Cognitive Science 301

Applied Cognitive Science and Education
Fall 2006

Language

"Although the two systems clearly are intimately related, the rate or quality of development between processing and production is not necessarily parallel." (p 158)

Developmental aspects of language production (summarized in Table 5-3)

• Word usage essentials
  • fluency with word finding in different specific contexts
    • Assessment:  Say as many names of people as you can within 60 seconds.
      • Say as many names of types of animals as you can within 60 seconds.
      • rapidly name each picture in a series of pictures
  • retrieval from long-term memory (lexicon)
    • identify antonyms, synonyms
    • provide definitions
  • growth of active vocabulary
  • adding abstract and technical words
• Formulation of sentences
  • appropriate language with growing sophistication
  • syntax, fluency, complexity of sentence structure increases with maturation/age
  • this allows communication of complex and abstract ideas
    • socialization is highly dependent on this skill
• Narrative and expository skill
  • narrative: "event-structured material" (p 159)
    • storytelling and summarization
      • Is temporal-sequential ordering important for this?  How?
    • develops from wandering thoughts in early years to well-organized presentation of ideas
    • improvements come with growth of verbal creativity, ability to form abstract concepts, and higher order cognition
    • written output also depends on mastery of appropriate narrative capabilities
  • expository: "detailed explanations and opinions" (p 160)
    • requires more flexibility with language skills
    • metalinguistic awareness is essential
    • " requires the child to have sound understanding of the information he wishes to convey, a well-developed semantic network and knowledge of relevant vocabulary, and rapid and precise word retrieval." (p 160)
    • this style of writing requires previewing, planning, and stating the purpose of the writing
    • "Thus, skill in expository expression does not necessarily follow from narrative ability and necessitates specific evaluation and management." (p 161)

Brain areas involved in language

• left hemisphere in most right-handed people
• Wernicke's area: involved in comprehension of spoken and written language (located at the posterior end of the parietal-temporal lobes junction)
• Broca's area: involved in organizing the production of motor patterns used in speech (part of the motor cortex)
• temporal lobe has different areas for specific types of nouns and verbs
• Figure of some brain areas involved in language.

Types of problems with language production (see summary in Table 5-4)

• Oral motor problems: abnormal oral-nasal sound balances, disruptions in normal pattern of speech, articulation problems, deviations in pitch or loudness
• Word retrieval dysfunctions: fluency, deficient vocabulary, naming of visual images, naming of words in certain semantic categories
  • children with naming problems may have problems reading accurately and fluently
  • children may withdraw from classroom discussions
  • may cause difficulties in production of successful writing
• Morphological and syntactic problems
  • problems manipulating words to conform to rules of grammar and tense
    • plural possessives, rules of word endings
  • problems forming understandable sentences
  • some traits are: excessive repetition, poor use of pronouns, and absence of clauses
• Discourse weakness
  • problems organizing ideas in writing about experiences and expository reports
  • problems acquiring and using "literate language" (requiring using increasing levels of symbolic representation)
• Deficiencies of Verbal Pragmatics
  • problems knowing the intent of the speaker/writer
  • problems adapting language for the specific audience with whom s/he is communicating
  • problems writing or talking about emotions or feelings with expressive language
  • these language pragmatic problems may cause problems with social interactions
• Poor Metalinguistic Awareness
  • Metalinguistic awareness is necessary to facilitate language production and processing
  • there may be problems detecting his/her own errors in speech and writing
  • there also may be problems adjusting and improving their language
• How could attention affect these problems? 
• How could temporal-sequential ordering affect these problems?  (with sounds, with word order, with sentence order, etc.)
• What other neurodevelopmental constructs may be involved in supporting or weakening language production skills.

Assessment

• Search for linguistic strengths and weaknesses.  The strengths often can be used to address any weaknesses.
• Obtain background information, historical data
• Obtain a sample of written and oral language
• See pages 172-175 for factors which can negatively impact assessment.
• Assessment should include:
  • tests of auditory discrimination, hearing, and phonological awareness
  • evaluation of vocabulary (antonyms, synonyms, meanings of words, analogies)
    • word retrieval
  • evaluation of use of syntax and morphology
    • sentence formation
  • metalinguistic evaluation: ability to understand ambiguity, figurative language, paradoxes, and proverbs
  • ability to follow verbal instructions
  • receptive and expressive language skills at all levels

Interventions

• Speech and language therapy (from a trained speech and language pathologist)
• Phonological deficits may require help with auditory discrimination and/or improving decoding capabilities
  • What would this involve?
• Semantic weaknesses
  • practice organizing words into categories
  • practice comparing and contrasting pairs of words
  • use semantic webs/maps (visual images)
• Sentence level problems
  • practice substituting one word for another in a sentence
  • practice making sentences with one or two key words (e.g., unless, until, although)
• Discourse level problems
  • practice summarizing ideas in paragraphs
  • practice elaborating and defending his/her ideas, opinions
• Verbal Pragmatics problems
  • counseling may be needed to improve social cognition and awareness
• Reading problems
  • read more to increase fluency, vocabulary, and capabilities
• Word games
  • Use highly-motivating word games to emphasize "word-finding, verbal opposites, and naming items in a category" (p 185)

Main Ideas

1. Language production requires the use of all components of language processing, in addition to discourse and oral motor production.
2. Language production impacts every aspect of talking and writing.
3. Assessment should include a variety of tools which assess many different aspects of language processing and production.
4. Problems in language processing and/or production can affect social interactions and self esteem.

Questions

1. What types of intervention might one try to address semantic weakness in both language processing and also in language production?  Why?
2. Reading promotes growth of language, even if the person is a poor reader.  Explain.
3. Why is auditory discrimination important in language production?
4. Create an exercise to help a student who has problems with processing at the discourse level.
5. List the specific aspects of language that may be problematic with someone who uses only short sentences (often not elaborating) when writing a paragraph.  List other neurodevelopmental constructs that may be contributing to this problem.