What does it mean to say that a child has a specific language limitation?
The National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders defines Specific Language Impairment as a condition that delays the mastery of language skills in children who do not have hearing loss or other developmental delays. It is also referred to as developmental language disorder, language delay, or developmental dysphasia. It is one of the most common childhood learning difficulties, affecting approximately 2 children in every school classroom. The effect or footprint persists into adulthood.
Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have experienced an alteration in the moment of acquiring oral language, which includes dysfunctions in one or more components (vocabulary, phonetics-phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics), which affects their expression and can hinder comprehension. However, many of them do not know it, because SLI is an invisible disorder: children do not show any physical or sensory alteration that allows it to be easily identified.
Children with SLI have the fundamental communication tool affected: language
How does Specific Language Impairment (SLI) affect a child’s daily life?
Children with Specific Language Impairment, despite having normal intelligence, have serious problems expressing themselves when they speak and understanding when they listen. They have to work harder than their peers to keep up with the class and, therefore, get tired more quickly and find it much more difficult to follow instructions and understand.
In short, it affects them in:
- Communication with others.
- Reading difficulties and school performance
- Deterioration of social skills and relationships with their peers.
- Low self-esteem, frustration, and risk of depression
- Difficulties in finding employment in qualified job positions.
Family, teachers, and educators are the key to early detection of an invisible disorder
In the first years of life, it is not considered worrying that a child has difficulties speaking or expressing themselves. Often, parents also do not know what is normal in the different stages of their child’s growth and it takes time to react.
“When the teacher does realize, the necessary resources are not put in place to work with him and its importance is diminished, arguing that he will evolve because he is still very small,” says Llorenç Andreu, educational psychologist and doctor in psychology, professor and director of the university master’s degree in learning difficulties and language disorders at the UOC.
The SLI expert reiterates that these situations hinder the early diagnosis of Specific Language Impairment, losing critical years for the development of oral language and the problem later appearing in the learning of reading and writing.
It is obvious that the early detection of learning and development difficulties has an impact on the child’s well-being and motivation. Early detection is a victory for the child, for their family and for the educational system, since it avoids situations that can end in school failure or emotional problems derived from the lack of attention and specialized guidance.
Both families and teachers and educators are an important detection agent. Each from their field and in a complementary way can appreciate in children signs or indications of problems in the basic capacities and behaviors for learning: motor skills, socialization, language, attention and perception difficulties, and cognitive or emotional problems.
“The sooner the appropriate stimuli arrive, the greater the use of brain plasticity will be and, therefore, the negative consequences will be reduced.” Says Mª José Buj Pereda, collaborating professor of the master’s degree in Learning Difficulties and Language Disorders at the UOC.
In short, for early and effective detection, the following is necessary:
1º- The collection of information from the child’s environment (their parents and teachers) through automated methods.
2º The interpretation of said information and evaluation by a competent professional that leads to an effective detection of possible disorders for adequate and timely evolutionary monitoring.
Early detection tools with a great team: technology, observation, and knowledge. Dide method
Detecting means perceiving something that remains invisible or hidden. And this is the basis of the dide methodology, an online educational tool used by families and professionals who intervene in the development of children and adolescents, so that, through different and varied questions, they identify what is behind the behaviors and habits of children, and be able to put the necessary means to correct, accompany or reinforce the needs that are presented.
dide interprets the vision that parents and teachers have and turns it into very clear reports so that the competent educational counselor identifies possible difficulties.
Between 2 and 4 years old, disorders corresponding to: emotional and behavioral areas, aspects of development and social skills and everything related to education and learning can be detected. From 5-7 years old, it is also possible to detect some aspects that negatively influence their day-to-day life (bullying, cyberbullying, addiction to new technologies, etc.). At this age, the demands of schooling highlight the difficulties in learning and emotional development NOT detected in time, causing frustration, demotivation, low self-esteem and disaffection for school in the child.
Consult the ages for the detection of the indicators studied by dide
Awareness Day on Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
As adults, people with language disorders, in addition to having more difficulties developing and maintaining friendships, will also have fewer opportunities in all jobs and activities that require good reading and writing skills.
September 30 is the international day for awareness of Specific Language Impairment (SLI).
And on September 22, 2017, the day of awareness of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is celebrated for the first time, a new diagnostic terminology that results from the consensus of experts in speech therapy, psychology, education, medicine, audiology and representatives of associations of people with language pathology (see CATALISE: A Multinational and Multidisciplinary Delphi Consensus Study. Identifying Language impairments in Children Bishop et al., 2016).
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