Language Disorders
By
Caeli Boyle
Lauren Loux
Lena Minneci
Josie Minneci
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, EdPsy 313, Fall 2001
Library of Resources by Judith Kuster
This website is a library of resources put together by a researcher in the field of speech and
language disorders. Information is available about many different areas of communication
disorders. These areas include child language disorders, adult language disorders, voice
disorders, speech sound disorders, and fluency disorders. The site also includes information on multicultural and diversity issues. Augmentative communication is also discussed, as well as ways to prevent language disorders.
This website focuses on the speech disorder of apraxia. The site includes information on what apraxia is and how it can be treated. Family essays are included on the site that will help parents who may have a child with apraxia. A chat area is also included that parents, teachers and the child may use to find more information as well as to gain support.
This website is for the Child Development Institute, which is a part of the U.S. Department of Education. The website includes information on what communication disorders are. Resources are available on the website for families and teachers. The characteristics of different communication disorders are presented.
Learning Disabilities Association
This website shares information on the early identification of language disorders and why this is important. This information is important for teachers and parents to know so that children with language disorders can start to receive therapy at an early age. Explanations of how the evaluations of speech and language are conducted are discussed. The website also shares information on who should be evaluated by a speech language pathologist. An explanation of speech and language therapy is explained.
This website gives a general definition of speech and language disorders. Information on the incidence of these disorders is included. Characteristics of different disorders are presented in a logical and easy to follow. Educational implications of speech and language disorders are included that are helpful for parents and teachers to understand.
Hyperlexia and Language Disorders Articles
This website was very interesting. It focuses mainly on hyperlexia and other language disorders. This web site can be very helpful to parents who have just recently found out that their child has some sort of language disorder. Not only is there information on each disorder, there are also personal stories of people that are adults, that have gone through life with language disorders and also children and their experiences with the language disorder.
Institute of Communicative Disorders
This website is more of an information web site for the Institute of Communicative Disorders. This center provides different speech therapies in addition to information on different language disorders. The web site basically gives an outline and background on the center. (when it was founded, by who, how it is run, etc.) This center focuses on children and adults with language disorders and how their families can help with the therapy process at home. Not only is this center designed for speech therapy, it is also designed to help autistic kids and other special types of language disorders.
Callier Center for Communicative Disorders
This website is an information web site as to where clinicians can go to be trained in specific
language disorder therapy. Not only does the center teach people how to give therapy to
children an/or adults with language disorders, it also gives prevention measures in order to
possibly stop a disorder from becoming worse than it already is. This center offers workshops on different language disorder techniques, special clinics for specific language disorders and it also offers different branches of educational training on language disorders.
The Center for Speech, Language and Learning
This website is another informational web site on language disorders. It is designed to help
children who have trouble with language, realize that they are able to overcome this and be
successful. The web site is geared towards making children who feel different about having a language disorder; feel that there is nothing wrong with them. The web site also offers different therapies for the children to use.
This website is mainly for parents of children who have language disorders. This web site gives the parents a place to go if they have questions, if they are frustrated, if they are having a hard time dealing with their child having a disorder, etc. There are places to post stories and poems that the children, or even the parents have written about the disorder. There is also access to a newsletter that may be helpful to parents. They are able to receive information on different facilities and possible even group meetings. There is also a frequently asked question part where parents can ask experienced parents questions, how to deal with certain issues, that type of thing.
This particular website discusses everything about the speech disorder of stuttering. The most explicit information includes what stuttering is, who is likely to develop this speech disorder, the effects of stuttering on the individual, as well as therapy that's used and it's importance. This site also explains the do's and don'ts when speaking with someone who stutters. Therefore, this becomes important because some people may think that helpful ways to make a child stutter less is to tell them to slow down or take their time when in fact this only makes things worse. After explaining all of this helpful information the website includes the theories of the cause, famous people who stutter, informational sources about stuttering, and comments or questions about the disorder anyone might have.
This website gives a wide variety of information concerning cluttering and how important it is to know about this particular language disorder. The information provided includes distinguishing someone with this fluency disorder, how it is diagnosed, how it is treated, the likelihood that therapy will help, and how someone can get help for cluttering. The site also distinguishes between stuttering and cluttering. This is extremely important when being diagnosed. Therefore, it becomes crucial to know that cluttering involves excessive breaks in the normal flow of speech that seem to result from disorganized speech planning, talking too fast or in spurts, or simply being unsure of what one wants to say whereas the person who stutters typically knows exactly what he or she wants to say but is temporarily unable to say it.
This website is a great website to go to to find precise information about the language disorder of spasmodic dysphonia. Spasmodic dysphonia is a voice disorder caused by involuntary movements of one or more muscles of the larynx or voice box and this results in the person having difficulty in saying a word or two and it also causes the voice to break and have a strained quality to it. Other information included is the types and features of this disorder, who is affected, what causes it and how it is diagnosed, the treatment that is available, and finally other places where you can get additional information. This website would be great for people who are affected so that they can get all the information they need to better understand what they are going through and how to deal with the disorder successfully.
Planning Treatment for Speech and Language Disorders
This particular website explains how speech-language pathologists plan treatment for children with speech and language delays and disorders. First it explains how assessment is approached and this all depends on what the screening procedure suggests what kind of problem the child has. Next, the site explains in detail the level of linguistic analysis and how important this is when assessing and treating the child. Also, it discusses the specific happenings in each level and how language is produced in each stage. With this, goals are listed that are to be accomplished based on the type of language or speech disorder a certain child may have. Lastly, this site includes certain therapy procedures and activities that are used depending on what type of disorder the child has.
This website is very well organized in explaining what speech and language disorders are, the assessment that is used, and interventions that could be used. The website explains that speech difficulties refer to problems with the perception or articulation of speech sounds, while language difficulties refer to a range of problems that can interfere with communication and the cognition. Furthermore, the site describes how speech and language problems can occur in two categories, which are receptive and expressive. Also it explains how these problems can occur at several levels, which include phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. It gives a chart in an organized way concerning these levels. I think that this is a really good website because of all the explicit information it provides, which can make individuals better understand what goes on with someone who has a speech or language disorder.
This website emphasizes one specific language disorder, which is called spoonerism. It's a great site because it not only defines what this disorder is, but also gives important information that helps individuals fully understand what this specific language disorder involves. It also gives a link that exhibits some examples of what typical spoonerisms look like. These examples act as an aid to distinguish this specific language disorder. The site contains links that entails the origin of spoonerism, it lists some other books that give detail to this disorder, and it also lists some other websites for more in dept study about this disorder, which occurs when phrases, sentences, or words in language with sounds swapped.
This specific website talks about the language disorder called developmental verbal apraxia, also known as developmental Apraxia of speech. It is a great site because it touches on all aspects associated to thisdisorder. Not only does it give a thorough explanation about what this disorder is, but also it gives detailed information on the causes, characteristics, other areas that are affected, what can be done to correct it, things that can be done at home to help an apraxic child, and teaching methods. These specific areas that are discussed are thoroughly done so that individuals can develop an understanding in all areas that this disorder affects. There is also an area hat distinguishes the different types of teaching methods that may or may not help.
Early Identification of Speech-language delays and disorders
This website deals with the early identification of speech-language delays and disorders. The good thing about this website is it first off talks about why speech-language treatment is needed. Therefore, the specific guidelines are established to understand who needs this treatment and why it's important to detect early. It then goes into an explanation about early identification. Specifically, it includes an evaluation and treatment that is provided to children and their families that are at risk, display a disability, or delay in speech, language or hearing. This website can be helpful to parents or other individuals who interact with children who have these kinds ofdisabilities because it offers answers to questions like, who should be evaluated, how the evaluation is done, and what is speech-language treatment. It also includes some questions that are important for these individuals to ask so that the understanding, procedures, and treatment of this disorder can take place.
This website gives detailed information on this specific language disorder. It explains where this problem lies, which is identified at the phonetic level. This makes the child have great difficulty in producing sounds correctly. The website also lists some useful information on co-occurrence, a ‘lay term, characteristics, intelligibility, image, the four types, referral and assessment, and finally the treatment process. The site even hits on a question talking about normal lisping, specifically if this can ever be so. This can give some confidence or hope to those who have a lisp.
Developmental Expressive Language Disorder
This website includes alternative names, causes and risks, prevention, symptoms, signs and
tests, treatment, prognosis, and complications. These specifics areas do not have detailed
explanations. Sometimes too much information is overwhelming and it may be difficult to pick out the most important things. This website touches a little on these different areas involving this developmental language disorder so that adults and other individuals can begin to understand and comprehend the important details of this disorder.
Statements of Impact:
Caeli's Impact: I feel I learned a lot during this project. I learned a lot of information on places where families can go to get help with their children who have language disorders. I also learned a lot about the disorders themselves. It was an interesting project and gave me a better understanding of, not only the help that is out there, but also the disorders themselves.
Lauren's Impact: I think I learned a lot by doing this project. I found a lot of information that I had not considered before regarding speech and language disorders. I was also able to learn a lot by looking at the web pages that my group members found. I think that by doing this project, I will be more efficient at searching for information on the internet when I am teaching.
Lena's Impact: I had never completed a web project like this before; therefore it was all so new to me. However, this was a great learning experience for me in creating a web page devoted to language and speech disorders. Also, I was able to learn more about this particular topic and the many types of language and speech disorders that really exist out there. I now know how much work it takes to develop a well established web page for anyone and everyone to see. Overall, I was pleased with the finished product and have learned something that will be of benefit to me in the future.
Josie's Impact: I really don't have that much experience when it comes to working with
computers. Therefore, when I learned this class required a web project assignment, I was a little apprehensive due to my lack of experience with computers. However, I do try and keep an open mind to try new things and experiences. Therefore, this web project would help me
learn more about the process of putting together a web page. The research alone was interesting because it enabled me to learn and understand the concept of language disorders, in which I really didn't know much about before this assignment. The web sites I found were very interesting and informative involving language disorders. I also came across specific ones that I haven't even heard of before. Overall, this web project was not so difficult, as my first impression was, and it helped me to realize that this kind of research can be useful, when I begin to teach.