Language And Cognitive Processes In Developmental Disorders

This collection of papers by leading psychologists includes ground-breaking research on the similarities between SLI and autism, plus other studies at the cutting edge of the field of language impairment and developmental disorders.

This important new text is a comprehensive survey of current thinking and research on a wide range of developmental disorders. Highlights key research on normal and typical development Includes clinical case studies and diagrams to illustrate key concepts A reader-friendly writing style

A growing body of literature is suggesting that many children with language disorders and delays--even those with so-called specific language impairment--have difficulties in other domains as well. In this pathbreaking book, the authors draw on more than 40 years of research and clinical observations of populations ranging from various groups of children to adults with brain damage to construct a comprehensive model for the development of the interrelated skills involved in language performance, and trace the crucial implications of this model for intervention. Early tactual feedback, they argue, is more critical for the perceptual/cognitive organization of experiences that constitutes a foundation for language development than either visual or auditory input, and the importance of tactually-anchored nonverbal interaction cannot be ignored if efforts at treatment are to be successful. All those professionally involved in work with children and adults with language problems will find the authors' model provocative and useful.

Language, Cognitive Deficits, and Retardation presents the fundamental issue of the relationship between semantics and syntax. It discusses the acquisition of the rules governing them and their interaction. It addresses the progress made in relation to the problem of how sub-diagnoses affect the model of language learning. Some of the topics covered in the book are the concept of language differentiation; continuities as proper psychological and physiological correlates; linguistic categories are relationships; semantic and syntactic properties have a common origin in ontogeny; differentiation in the growth of vocabulary; and articulatory interpretation of the acoustic-phonetic transformation. The necessary implications of the motor theory are fully covered. The acoustic pattern processing is discussed in detail. The text describes in depth the practical application of speech pattern work. A study of the universal tendencies in the child’s acquisition of phonology is presented completely. A chapter is devoted to the vocal communication in pre-verbal normal and autistic children. Another section focuses on the study of language impairments in severely retarded children. The book can provide useful information to teachers, linguists, students, and researchers.

This book includes a basic overview of areas of cognition and language processing relevant to the field of communication disorders and provides examples of theoretical approaches to problems and issues in communication disorders.

How independent are different cognitive skills during development? Is the modularity seen in the studies of adult neuropsychology disorders mirrored by modularity in development? Are developmental neuropsychological disorders explicable against cognitive models? What restrictions are there to developmental plasticity? How many routes are there to competence? Is there a single developmental pathway? What do disorders of cognitive development tell us about normal developmental processes? These are some of the questions addressed by this text. In certain cognitive domains, such as the analysis of reading and spelling disorders, the field is well developed, with extensive studies of the development of dyslexias and dysgraphias. In other areas, such as the analysis of perceptual spatial disorders, pertinant studies are beginning, as in the analysis of developmental face recognition disorders, and the exploration of spatial disorders of Williams' syndrome. In these areas, interesting routes for future inquiry are also evident. The text of this book is organized around seven key cognitive areas, within which the developmental disorders are addressed in turn: language, memory, perception, reading, spelling, arithmetic and executive skills. The first three of this list may be considered the core areas of cognition; the second three involve specific cultural transmission in their acquisition; and the third, concerns higher order processes. The major emphasis of the text is upon developmental rather than acquired disorders. Throughout, case studies are used to convey an impression of the cases themselves, and to illustrate how dissociations in performance are displayed.

How can the study of typical development inform our understanding of atypical development? How can the study of atypical development inform our understanding of typical development? This book addresses these questions in the context of cognitive development—a discipline that focuses on the changes and continuity that characterize the intellectual processes that support mental life. The contributions range from a consideration of what autism teaches us about the development of attention, to how the study of multiracial and gender-nonconforming children enriches and challenges traditional approaches to understanding social perception. This book demonstrates how two fields of study that too often operate independently can benefit from each other theoretically, empirically, and practically. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Cognition and Development.