University Case Study: Child Language and Hearing across Lifespan

This case study analyzes the language abilities of a child, focusing on the results of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF-5) assessment. The analysis reveals severe impairment in language abilities, particularly in expressive language, language structure, and content, while receptive language is relatively moderate. The study includes a discussion of the assessment tool, the child's strengths and weaknesses, and the implications for classroom learning. It proposes the need for a dyslexia screening test and outlines short-term and long-term goals using the SMART goal framework, focusing on receptive language and vocabulary development. The document also details various strategies to improve receptive language skills and proposes core vocabulary therapy to address the child's speech and language disorder, including the selection and implementation of therapy words.

Running head: ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
SPTH2002 Child Language & Hearing across the Lifespan Language Written Assignment 2018
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Case Study Analysis
Answer 1
CELF -5 Indexes Sum of subtest
scaled scores
Percentile rank Severity rating
Core language score 18 2 Severe severity
Receptive language 18 5 Moderate
severity
Expressive language 12 1 Severe severity
Language content 14 2 Severe severity
Language structure 18 2 Severe severity
Overall speech
pathology diagnosis
An overview of the obtained scores suggests that X
suffers from serious impairment in language abilities.
Although he displays moderate capabilities related
understanding information that is being conveyed to
him, he suffers from severe speech disorder that
signify an impairment in the general language ability
and its comprehension.

2ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Answer 2
The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF-5) is a language assessment
tool that was individually administered to the student X. This assessment tool is composed of 18
subtests that are further organized into four different levels of language testing. The primary aim
of using this tool was to evaluate or investigate X’s skills that pertain to language structure,
content, and use (Zibulsky & Viezel, 2013). The specific groups of subtests were administered,
with the aim of gaining significant information on the different aspects of language disorder that
are prevalent in X. An analysis of the results demonstrates that X suffered from severe general
language disability, which in turn confirms the presence of language disorder. The subsequent
levels of testing helped to evaluate the presence of disabilities in expressive language, in addition
to problems in forming the appropriate content and structure. The four core language skills that
must be demonstrated by the student X are related to listening, reading, speaking, and writing
(Uccelli, Barr, Dobbs, Galloway, Meneses & Sanchez, 2015). The results suggest that X shows a
disability in regards to concepts of phonological awareness and reading skills. Further
weaknesses are related to the fact that there were persistent difficulties in communicating the
needs and wants, in the form of verbal and nonverbal communication.
Hence, the low score suggests that X suffered from severe problems with the use of
sentences, gestures, words, and while writing. Moreover, language is absolutely central to the
overall learning process that occurs in a classroom (Bornstein, Hahn & Putnick, 2016). Low
scores for the language content and structure provide supporting evidences for the fact that X
faced inconvenience in framing appropriate sentences (Overvliet et al., 2013). Hence, his words
were incoherent, not structured well and resulted in his failure to convey his intended thoughts
and actions. However, the major strength that can be deduced from the aforementioned scores is

3ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
related to the fact that his severity was of a moderate level in terms of receptive language.
Furthermore, he provides support to his peer as well. This indicates that X could often
understand what was being conveyed to him.
The scores will directly affect his learning process in the classroom. He has a moderate
understanding of the sentences, words and meaning of what others said or what is being read to
him. Thus, he will be most often display a moderate likelihood of understanding the instructions
of his teachers. However, the low scores for all other subset of tests will make it uncomfortable
for him to put his thoughts into words and proper sentences. He will also display an inability to
make sense through his sentences that will be grammatically inaccurate. These difficulties will
make it extremely inconvenient for him to communicate with his teachers and classmates, which
in turn will impede questioning sessions and result in a delay in the learning process.
Answer 3
Prior to implementing any therapy that will improve the language disabilities, which X
suffers from, there is a need to conduct a dyslexia screening test as well that will identify if the
child is suffering from or is at a risk of dyslexia. The screening test will give a clear
understanding of possible difficulties related to dyslexia. Dyslexia refers to specific learning
disabilities among children, and is often referred to as reading disorders (Sun et al., 2013).
Children suffering from dyslexia often face troubles in reading, despite having high intelligence.
Research evidences have correlated dyslexia with other language difficulties such as, spelling
words, writing and reading quickly (Mohtaram, Pee & Sibgatullah, 2014). There is a need to
conduct the dyslexia screening test due to the fact that children suffering from language disorder
might often report problems related to sounding out words in their head, or pronouncing wrong
words while reading aloud.

4ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Owing to the fact that high severity was reported in expressive and core language, in
addition to problems in language structure and content, there are possible chances of exhibiting
delay in phonological awareness and segmenting words into separate fragments or sounds. This
test would therefore indicate presence of symptoms related to reduction in phonemic awareness.
The test will also help in determining presence of dysgraphia related symptoms, thereby
indicating if the child X finds difficulties in eye-hand coordination. The twelve subsets present in
the test will facilitate evaluation of the fluency and accuracy of the child in writing, reading and
spelling words. Dyslexia is often associated with a range of other conditions such as, elaborative
difficulties, impaired forming of visual words and poor motor control (Bishop, 2015).
Conduction of this screening test will help to determine the attention span, vocabulary skills and
reasoning ability, all of which form an integral part of classroom interaction. The simple scoring
of the test will help in investigating the nature and extent of the prevailing disorder (Hazawawi &
Hisham, 2014). Furthermore, it will also provide assistance in developing ways that can be used
for carrying out the therapy.
Answer 4
One short term receptive language goal is given below:
S (Specific) - The child will be able to identify common objects when they are shown, on
their specific function and feature
M (Measurable) - With the use of flash cards the children will be asked to name pictures of
objects or to identify an object when it is named by an adult. Success in identifying the objects
will indicate attainment of the short term goal (Suárez-Coalla, Ramos, Álvarez-Cañizo & Cuetos,
2014).

5ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
A (Achievable) –
 Five to ten common objects will be gathered from around the house such as, sock, spoon,
cup, shoe, car, phone, book, brush, and balls, and they will be put inside a bag or a box.
In place of collecting these objects, small flash cards that contain images of animals or
identifiable objects can also be used.
 The child will be given a card or the object one at a time and a conversation will be
fostered, where the name and specific features of the objects will be repeatedly
confirmed.
 Following interaction of the child with each object or flash card, two similar cards/objects
will be held up and the child will be asked to identify a specific one. This activity will be
continued until the child shows the consistency in identifying each object.
R (Relevance) - Identifying objects by looking at them on hearing their pronunciation forms
an essential part of the language skills and demonstrates presence of proper visual and auditory
discrimination among the children (Yoder, Watson & Lambert, 2015). Hence, development of
this receptive language capability will help the child X to engage more during the classroom
sessions.
T (Time-bound) - The entire activity will be conducted over a period of 3 months, for 30
minutes every day.
Answer 5
With the aim of improving the receptive language skills of the child X, several strategies
can be adopted. Appropriate eye contact should be maintained before providing any instructions,
in addition to refraining from giving multiple instructions at a time. A simplified language will

6ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
be used in front of the child to help them understand the meaning of what is being intended
(Bishop, 2014). Verbal instructions should be segmented into different parts. Asking the child to
repeat the instructions in order to ensure that they have properly understood what is required of
them, and encouraging the child to always ask for clarification also form an essential approach.
Use of proper visual aids such as, body language, facial expression, gestures, and pictures can
also assist the comprehension capability of the child and help him to recall be given instructions
(Grow & LeBlanc, 2013).
Answer 6
S (Specific) - X will be able to build his vocabulary by identifying appropriate pictures of
objects in order to increase his expressive language skills
M (Measurable) – Determining whether the child is shows an increased capability to
learn and read out new words, while pointing to pictures of animals, objects or school items, will
help in measuring achievement of the goal.
A (Achievable) – The goal can be achieved by the following:
 Following the child’s lead- This would encompass the process of emphasizing on words
that often arise during daily conversations and interactions with the child.
 Making the child hear a word several times- Appropriate words must be used before the
child multiple times before he is actually able to pronounce the word himself. A child’s
understanding of accurate words is often found to precede use of those words
(McCartney, Boyle, Ellis, Bannatyne & Turnbull, 2015).
 Tapping into other senses- Children have been found to demonstrate a better
understanding of new terms that are presented to them through the use of multiple senses.

7ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Senses of tough, sight, smell and sound must be effectively utilized to help the child learn
each syllable of the new words
R (Relevant) - The goal is important in this case scenario due to the fact that it will
encourage vocabulary development, which in turn will enhance the language acquisition and
literary skills, required for X to succeed in school. Thus, development of vocabulary is directly
linked to the overall school achievement (Smith‐Lock, Leitao, Lambert & Nickels, 2013). The
size of the child’s vocabulary will also be able to predict his learning ability. Furthermore, an
improvement in vocabulary will facilitate access to a wide range of information and will also
assist X to gain a clear understanding of the surrounding world.
T (Time-bound) – Increase in the child X’s vocabulary is expected to get accomplished
within 7 months from the beginning of the SMART goals implementation. The aforementioned
techniques will be implemented for four days, each week, with a duration of 30-40 minutes each
day.
Answer 7
Core vocabulary therapy will be implemented in this case, with the aim of improving the
accuracy of sounds and vocabulary related to everyday words. This vocabulary approach is
generally intended to be implemented up on children, who suffer from inconsistent speech
disorder. The structured therapy will be adapted in a way that the child X is able to practice
words that will be used in everyday life. The basic benefit of this approach can be attributed to
the fact that it is ideal for children who face difficulties in pronouncing appropriate sounds of
words (Weismer, 2014). This treatment will also target the speech processing deficit that
underlies the speech and language disorder exhibited by the child X, as evident from the scores,

8ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
thereby bringing about a system wide change. The vocabulary therapy approach will begin with
the selection of 50 words by the therapist, parents, and teacher of the child (Herman, Ford,
Thomas, Oyebade, Bennett & Dodd, 2015). These words will be selected in a way that they
present themselves as functionally powerful and hold significant meaning such as, names of his
friends, family members, places, pet, library, school, eating places and parks. Ten words that are
selected from the provided list will be drilled in sessions that are held twice a week.
At the end of the week that child will be asked to produce the selected ten words for three
times. Words that have been produced consistently by the child will be removed from the
existing list of 50 words. On the other hand, those words that are inconsistently produced will
remain on the list, from which random ten words will be selected for the session that is intended
to get continued for the next week (Boenisch & Soto, 2015). Other activities that will the therapy
will encompass include scavenger and treasure hunt. The child will be made to go searching for
items that are related to the core vocabulary. To make the entire intervention interesting, the
child will be given clues and dressed up as Treasure Hunters. Creating word clouds and
embedding words in images that are related to experiences will also form an essential part of this
approach. Helping the child learn such words during snack time, or while playing games such as,
blowing bubbles and arranging blocks will also help in enhancing the vocabulary.

9ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
References
Bishop, D. V. (2014). Pragmatic language impairment: A correlate of SLI, a distinct subgroup, or
part of the autistic continuum?. In Speech and language impairments in children(pp. 113-
128). Psychology press. Retrieved from-
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317715825/chapters/10.4324%2F978131578
4878-12
Bishop, D. V. (2015). The interface between genetics and psychology: lessons from
developmental dyslexia. Proc. R. Soc. B, 282(1806), 20143139.
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.3139
Boenisch, J., & Soto, G. (2015). The oral core vocabulary of typically developing English-
speaking school-aged children: Implications for AAC practice. Augmentative and
Alternative Communication, 31(1), 77-84.
https://doi.org/10.3109/07434618.2014.1001521
Bornstein, M. H., Hahn, C. S., & Putnick, D. L. (2016). Long-term stability of core language
skill in children with contrasting language skills. Developmental psychology, 52(5), 704.
Retrieved from- http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-13817-001
Grow, L., & LeBlanc, L. (2013). Teaching Receptive Language Skills. Behavior analysis in
practice, 6(1), 56-75. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391791
Hazawawi, N. A. M., & Hisham, S. (2014, November). Online dyslexia screening test for
Malaysian young adults in Bahasa Melayu. In Information and Communication

10ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Technology for The Muslim World (ICT4M), 2014 The 5th International Conference
on (pp. 1-5). IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/ICT4M.2014.7020676
Herman, R., Ford, K., Thomas, J., Oyebade, N., Bennett, D., & Dodd, B. (2015). Evaluation of
core vocabulary therapy for deaf children: Four treatment case studies. Child Language
Teaching and Therapy, 31(2), 221-235. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265659014561875
McCartney, E., Boyle, J., Ellis, S., Bannatyne, S., & Turnbull, M. (2015). Indirect language
therapy for children with persistent language impairment in mainstream primary schools:
outcomes from a cohort intervention. International journal of language &
communication disorders, 1-9. Retrieved from-
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/13682820903560302
Mohtaram, S., Pee, N. C., & Sibgatullah, A. S. (2014, November). Mobile dyslexia screening
test: A new approach through multiple deficit model mobile game to screen
developmental dyslexia children. In Malaysia University Conference Engineering
Technology. Retrieved from-
http://ocs.utem.edu.my/index.php/mucet2014/MUCET2014/paper/viewFile/129/132
Overvliet, G. M., Besseling, R. M., van der Kruijs, S. J., Vles, J. S., Backes, W. H., Hendriksen,
J. G., ... & Aldenkamp, A. P. (2013). Clinical evaluation of language fundamentals in
Rolandic epilepsy, an assessment with CELF-4. european journal of paediatric
neurology, 17(4), 390-396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpn.2013.01.001
Smith‐Lock, K. M., Leitao, S., Lambert, L., & Nickels, L. (2013). Effective intervention for
expressive grammar in children with specific language impairment. International Journal

11ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
of Language & Communication Disorders, 48(3), 265-282. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-
6984.12003
Suárez-Coalla, P., Ramos, S., Álvarez-Cañizo, M., & Cuetos, F. (2014). Orthographic learning in
dyslexic Spanish children. Annals of Dyslexia, 64(2), 166-181.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-014-0092-5
Sun, Z., Zou, L., Zhang, J., Mo, S., Shao, S., Zhong, R., ... & Song, R. (2013). Prevalence and
associated risk factors of dyslexic children in a middle-sized city of China: a cross-
sectional study. PloS one, 8(2), e56688. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0056688
Uccelli, P., Barr, C. D., Dobbs, C. L., Galloway, E. P., Meneses, A., & Sanchez, E. (2015). Core
academic language skills: An expanded operational construct and a novel instrument to
chart school-relevant language proficiency in preadolescent and adolescent
learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 36(5), 1077-1109.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S014271641400006X
Weismer, S. E. (2014). Intervention for children with developmental language delay. In Speech
and language impairments in children (pp. 171-190). Psychology Press. Retrieved from-
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317715825/chapters/10.4324%2F978131578
4878-15
Yoder, P., Watson, L. R., & Lambert, W. (2015). Value-added predictors of expressive and
receptive language growth in initially nonverbal preschoolers with autism spectrum
disorders. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 45(5), 1254-1270.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2286-4

12ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Zibulsky, J., & Viezel, K. (2013). Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals. Encyclopedia
of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of Children, Adolescents, and Adults
with Disabilities and Other Exceptional Individuals.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118660584.ese0502