Specific Language Impaired In Children

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Children with Specific Language Impairments
Despite having normal hearing development and cognitive skills, children with SLI, or Specific Language Impairment, have difficulty in learning language. These children may experience normal learning environments, yet they make between 5% and 7% of all primary school children. Some researchers believe that in order to have effective oral language processing, children must be able to efficiently process incoming auditory information. (Richards, S., & Goswami, 2015) It is also shown that language problems, as those shown with SLI, happen in the absence of cognitive deficit and any other condition that could explain the deficit. Because of this, students with SLI often show academic underperformance.
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(Nicola, K., & Watter, 2015) Research studies have been conducted to look at various aspects of Specific Language Impairments in children, including cognitive processes, health related quality of life, adaptive abilities, and difficulties in writing processes.
Children who have SLI are known to have deficits in cognitive control processes. With focus being in executive functioning, they struggle most with organization and planning, working memory, and inhibitory control. (Victorino, K. R., & Schwartz, R. G., 2015) Working memory can be defined as memory that happens in the short term, and includes immediate processing of linguistic and perceptual information. For example, a child might have trouble remembering to do a simple task that a teacher assigned. Not only are simple tasks are a struggle, but higher level comprehension in reading and math can prove to be insurmountable to children with SLI. These impairments in working memory and information processing are commonly thought to be associated with their problems with attention control. In a study conducted, children were given a listening and counting recall test to gain knowledge about the working memory of children with SLI. “In the
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Their ability to adapt to societal expectations and the environment is very important. In observing and studying children's adaptive behaviors, specialists can more easily diagnose the specific disorder the child has. Likewise, the psychologist will be able to make suggestions as to what will help improve the child’s quality of life. Researchers believe that there are three main subcategories of adaptive behavior- conceptual, social, and practical. “Conceptual skills consist of language and literacy; money, time, and number concepts; and self- direction. Social skills include interpersonal skills, social responsibility, self-esteem, gullibility, naïveté (i.e., wariness), social problem solving, and the ability to follow rules/obey laws and to avoid being victimized. Practical skills – activities of daily living (personal care), occupational skills, healthcare, travel/transportation, schedules/ routines, safety, use of money, use of the telephone.” (Damberga, I., Raščevska, M., Koļesovs, A., Sebre, S., Laizāne, I., Skreitule-Pikše, I., & Martinsone, B, 2014) Adaptive behaviors are developed throughout the lifetime of the child, and each specific situation renders a certain response. As they develop, their adaptive behaviors become more complex. Children with SLI and other language disorders, have shown lower scores on adaptability tests. Along with this, they show heightened