Naming, identifying.
Pertaining to the lips.
Lip rounding; pursing or protrusion of the lips.
Relating to the lips and teeth.
A disorder with seizures starting in childhood in which the patient loses skills, such as speech, and develops behavior characteristic of autism. Landau Kleffner Syndrome is a rare form of childhood epilepsy which results in a severe language disorder. It is also known as ‘acquired epileptic aphasia’. LKS affects girls and boys almost equally.
The disorder usually starts between 4 and 7 years of age, though it may occur in children as young as 2 or as old as 11. Typically the first indication that something is wrong is that the child’s understanding of language deteriorates. In most speech and language disorders in children the child’s language will always have lagged behind; but in LKS there is a loss of language skills in a child who was previously developing normally and who was beyond the ‘first words’ stage. This deterioration of language can happen slowly, over a period of weeks or months, or much more quickly, over days.
The language disorder in most children affects understanding of spoken language; the ability to speak is usually seriously affected too. The child may not respond to environmental sounds, like a doorbell, phone or vacuum cleaner. Children with LKS are often thought to be deaf because of their difficulty in understanding what people say to them. However, hearing tests show that the child can detect sounds: the difficulty lies in interpretation of the sounds.
In some cases a diagnosis of selective mutism may be suspected. Unlike the child with selective mutism, the child with LKS will fail to speak in all situations, not just in some. Furthermore, children with selective mutism do understand what is said to them, whereas this is typically not the case in LKS. Sometimes it may be difficult to distinguish between LKS and autistic disorder. Children with autism often have severe difficulties understanding spoken language, and they too may lose language skills after a period of normal development. But in autism difficulties begin earlier (usually being apparent to parents by 30-36 Landau Kleffner Syndrome (LKS) months of age) and the child has difficulties with all aspects of social interaction and communication. Children with LKS, by contrast, will respond socially in a normal way, and will communicate in ways other than spoken language – for instance, through gestures and facial expressions.
This does not mean that the difficulties for a child with LKS are restricted to language. Some children are frustrated or frightened by their inability to communicate: this can cause temper tantrums, withdrawal from the world or other behavioural difficulties. If the epileptic activity affects the frontal regions of the brain, children may be uninhibited and lack restraint in their behaviour. LKS can be difficult to diagnose because many children do not have obvious epileptic seizures. Abnormal epileptic activity, in one or both temporal lobes of the brain, does show up on a test called an EEG (electroencephalogram). The temporal lobes are important for language comprehension and memory. There is no evidence that the brain is damaged in LKS; but the underlying epileptic activity interferes with the child’s ability to learn and understand language.
In some children the communication disorder fluctuates, so that speech and language may improve and then get worse again. Older children, especially those aged 6 and above when the disease starts, will often make a good recovery. For younger children (those less than 4 years at onset) the ability to understand speech may remain seriously impaired – although some younger children do make a good recovery after an initial period of deterioration. As for seizures, the outcome is usually good, and the EEG becomes normal.
As LKS is rare, many paediatricians will never have encountered a case; thus the reason for the child’s communication difficulties can go unrecognised. Any child who develops serious communication difficulties after a period of normal development should be seen by a specialist with expertise in epilepsy, who will investigate any underlying epilepsy and recommend the appropriate treatment.
Medical Treatment – Medical treatments are not usually very effective, but it can be of benefit to control the epileptic activity at an early stage. Drugs called corticosteroids can help – but these are powerful and most paediatricians will use them very cautiously. Other anti-epileptic medicines can control epileptic activity, but do not always improve language. Some children have benefited from a specific method of brain surgery – but this is not appropriate for all children with LKS.
Educational Implications – Most children benefit from alternative communication methods, especially sign language Those with persistent language impairment usually need special education with other language-impaired children in a school where sign language is used by teachers and other pupils. Children with LKS are sometimes educated with children who have hearing impairments. Parents of children with LKS are advised to learn sign language, so that they can communicate more easily with their child.
While speech involves the physical motor ability to talk, language is a symbolic, rule governed system used to convey a message. In English, the symbols can be words, either spoken or written. We also have gestural symbols, like shrugging our shoulders to indicate “I don’t know” or waving to indicate “Bye Bye” or the raising of our eye brows to indicate that we are surprised by something.
A Language Assessment is a comprehensive evaluation performed by a speech-language pathologist / speech and language therapist. It covers receptive language function (‘comprehension’), expressive language function (‘expression’) and the pragmatics of language use. It may involve standardised language tests such as the CELF or the CASL yielding Standard Scores and Percentile Ranks, and/or skilled informal and formal observations.
Disabilities which interfere with age-appropriate reading, spelling, and/or writing. Please see “Learning Disabilities” for a broader definition of learning disability. A language based learning disability is specific to language processing and use.
Also called Receptive Language. A person’s ability to understand and process language at the sound, word, phrase, sentence, multi-sentence and conversational levels. Involves understanding of vocabulary, concepts, grammar (morphology and syntax), and higher level language associated with processing more abstract language (e.g., inferences, idioms, verbal problem solving and abstract reasoning). Also involves the ability to retain linguistic information for the purpose of understanding and interpretation. Difficulties with receptive language can interfere with academic or occupational achievement or with social communication.
The meaning of what is said, signed or written.
Language development that is following a normal pattern, but typical of a younger child. Development occurs at a slower rate.
Language behaviors that are not in line with a person’s native language.
Language development that follows an atypical/irregular pattern. A disruption of a person’s ability to learn a language without any cognitive deficits. Examples include when a person has a challenging time speaking correctly and understanding spoken language clearly.
How what is said, signed or written is organized e.g. rules of grammar, rules of speech.
A problem and/or immaturity in the comprehension and/or production of spoken or written language.
Process of hearing, discriminating, assigning significance to, and interpreting spoken words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and discourse.
When an individual has difficulty interpreting and comprehending language or directions.
A collection of utterances (words, sentences) that can be in the form of a personal story, sequencing events, describing, explaining or others. SLPs often use language samples during assessments, they are an excellent way to get a good picture of a child’s functional language abilities.
Helping an individual understand and use language by exposing him or her to sound specific activities.
Language is the basis for most learning. Without language there is no communication. While there are varying degrees of language disorders, the ultimate goal of all people is to comprehend all that is heard and express ideas in all that is spoken.
How a speaker and/or signer uses language in a social context (See Pragmatic).
Where the larynx is removed resulting in a loss of voice. AAC may be required or specialist speech and language intervention.
The larynx (‘voice box,’) is situated in the neck at the top of the trachea (‘wind pipe’). The larynx contains the vocal cords (vocal folds).
The condition of a person who either not sure where to focus his/her attention or had has developed set responses or maladaptive point of focus. This problem can of course impair, or even preclude, adequate aphasia recovery.
The condition of a person who has learned to rely on others for help and will avoid taking steps to help him or herself, even though he/she may be capable of doing so. Often, after a stroke or brain injury, people may believe that they are not capable of doing things independently and therefore, rely on family or caregivers to do things for them. Replacing learned helplessness with focused cognitive attention and independently initiated action is crucial in maximizing aphasia recovery. See also Learned Non-Attention.
The term ‘learning difficulties’ is currently used by many people to cover a wide and varied range of difficulties. The following features show how children with learning difficulties may appear in the classroom.
Disabilities affecting the manner one takes in information, retains it, and expresses the knowledge and understanding they have. Learning disabilities is a general term for a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities. They are intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory behaviors, social perception, and social interaction may exist with learning disabilities but do not by themselves constitute a learning disability. Though learning disabilities may occur concomitantly with other handicapping conditions or with extrinsic influences, they are not the result of those conditions or influences (National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 1981, revised 1988). See “Learning Disabilities–Continued” for other frequent characteristics.
Frequent characteristics of learning disabilities include, but are not limited to, a marked discrepancy between achievement and potential with uneven abilities within an individual, average to above average intellectual functioning, processing deficits (e.g., auditory and/or visual perceptual problems), and long/short term auditory and/or visual memory deficits.
A broad term used to describe the various models/philosophies about how human beings learn.
Least restrictive environment means that a student who has a disability should have the opportunity to be educated with non-disabled peers, to the greatest extent appropriate. They should have access to the general education curriculum, or any other program that non-disabled peers would be able to access. The student should be provided with supplementary aids and services necessary to achieve educational goals if placed in a setting with non-disabled peers.
The relationship between a letter or letter combination and a single sound. For example, the letter “j” and the letter combination “dge” both make the sound heard in the beginning of the word “jump.” An understanding of letter-sound correspondence (also called grapheme-phoneme correspondence) is essential for decoding a new word.
The pattern of the stressed and unstressed syllables in words.
Total accumulation of linguistic signs, words or morphemes, or both, in a given language; the list of all the words in a language.
Pertaining to the tongue and teeth.
Pertaining to the tongue.
More complex than basic concepts. These include temporal concepts (e.g. first/then, before/after), concepts of inclusion/exclusion (e.g. except, either/or), sequential concepts (e.g. first/second/third, first/last), concepts of location (e.g. closest to/furthest from, next to), conditional concepts (e.g. unless). This list is not exhaustive.
The speaker has observable tightness in the lips.
See Speechreading.
Liquid is a term used to refer to /r/ and /l/. The lateral liquid is /l/ and the rhotic liquid is /r/, as shown on the PVM Chart below.
A lisp refers to an articulation disorder where a child is having difficulty producing the /s/ and /z/ phonemes, and sometimes has difficulties with the sh, ch and J sounds as well. There are four main types of lisps, characterized by their specific substitution patterns: the interdental/frontal lisp, the dentalized lisp, and lateral lisp, and the palatal lisp.
Understanding speech and the ability to comprehend the text read aloud.
Literacy refers to any reading, writing or spelling skills and communicating through written language. Children with speech and language delays often have difficulty with literacy skills as well. Children who have difficulty pronouncing or understanding certain speech sounds may have difficulty with reading and writing those sounds as well. This can lead to trouble decoding and sounding out words. Children with language delays may not fully understand all parts of language, such as grammar, syntax, vocabulary, etc. This can lead to problems understanding text or putting one’s ideas into writing in a logical manner.
Focuses on and emphasizes the importance of speaking, reading, and writing in the learning of all students.
Hearing equipment that may be loaned to clients who do not have access to personal equipment for a short period of time.
The primary purposes of the Local Education Agency (School District) Universe Survey are A. to provide a complete listing of every education agency in the United States responsible for providing free public elementary/secondary instruction or education support services; B. to provide basic information about all education agencies and the students for whose education the agencies are responsible.
Ability to identify the location of a sound source exclusively with auditory information.
Excessive wordiness. The uncontrollable intention to continue a dialogue with lack of awareness of its impact on conversational partner. Similar to press of speech but tendency to stay on a topic rather than drift from topic to topic.
A ‘long word’ has more than two syllables. Examples include: ambulance, hippopotamus, computer, spaghetti, vegetables, helicopter, animals, caravan, caterpillar, and butterfly. See Multisyllabic Words.
See Specific Memory Desorders. The term long-term memory refers to a person’s ability to retain information over time, e.g. for minutes to hours or longer. There is much theoretical debate about which types of long-term memory processing are possible in humans. One commonly debated account of long-term memory is the difference between storing episodic and semantic information. Episodic memory is memory for events or episodes that include the contextual details of the learning experience, for example, the ability to remember what happened on the way to school this morning or to recall what happened on a particular birthday. Semantic memory is the ability to remember factual information that does not include the contextual details of the learning event. For example, a child may know that the capital of France is Paris, but not remember the actual event when they were first told such a fact.
There are reports of children who appear to have strengths in semantic memory compared to episodic memory (Vargha-Khadem, ’01). Children with weaknesses in their episodic memory can exhibit particular patterns of learning, behavioural and social difficulties. For example;
Children with semantic memory difficulties will have more pervasive problems in learning the factual contents of the academic curriculum.
A form used by the therapists to communicate information regarding the client’s daily activities to the client’s parents.
The speaker reduces the amount of eye contact while speaking, including, but not limited to, while they are avoiding or escaping a block.