Lesser Known Disorders
Each issue of this series contains at least three lesser known disorders. Some of these disorders may contain subtypes which will also be presented. You will also notice that each disorder has a code. These codes represent the coding system for all disabilities and disorders listed in the Educator’s Diagnostic Manual(EDM) Wiley Publications.
Disorders in this issue:
SL – 10.02- Receptive Phonological Language Disorder
Disability Category: Speech and Language Disorder
Definition
A type of receptive language disorder specifically associated with difficulties in the discrimination of speech sounds (Friend, 2005).
Explanation
Phonology is the sound system of language that includes rules that govern various sound combinations (Turnbull et al., 2004; Deutsch-Smith, 2004). Students with Receptive Phonological Language Disorder may have difficulties decoding the spoken language, or make substitutions for sounds, such as “blink” for “drink”. Other examples of include hearing:
- “bunk” for “dunk”
- “pan” for “pen”
- “sin” for “sun”
SL – 10.03- Receptive Pragmatic Language Disorder
Disability Category: Speech and Language Disorder
Definition
A type of receptive language disorder specifically associated with difficulties in understanding contextual language cues (Hardman, Egan, & Drew, 2005).
Explanation
Pragmatics is the study of language in context, and focuses in part on the intention of the communication (Hallahan & Kauffman, 2006). Children with Receptive Pragmatic Language Disorder often lack the understanding for the subtleties and intricacies of humor or slang, which can present social as well as communication problems for such children (Gargiulio, 2004).
SL – 10.04- Receptive Syntax Language Disorder
Disability Category: Speech and Language Disorder
Definition
A type of receptive language disorder specifically associated with difficulties in understanding phrases and sentences (Hunt & Marshall, 2005).
Explanation
Syntax determines where a word is placed in a sentence. Students with syntactical deficits may have difficulty organizing and expressing complex ideas (Gargiulio, 2004) since the placement of words in a sentence can change their meaning. For example, a student with receptive language syntactical deficits disorder may hear:
- “The boy hit the ball” instead of “The ball hit the boy”
- “I hardly studied for this test” instead of “I studied hard for this test” (Deutsch-Smith, 2004)
“Will you help Ted?” instead of “You will help Ted.”
SL – 10.05- Receptive Semantics Language Disorder
Disability Category: Speech and Language Disorder
Definition
A type of receptive language disorder specifically associated with difficulties in understanding word meanings and word relationships (Gargiulio, 2004).
Explanation
Semantics is the system where the intent and meaning of the words all used all affect the meaning of the message (Deutsch-Smith, 2004). It represents the understanding of language, the component most concerned with meaning (Friend, 2005). Individual with Receptive Semantics Language Disorder often have difficulties organizing complex ideas and putting together a series of words to determine how such order will later be used in the communication process (Gargiulio, 2004).
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