Communication disorders are impairments in sending, receiving, processing, or comprehending verbal or non-verbal concepts. They can range in severity and may be developmental or acquired. Common types include speech disorders involving articulation, fluency, or voice, and language disorders involving content, form, or use. Causes include hearing impairment, physical disabilities, or developmental disabilities. Teachers should provide appropriate language models, communication opportunities, and strategies like expansion and parallel talk to facilitate language development for students with communication disorders.

1. Communication Disorder is an impairment in the ability to send, receive, process, and comprehend concepts or verbal, non-verbal and graphic symbol systems. a communication disorder may be evident in the processes of hearing, language, and or speech. May range in severity from mild to profound. it may be developmental or acquired. A communication disorder may result in a primary disability or secondary to other disabilities.

2. Types of Communication Disorders Speech Disorder - involves difficulties in articulation, fluency and voice. Language Disorder - involves difficulties with content (semantics), form (phonology, morphology, and syntax), and use ( pragmatics). Hearing Disorder has a separate classification.

3. Causes of Communication Disorder Hearing Impairment ( full or partial hearing impairment) Physical Disability (cleft lip and palate, or malformations of the mouth or nose, disabilities such as cerebral palsy) Developmental Disability (some children (not all) with a developmental disability or Down syndrome)

4. TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS WITH COMMUNICATION DISORDERS Provide Appropriate Models Teachers model correct language usage, grammar and communication When reading, help them recognize figurative language (metaphor, similes) by comparing illustration and identifying correct interpretation. Ex. Is raining cats and dogs means “Cats and dogs are dropping outside or It’s raining very hard.”

5. TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS WITH COMMUNICATION DISORDERS Provide Communication Opportunities & Facilitating Conversations Hoskins (1994) offers the following guidelines in facilitating conversation: Base the content of conversation on the student’s interest and concerns. Once a topic of conversation is has been selected, assist the student or group of students in exploring different aspects of it (e.g . brainstorming, sequencing events) During the conversation, help the student communicate what he or she has to say, not by direct correction but by following the student’s message with a correct version and by using prompts and cures. Structure opportunities for the student to practice specific foundation skills (e.g . by guiding students to ask each other questions or to give directions and explanations ), and highlight the regularities in language.

6. TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS WITH COMMUNICATION DISORDERS Facilitating Language Structures Expansion – involves the teacher restating and elaborating a student’s utterance so that it approximates more mature, grammatically correct speech. Ex. Pen broke…..The pen is broken Extension – demonstrate how a specific language behaviour might be used in a slightly different context by providing additional information. Ex. “Joe go game”…..”Oh Joe went to see the Bulldogs play at the stadium”. Self-talk – models how competent people speak. This can be used as a general language stimulation approach or to emphasize specific aspects of language the students need to acquire. Ex. am + verb + ing form is not mastered, use books that feature this form.

7. Facilitating Language Structures Parallel-talk - serves the same instructional purpose as self-talk, but focuses on what the student is currently doing or what is presently occurring in the environment. Ex. using the are + verb + ing structure as ongoing classroom activity of a writing a first draft to engage in parallel-talk. Responsive interaction – is intended to increase a student’s social communication by enhancing the quality of his or her interaction typically with an adult. The teacher avoids direct instruction, instead responds to the student’s behaviour in ways appropriate for the student’s current interests and development.

8. TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS WITH COMMUNICATION DISORDERS Embedding Interventions in Instructional Activities Teachers should plan opportunities for students to use language through cooperative learning. The 3 step interview a) teachers form pairs and students conduct one-way interviews regarding the topic being discussed, b) students reverse roles and the interviewers become the interviewee, c) all students take turns sharing the information they learned during the interview in a roundrobin fashion.

9. Embedding Interventions in Instructional Activities Group retelling – involve giving members different assignments to read. Teachers ask students to read the information silently and then retell it in their own word. Dyadic learning – is built on the notion that creating images and analogies (elaboration) and monitoring our own comprehension (metacognition) promotes understanding of text. The teacher asks them to read a specific number of paragraph, the students assumes the role of recaller and orally summarizes the reading and the other student act as the listener/facilitator and corrects mistakes and adds information.

10. TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS WITH COMMUNICATION DISORDERS Modifying the Instructional Environment Norris and Hoffman (1993) suggest providing an integrated curriculum, in which instruction in all subject areas is based on a single theme (e.g. the weather) Integrating oral-to-written and written-to-oral activities. conduct discussion before students begin writing (e.g. brainstorming, interview) encourage students to taperecord notes and ideas as a prewriting step (e.g. before doing a first draft) provide time for students to critique each others’ writing in peer conferences allow group revising, in which students interested in the same topic talk together and craft a final draft. Provide opportunities for students to read their writing aloud to various audiences. Simplify vocabulary and sentence structure and monitoring the rate at which they speak: provide contextual cues use redundancy relate new information to prior knowledge

11. TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS WITH COMMUNICATION DISORDERS Provide Augmentative & Alternative Communication Communication Boards A newspaper in Symbols (News-2-You)www.news-2-you.com Electronic Communication Devices (Dynavox Systems)