Blog #9: Language Disorders 

(Staake).

Introduction: What are language disorders?

Well, to answer that, knowing everything we do so far this semester, language disorders impact our ability and efficiency to communicate. These disorders make it hard to speak, read, or understand language. Before continuing on with this blog entry, the sources used are "What Teachers Need to Know about Language Disorders" by Jill Staake, "Signs and Types of Communication Disorders" by Kirsten Gantt, and "What Are Language Disorders?" by Gail Belsky. All three sources took much time to find, as I did not want articles without authors, and most of the search results were medical websites or university sites with no authors. Staake's article was primarily found upon Googling visual images of language disorders, and after choosing the image, the article also has some insight on navigating language disorders in the classroom. Gantt's article was found after a LOT of sifting through pages and pages of search results for "types of language disorders". Upon examining the content of the article, I found an author and sufficient information on the subject. I found Belsky's article almost on accident deep within Google's search engine, but I enjoyed the visual elements of the article and it is timely.

Summary🧠

Back to the topic at hand! Language disorders are communication disorders, affecting how people speak, read, think, and communicate. There are three main types of language disorders: expressive language, receptive language, and mixed receptive-expressive language disorders. Sounds complicated right? Well, let's simplify that. Expressive language disorders means people have trouble getting their message across when they talk, struggling to "put words together" and "make sense" (Belsky). Receptive language disorders makes individuals struggle to understand or comprehend what they've been told, and thus, will respond in ways that don't always "make sense" (Belsky). Additionally, Belsky describes mixed receptive-expressive language issues as those that cause people to struggle using and understanding language. It is, therefore, the worst and most severe of the three. These disorders are developmental, meaning that they begin in childhood and worsen in adulthood. Sometimes, there are no rational explanations as to why they have occurred either.

Gantt mentions those disorders as well, but also adds that speech disorders are another subclass of linguistic disorders, impairing the ability to fluently "produce sounds" and affects one's voice. A phonological disorder, which is a type of speech disorder (stay with me here), will cause individuals to make "sound errors" such as saying "tup" instead of "cup" or "swide" instead of "side" (Gantt). Voice disorders affect how sound is created within people and may even cause an "absence" of vocal production, according to Gantt. 

(Gantt).

Beyond just the handful of language disorders mentioned, there are definitely a vast amount of them that affect countless people everyday. As such, teachers must also know how to respond and attend to students with these disorders. Staake states that these students need more time to "fully understand questions" and "put their thoughts together." As such, she suggests allowing language disorder students time to prepare, and consider their opinion/thoughts, rather than just be spontaneously called upon. Giving easier, simplified instructions may also allow students to better understand instruction and directions. Among the other tidbits of helpful information, arguably the most imperative is the notion that if asking a student with a language disorder to speak is not "necessary for class participation," teachers should "find other ways to test them" on their knowledge of a subject (Staake).

Critical Analysis

I would argue that Belsky's "What are language disorders?" is short and quick to the point, summarizing the three main types of language disorders. However, this short length is also a weakness for those looking to gain proper information, and is only useful to gain a basic understanding of the terminology and disorders. Although, it is admittedly visually interesting to me because of Belsky's cotton-candy colors in her formatting. She is the Associate Director of the Understood website from which her article was published, as well. Meanwhile, Gantt's "Signs and Types of Communication Disorders" is well-structured, informative, and an overall overview of communication/language disorders. Its main fault, however, is that it does not elaborate very much on these disorders, only giving basic definitions and examples. It also isn't very visually engaging. 

Staake, on the other hand, has a Bachelor of Science degree in secondary ELA education, which gives her some credibility, as does the website being a community/network of teachers. Her article hasgraphic/visual content and pictures, a definition of language disorders, mentions the three main types of disorders, and discusses how to support students with these disorders. Through that lens, this becomes a very important source because, as a future teacher, I need to know that. Staake also provides resources for teachers to use and learn more about language disorders.

Connection to Coursework

This blog entry was very much informed by my choosing of aphasia as a research topic, and I think learning about language disorders will inform my overall understanding of that wide range of study, as well as understanding how aphasia functions specifically as a disorder. While my research paper is certainly focused on aphasia, I was curious as to what other disorders there are. Having found aphasia interesting, surely there must be other unfortunate disorders that could be worth learning and talking about here on the blog. If nothing else, my previous life spent as an unfulfilled physical therapy major in the medical field will find this very interesting.

Personal Reflection

In retrospect, beyond just further informing my research paper on aphasia, a language disorder itself, I would point towards Staake's article as being highly useful. I also was not previously aware of the three main types of language disorders, even with the various readings I had done on aphasia. I suppose this is because that's just one of numerous types of language disorders. Regardless, as a learner I was able to explore the three main disorders, learn about them, and most importantly, I was able to read about how to best support students with these disorders in the classroom. As a future ELA teacher myself, there may be some students with a language disorder, and I need to know how to navigate that situation. I need to know to be patient with them, give students time to prepare to form their thoughts, be direct at times, and allow them to be silent at other times. It's a situation that needs careful, considerate thought, because I don't ever want to make a student feel bad or worse when they're already struggling in some facet of life. I want to be a positive influence on students and hopefully be someone that they can say helped them in their journey as a student and person.

Citations

Belsky, Gail. “What Are Language Disorders?” Understood, 2021, www.understood.org/en/articles/what-        are-language-disorders. 

Gantt, Kirsten. “Signs and Types of Communication Disorders - Charlotte Speech Hearing.” Charlotte 

      Speech and Hearing Center, 1 Sept. 2020, charlottespeechhearing.com/communication-disorders/. 

Staake, Jill. “What Teachers Need to Know about Language Disorders.” We Are Teachers, 7 Jan. 2021,         www.weareteachers.com/language-disorders/.