Use augmentative & alternative communication
• Receptive language strategies


  • Give visual cue with verbal directions
  • Cue them to where directions are being given
  • Teach listening rules
  • Give one direction at a time
  • Teach meaning of words
  • Use gestures to help students' understanding
• Expressive language strategies

  • Create opportunities for the child to verbally interact with peers
  • Model full sentence response
  • Plan activities or lessons that focus on talking about things or describing things
  • Encourage the child to speak in class, create accepting environment
  • Use full or partial echoic prompts if necessary
• Oral motor activities in classroom

  • Bubbles
  • Whistles
  • Tissue paper
  • Pinwheels
  • Feathers
  • Ping pong balls
  • Party blowers
  • Blowing colored water/a ping pong ball with colour on a painting paper