Elements of a Language Based Learning Disability

In the most simple terms, a Language Disorder is identified when a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language) or sharing his thoughts, ideas or feeling completely (expressive language). My clients with Language Based Learning Differences not only have trouble processing the meaning of words spoken to them but, they have difficulty comprehending what they read. My job is to help my clients identify which words cause them trouble and find a way to clear up the confusion.

The first challenge for a client of mine would be to accurately identify each word he is reading. The child must have accurate visual-perceptual skills to correctly identify the abstract words in language and for example, read "where" and not say "were". When key words within the sentence are misidentified, comprehension will suffer. My job is to give my client a tool to help him correct his misperception of these abstract, non-picture words and thereby aid in his overall comprehension.

The next challenge for a client of mine would be to correctly identify individual word meaning. Understanding the abstract words and how they affect language as well as the vocabulary words within the passage is neccessary for comprehension. In the book The Gift of Dyslexia written by Ron Davis, the abstract words are called "trigger words" because they can begin a reaction of confusion for the reader. Consider the word "otherwise" as an example of a trigger word as it is one which we can't picture and most of us can't define. One meaning for "otherwise" is "or else" . This word should not be glossed over as it implies possible consequence to follow. When a visual learner with a receptive language disability is reading the word "otherwise" he needs both the accurate meaning and picture of whatever he is reading. We can't assume that if a child can decode the word, he also understands the meaning of the word.

Processing the entire passage hinges on being able to accurately decode each word, identify individual word meaning and understand how each word builds on each other to formulate meaning as a whole. The reader must lay down accurate meaning, sentence by sentence as one does frame by frame with movie film. Also the client must bring meaning to what is read by applying background information plus exposure, plus experience to the reading passage. The reader must have accurate eye-tracking and eye-teaming skills to include every word in the passage and not skip over words or lines.

Following a reading passage, language processing continues when a child must answer a corresponding reading comprehension question. Look at this example sentence, "Who was the first President of the USA?" Each word must be processed like this...
Who...(meaning a person)
was...(indicating the past)
the...(trigger word, can't picture it, what does it mean?)
first...(indicating a position in a sequence)
President...(vocabulary word meaning "the leader of the country")
of...(trigger word, can't picture it and what does it mean?)
the...(trigger word, can't picture it, what does it mean)
USA...(abbreviation for a location)

Finally the child must process the language needed for the individual answer. He will need to retrieve the correct words in the correct sequence in order to formulate an answer within his head and then originate it in written form. In the case of a standardized test, the client must then seek to fit his formulated answer into the formatted answers of the standardized test and look for a match. For a child with a Language based Learning Disability, reading and writing is no simple task.