SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT

Dyslexia and Language impairment: A Spotlight on Spelling



Abstract

This paper focuses on the essay named “Dyslexia and Language impairment: A Spotlight on Spelling”. The essay analyses the spelling and cognitive skills of primary school children with dyslexia and children with language impairments. The aim of the research was two-fold. First, to contribute to the debate on the nature of the relationship between dyslexia and wider language impairments in children. Second to explore the spelling skills of children with language difficulties. The paper begins with summarising the main findings from this research before turning to consider the implications for both teaching and clinical practice. The paper focus on underlying cognitive deficits. the distinction between dyslexia and wider language impairments becomes very blurred indeed. Arguably, we may be looking at a continuum of language disorders, with dyslexia being positioned at the mild end of the spectrum.

Table of Contents

Abstract2

Introduction4

Purpose5

Rationale6

Hypothesis8

Method9

Participants10

Measurement11

Procedure11

Results12

Discussion15

Conclusion16

Introduction

In the introduction the article states that despite a prevalence rate of around 7%, specific language impairment (SLI) is rarely in the media spotlight. The article defines the SLI using a discrepancy criterion of non-verbal ability within the normal range and significantly weaker language skills. In terms of language skills, a child with SLI may show weaknesses in vocabulary, morphology, syntax and phonology. Additional impairments in social (pragmatic) language are also frequently seen in this population.

As a consequence of this rather strict discrepancy definition, children documented as having SLI in the research literature may have a very different profile to children who are diagnosed by clinicians as having primary language impairments. This can be problematic when we come to apply research findings to teaching and clinical practice. Consequently, there is a promising move towards including children. In research studies who have non-verbal-ability below the average range, as long as their primary impairment is in the language domain. This broader definition of language impairments (L1) in children has been adopted for the present research. Hence the findings are arguably more applicable to the classroom situation.

Research has now firmly established what many practitioners already suspected, that dyslexia is far from a discrete and homogeneous condition. We know that children with dyslexia are likely to experience short-term memory difficulties, weak organisational skills and occasional word finding problems, and that the profile of individual children's strengths and weaknesses can vary tremendously. In addition, dyslexia ;s often co-morbid with other developmental disorders such as attention difficulties and motor coordination disorder (dyspraxia), further increasing the variables that may challenge a child's literacy development. Recognition of the broadness of the dyslexia profile has led some researchers (e.g. Castles, Datta, Gayan & Olson, 1999) to, suggest there are discrete subgroups of dyslexia, notably a 'phonological' subgroup with weak phonological processing skills, and a subgroup with a 'surface' dyslexia profile, characterised by milder phonological difficulty but prominent weaknesses in reading and spelling irregular words. However, more recently research has begun to consider how dyslexia might overlap at the cognitive level with other developmental language-based disorders, most notably specific language impairment ...