How can language disorders/impairments in children affect their education?
Language impairments can impact children and their education in many different ways. A language disorder is commonly defined as “language ability substantially below age norms, affecting social, academic, or occupational functioning” . When discussing the effect that these language disorders can have on the education of a child, we must first consider the many different types of language impairment that exist. In 90-95% of cases, language disorders are caused by damage to the left hemisphere of the brain whilst only 5-10% are caused by damage to the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere of the human brain is the location at which analytical thinking, mathematical skills, reasoning and language skills (amongst others) are developed in complex sequential processes. These delays in the development of language ability can be caused by both antenatal and postnatal factors (stroke at a young age, head injuries that cause brain damage, and brain tumours amongst others), and the impact that these disorders have on education is variable in terms of severity, type of impact and duration.
Firstly, language impairments can influence a child’s comprehension of day to day language and situations. Comprehension of language is a process which takes place in Wernicke’s area of the brain, the left temporal lobe. Damage to this area of the brain can therefore influence the extent to which children can comprehend and use language. The presence of this impairment may mean that the affected child may take longer to process instructions or understand social situations than other children of their age. This may therefore create issues when attempting to teach these children as their acquisition and production of language will be inevitably less developed than their peers.
This acquisition of language is achieved through the comprehension and production of language. Therefore, if a child has delays or difficulties in understanding the language which surrounds them, it will be more difficult for them to acquire the necessary linguistic skills and utilisation of words. This impairment of comprehension may therefore result in issues regarding their social development and therefore their educational progress and development. American linguist Noam Chomsky states that:
“The child is already equipped of an understanding of the basic structures of any human language”
If this inherent understanding is delayed through damage to the left temporal lobe, there will be issues with the development of this understanding and future improvement of linguistic skills and ability. This therefore means that the education of the child will also suffer from a delay, making it harder for the child to progress throughout the school and education system. This difficulty with progression can occur in multiple ways.
One of the ways in which this difficulty can occur is with regards to expression through speech. This is most noticeable in speech impairments such as stammers and non-fluent speech, but can also exist as a result of other language impairments. Both of these language disorders involve a considerable amount of effort for fluent speech to be produced. Psycholinguist Shula Chiat explains that “For most people, everyday talk is easy and effortless. We have little awareness of what makes it happen, so we have little idea what may stop it from happening” but that when children have a language impairment “All too often, people hear their halting or unusual speech and jump to the conclusion that they are lazy, or crazy, or stupid” . This therefore suggests that the self-esteem and confidence of young people can be greatly impacted by the presence of a language impairment. With regards to education, this could result in a fear of speaking and providing answers in a classroom environment as well as in smaller social groups. This issue, if not addressed in the early years of a child’s education, can continue later on in life, through further education and even into adulthood. The possibility of a decrease in self-esteem could lead to a lack of desire to succeed as well as the inability to ask for help within the classroom environment, greatly damaging their chances of progressing to higher education as they grow older.
Children who have been diagnosed with a language impairment may struggle, or face a delay in the early developmental stages of speech sounds. From six months old, babies usually begin to produce sounds and syllables. These can be produced in three ways: Reduplicated, Variegated and Consonants. If these stages of the acquisition and production of language are delayed, they will already be placed at an academic disadvantage to their peers when they enter into education. This difficulty with speech production may mean that these children begin to struggle when forced to interact socially with others who are more developed than themselves. This is an idea which has been researched by Martin Fujiki et al. This study found that “Teachers rated children with LI as displaying higher levels of reticent behaviour than typically developing children” . This therefore suggests that children with language impairments such as those aforementioned may feel withdrawn from their surroundings, therefore finding it difficult to express their feelings in the same way as those around them. This could eventually lead to emotional difficulties as they progress through their time in education and see their peers achieve more highly than themselves. This is an idea which has been reinforced through a study carried out by Verónica Maggio et al in 2013. This study found that withdrawal “was the most frequently found behaviour problem in younger children, whereas children of school age usually displayed anxious/depressed and social problems”.
This is a problem that could be resolved through further educating children about what speech impairments are and what they entail. Through this education, speech impairments would become more widely understood and accepted in society, meaning that children who have been diagnosed with these impairments will have a greater chance of being acknowledged and accepted as their other peers have been. This would therefore aid the development of these children, allowing them to feel more comfortable in social situations without fear of being treated differently as a result of their language impairment. This would also aid them throughout their education, allowing them to feel able to participate in class discussions as well as group tasks in exactly the same way as those students who do not have diagnosed language disorders.
Another language impairment that can impact the education of a child is Dyslexia. Dyslexia is a disorder which causes difficulties regarding the ability to learn to read. The British Dyslexia Association define this language impairment as:
“'…a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling”
Children with dyslexia will often have a high IQ and will be proficient in other academic areas despite the effects that dyslexia has on their reading and spelling. There are two main types of Dyslexia, deep and surface. Deep dyslexia is an impairment in which the child will look at a word as a whole, failing to notice small differences such as changes of one letter in a word. Conversely, surface dyslexia is an impairment in which the child will pay attention to the small, fine details of a word or text and will notice these slight changes. However, Dyslexia can also impact the education of a child in subjects such as Music, Mathematics and foreign languages. This shows that Dyslexia does not just impact a child’s reading skills in English as may be assumed, but also in other subjects and skills. This may be demotivating for the affected children as they see their peers progress in skills which they may find more difficult to acquire and develop. Due to this, it may be suggested that children who suffer from severe dyslexia may be less interested in activities which are carried out by others from their age group. However, this seeming lack of interest may in fact be a consequence of the language disorder from which they suffer. The aforementioned study carried out by Martin Fujiki in 1999 found that “Teachers perceived that children with LI wanted to play and work with peers but were too anxious, fearful, or inept to enter and stay in interactions” . This presents the clear social issues which result from language impairments in terms of education.
The aforementioned language disorders are defined and separated from each other by the fact that they either impact reading skills or verbal or written expression. However, there are some language impairments which can cause problems with all types of language production and comprehension. A notable example of this is Aphasia. The National Aphasia Association defines this specific language impairment as:
“…an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write.”
It is therefore evident that Aphasia is in fact a combination of the other types of language impairment that have been mentioned. This reinforces the earlier suggestion that language impairments vary in terms of severity.
There are also many different types of Aphasia, two key variations being Broca’s Aphasia and Wernicke’s Aphasia. These variations have different levels of severity. Broca’s Aphasia is caused by lesions in the Broca area of the brain. This type of Aphasia involves a lack of fluency and agrammatism, but the basic meaning of the sentences produced can be understood. The opposite is true of Wernicke’s Aphasia. This type of Aphasia is characterised by fluent, effortless speech, but with little comprehensible meaning. Lesions in the Wernicke area of the brain cause people to create syntactically correct sentences, but they may only contain general nouns without proper meaning. Serious cases of Broca’s Aphasia can even result in paralysis. Therefore, it is difficult to assess the impact that Aphasia will have on the education of a child due to the complexity and different variations of the language disorder.
However, it is evident that dealing with Aphasia during education can be an extremely difficult experience for a child. They may feel as though they are less able to connect socially with their peers and that their delayed academic progress makes them less important than their classmates. This can lead to many types of emotional and behavioural difficulties in these children. In addition, the problems with written communication that are characteristic of Aphasia may lead to anxiety about examinations and written work. Children who have been diagnosed with Aphasia may worry constantly about the prospect of sitting and receiving the results of these examinations due to their written difficulties. This may therefore enhance the aforementioned chance of any behavioural or emotional difficulties developing as these children may struggle to express how they are feeling or may want to find a way to avoid taking examinations. This will be a problem throughout the education of these children, from small progress tests in the lower years of Primary school, up to entrance exams for Secondary Schools at the age of 11. Therefore, it is clear that the emotional repercussions that Aphasia can have must be dealt with sensitively by those within the school environment in order to avoid continuous academic and emotional disruption.
In addition, Aphasia can also cause Anomia, problems with recognition and naming. This may be a problem with younger children who have been diagnosed with Aphasia. This can impact their education to a huge extent as the affected children will require more time than other children to learn basic vocabulary and repetition of information will be necessary. This is difficult to provide in a mainstream school environment, meaning that specialised care may be necessary. This could be provided in the form of 1:1 care, specialised language support schools and visual prompts. Through the use of visual prompts, the education of children who are affected by Anomia can be greatly improved. This is due to the repetitive nature which is introduced through the use of these prompts. This also allows the child to control the pace of their education, permitting them to look at an image and the associated word as much as is required in an attempt to learn a word. Through this technique of teaching, the child can begin to feel included in the classroom environment, able to be part of the curriculum along with their peers due to these prompts. This therefore makes educating a child with Anomia an easier and less stressful experience for the child and the carer.
Through gaining an understanding of the different types of language impairments that exist, it becomes clear that many of them have a large impact on the education of children. The school environment and the people that exist within it are important factors in the development of the child’s linguistic skills and the management of these impairments. The impact that language disorders have on the education of a child cannot be assessed as one group due to the variations of severity as aforementioned. However, it can be assumed that most types of language impairment will have some sort of impact on their progression through the education system, be that emotionally, behaviourally or linguistically