Language related problems affecting learners include spelling, reading, and writing. Language related disabilities could lead to reading and writing challenges among learners. Disability is a compromise to language learning. Many learners are affected with language disabilities such as aphasia, dyslexia, lisp, auditory processing disorder, apraxia, and expressive speech disorder. Teachers and parents must be conversant with the different types of language disabilities in order to enable them provide support to the learners as well as understanding their ideal learning environment. Teachers and parents must adopt more practical and learner centered approaches providing assistance to them improves their level of competencies amidst the challenge brought by disability. The paper recommends that parents and teachers should adopt practicability approach in correcting the language and learning related disabilities.
Key Words: Language related disabilities, Practical and Learner centered approach.
Introduction
Language acquisition in learners has been compromised by disabilities that deter learners from attaining the skills in the English language (Downing & McFarland, 2010). English as a language contains four major skills that the learner must attain for fluency. These skills include reading, listening, speaking, and writing. However, disabilities such aphasia, libs, dyslexia among others hinder language learners from attaining these important skills (Norton, Beach & Gabrieli, 2015). The objective of this paper is to make teachers and parents understand the common language disorders among learners and to identify possible ways both teachers and parents can help the young learners with such impairments to acquire English as a language.
The topic of disability and language is a very important topic that targets teachers of language and parents. Based on the objective, the parents and teachers should understand these disorders in order to help the affected children cope with others in the learning process. The learning of the topic should be very practical based on the real life situations that everyone identifies with.
Language Disabilities
Aphasia
It is a language disorder caused by lack of coordination of the brain. The brain is divided into the left and the right hemisphere (Downing & McFarland, 2010). The hemispheres are connected by corpus callosum that helps to transmit information from one hemisphere to another for coordination. The left hemisphere is responsible for decoding audio speech while the right hemisphere is responsible for decoding speech visuals. When one suffers an injury in the brain that interferes with the corpus callosum, the individual is likely to develop aphasia (Downing & McFarland, 2010). A learner with aphasia lacks language coordination. The condition may be severe or mild. Such learners will have difficulty in articulating the images they see, writing what they hear, or even drawing the images, they are told. Severe aphasia can also lead to speech impairment in learners.
As a teacher, these learners should be assisted individually especially through language coordination exercises. For example, the teacher may draw diagrams on the wall and assist the learner to draw the same images in their exercise books. The teacher can also ask the learner to articulate by naming the images. If the learner does not improve, parents could be asked to give the learner medical attention where if the aphasia is severe, the learner can be taken for brain surgery.
Auditory Processing Disorder
Auditory processing disorder is caused by hearing impairment (Geffner & Ross, 2012). In children, hearing impairment may be caused by an injury to the internal ear. Again, it may be natural, meaning some children may be born with this disorder because of mutation defects either during implantation or as a DNA component. The learners with this disability have problems in reading and comprehending the content read, writing dictated speech or even responding to statements by teachers and classmates (Geffner & Ross, 2012). Generally, the disorder makes the learner a slow learner.
In handling this problem in a learner, the teacher should be more patient with the learner. The teacher should also accompany their instructions with gestures that can be interpreted by the learner for easy understanding (Ploog, Scharf, Nelson & Brooks, 2013). In addition, the instructions should be written and the learners should be made to sit in front of the class so that they get clearly the instructions given. On the other hand, parents are supposed to identify this problem in learners at early stages so that they can help the learner cope easily. In cases where the hearing impairment is severe, the parents may take the learner in a special school where most instructions are given in sign language. Sometimes, the parents can also opt to buy the learner auditory gadget that may aid the learner in listening to audio speech.
The teacher can approach this topic by showing testimony of the people who had experienced aphasia and came out from it successfully well. The effects should be outlined with visual lesson activities like record lessons (Ploog, Scharf, Nelson & Brooks, 2013). Again, the teacher should emphasize the fact that the language disorder can be corrected either through surgery if it is severe or by practice if it is mild.
Lisp
Lisp is a language disorder that hinders children from making correct pronunciations especially of the sounds with minimal pairs (Paul & Norbury, 2012). The impairment is mostly acquired as the learner acquires language. It is also inherited especially if the learner comes from a family with historical lisp as a language disorder. The problem is more prone with young learners like grade one children but can as well develop to senior level if not corrected. The learners with lisp disorder confuse almost similar sounds in words. For example, ‘lat’ instead of ‘rat’. Besides, the learner may not articulate correctly affricative sounds that they tend to pronounce with their lips. The disorder makes such learners to lose confidence in their articulation and may turn out to be quiet learners who never speak often. It also leads to poor reading and speaking skills.
The teacher should identify these learners in classroom and help them with their pronunciation. First, the teacher should build the self-esteem of the learner and discourage other students from enjoying and mocking them. Again the teacher should get the confusing sounds to the learner and help him/her to articulate them properly (Ploog, Scharf, Nelson & Brooks, 2013). The articulation practice should be more frequent so that the learner learns the sounds by imitation and repetition of the skills acquired.
The parents have the most important role to play to the learner with this disability. Firstly, the parents should assist the learner at early stages when the learner is just beginning to speak (Frederiksen, Glaser, Lesgold & Shafto, 2013). The learner should be made to articulate correctly sounds that seem difficult to them so that they grow up knowing the right pronunciation of these sounds. In addition, the parents are supposed to encourage the learner as they try to learn the correct pronunciation of the sounds. The encouragement is fundamental because it makes the learner to develop confidence that shall help them in knowing the sounds correctly.
Making this lesson interactive is the best the teacher can do. However, the teacher should not use approaches that may make fan of the students suffering from the disability. It therefore means that the lesson should be demonstrated with positive examples that prove to the learners that the disability can be corrected.
Apraxia
Apraxia in speech makes children to have poor coordination of speech language. The learners with this disorder cannot read properly (Paul & Norbury, 2012). In addition, they cannot read and understand the content of the passage properly. The learners have difficulty writing and speaking. They are generally slow to speech activities.
Teachers dealing with these learners have to develop an individual based lesson plan that they can use to assist the learners. The lesson plan should entail frequent practice of speech so that they learn how to coordinate their speech well. The practices given to the learner should involve pronunciation, writing, and reading comprehension passages. The learner is supposed to listen to the oral comprehension and answer questions related to the passage. They can also be asked to retell the story so that the teacher can realize whether they can coordinate between listening and speaking.
Sometimes, especially if the problem is severe, the parents can take the learner to a speech language pathologist who will take the learner through speech exercises (Lemut, DuBoulay & Dettori, 2013). The speech language pathologist should meet the learner three to five times a week so that the practice is more frequent. In addition, the parents should take individual time with the learner so that they help the learner to practice the already acquired speech skills.
Apraxia as a topic should be taught by making the learners understand the causes, the corrective measures and making them know that the problem can be corrected. In classroom, the teacher should be more practical and use real life situations to make the learners understand the effects of apraxia to an individual and their language.
Expressive Language Disorder
This disorder makes the learner to have difficulty in communicating their thoughts clearly both verbally and in writing. The learner can hardly remember the vocabularies they interact with (Plante & Beeson, 2012). Furthermore, the learner cannot give statements with complex sentences. However, the learner can make clear speeches.
Assisting the learner with this disorder requires a teacher to be very free with the learner and spend more time with him/her. The teacher should come up with a reading list that the learner should be read for and then asked to recall important issues they got from the story (Snowling & Hulme, 2012). The learner should also be encouraged and trained to compose and tell their own stories, especially stories they read sometimes back. The teacher should also take the learner through reading of long statements and asked to articulate them without reading.
It is also important for the parents to take not and give early visual and audio stimuli to the learners with this disorder. Early exposure to language is very fundamental in solving this problem in children. It is therefore important for parents to give stimuli to their children so that their brain is trained to coordinate language at an early stage. In doing this, the parents can begin reading and storytelling to their children as infants. They should also give them pictures that the children are supposed to identify and name. These language practices will help the learner to acquire language very well when they grow up.
Oral Motor Delay
Oral motor skills help in the movement of the jaws, lips, tongue, and cheeks that in turn help in eating as well as in speech. A learner with this disorder lacks the ability to speak properly because the speech organs are not fast enough to generate speech (Goswami, 2015). The learners with this disorder cannot read comprehensively.
The teachers handling learners with this language disorder should take the learner through slow but frequent reading so that the learner may cope. Although the problem may be severe and require surgery, the teachers should try through practice and patience to help the learner.
The role of parents in assisting this learner is also very significant. The parents should take the learner for medical corrections. Besides, the parents should be supportive and help the learner practice reading and speaking with ease and with love. In teaching this topic, the teacher should be very practical in their learning approach and make the learner understand that the problem can be corrected.
Literacy Disorders
Some learners naturally have a problem reading and writing especially in second languages (Plante & Beeson, 2012). The problem is sometimes hereditary but it is not very severe. Their teachers and parents can assist the learners through practice. For instance, the teachers should give a lot of reading and writing work to the learners as they correct them where necessary. The teacher to motivate the learner so that they master the skills of reading and writing should use positive reinforcement. Parents should also expose learners to early stimuli so that the learners identify with reading and listening at early stages. The stimuli will help the learner to master the skills very fast without much difficulty.
Literacy disorder is a very common disorder among learners that should be taught with a lot of practice. In approaching this disorder, positive reinforcement should be used by the teacher in order to achieve the learning objectives.
Applicable Approach of the Topic in Classroom
Disability is a very sensitive topic among learners that should be taught with a lot of care. In teaching this top, language used should matter a lot. For example, the teacher should avoid direct terms and reference that may reveal a feeling of disrespect and undermine among the learners (Downing, & McFarland, 2010). The language should involve the use of euphemism so that the learners feel comfortable
The learning should also be very practical so that if there are learners with the language disability in class, their needs can be taken care of. The teacher should engage such learners at individual level and attend to their needs.
In teaching this topic, the teacher should use dramatization to achieve the purpose of making the learners understand the disorder. Dramatization will also make the learners see the need to assist their fellow students who might be having the disability.
Conclusion
It is fundamental for both parents and teachers to be aware of the disabilities related to language acquisition in learners. The children with some of these language disabilities are equally potential learners who should be helped to acquire language to its fluency. As a result, this topic has outlined some of the language disabilities in learners and has given corrective measures that can be used by parents and teachers in order to help these learners. The topic is then very well considered applicable to teachers, students, parents and the society.
References
Downing, J. E., & McFarland, S. (2010). Severe disabilities. Education and individuals with severe disabilities: Promising practices, 382-431.
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Goswami, U. (2015). Sensory theories of developmental dyslexia: three challenges for research. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(1), 43.
Lemut, E., DuBoulay, B., & Dettori, G. (Eds.). (2013). Cognitive models and intelligent environments for learning programming (Vol. 111). Springer Science & Business Media.
Norton, E. S., Beach, S. D., & Gabrieli, J. D. (2015). Neurobiology of dyslexia. Current opinion in neurobiology, 30, 73-78.
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Plante, E. M., & Beeson, P. M. (2012). Communication and communication disorders: a clinical introduction. Pearson Higher Ed.
Ploog, B. O., Scharf, A., Nelson, D., & Brooks, P. J. (2013). Use of computer-assisted technologies (CAT) to enhance social, communicative, and language development in children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 43(2), 301-322.
Snowling, M. J., & Hulme, C. (2012). Interventions for children's language and literacy difficulties. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 47(1), 27-34.
