SPA 4400
1. What criteria are used to diagnose a child with specific language impairment (SLI)?
How does SLI differ from the term late language emergence?
Exclusions criteria including a language score test with 1.25 standard deviations or lower,
nonverbal IQ of 85 or higher, normal hearing, no oral structural or oral motor abnormalities, no
evidence of neurological disorder and within normal social ability. Late language emergence is
characterized by a child whose language development is below age expectations, limited use of
sounds and gestures and limited symbolic play. LLE is used as a diagnosis instead because not
all children with a delay continue to have a language impairment.
2. What are the primary language deficits of children with SLI? Give examples (at least 2).
Morphosyntax features are the primary language deficits and some examples of that would be
difficulty with auxiliary verbs saying things like “I bounce the ball”, difficulty with articles “Give me
ball!”
3. What are some intervention approaches used as part of social communication
intervention?
Peer mediated treatment such as social intervention that involves identifying a social skill
hierarchy in which teaches the student with the disorder specific social skills and facilitates the
students use is social strategies to encourage communication with peers.
4. How does language theory guide assessment? Explain two assessment protocols and
describe their theoretical framework.
