PARENT HANDOUTS

for Communication Disorders

and Improving Receptive & Expressive

Language Skills

Tamara Anderson, M.S., Ed.S., CCC-SLP

bslspeechlanguage.blogspot.com

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCE GUIDES

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE GUIDES

COMMUNICATION DISORDERS Children and adolescents who have a communication disorder or a speech-language impairment have significant challenges communicating with others. Their ability to communicate significantly differs from their peers and may adversely affect their emotional, social, and/or educational development and performance. Individuals with communication disorders may also have co-occurring learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, autism, emotional-behavioral disorders (e.g. ADHD, anxiety), and hearing loss. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), approximately 5 million children in the United States have a speech, language, and/or hearing disorder.

TWO CATEGORIES OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE CHALLENGES:

Speech Sound Disorders

Language Disorders

What are speech sound disorders? Speech sound disorders include problems with articulation (pronouncing sounds) and phonological processes (sound patterns).

An articulation disorder is characterized by difficulties pronouncing sounds that should be

mastered by certain ages. A child may substitute, leave off, add, or distort sounds in words

when communicating. This often leads to others having difficulty understanding a child’s speech.

A phonological process disorder is characterized by errors in patterns of sounds that exist

beyond a developmentally appropriate age. For example, a child may delete final consonants or

substitute sounds made in the back of the mouth like /k/ and /g/ for those in the front of the

mouth like /t/ and /d/. He or she may say "tup" for "cup" or "dame" for "game."

Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder. A child with CAS has

challenges saying sounds, syllables, and words because his or her brain struggles with planning

to move the body parts (e.g., lips, jaw, tongue) needed for speech. The child knows what he or

she wants to say, but his or her brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements in the

correct sequence to effectively communicate. This is not due to muscle weakness or paralysis.

A fluency disorder or stuttering refers to interruptions in a child’s speech, also called

dysfluencies. Characteristics include repetitions of initial sounds, part of words, whole words,

and phrases. Other dysfluencies include prolongations (I want s-s-s-some) and interjections (I

want um-um-um some water). Some children may also show excessive tension, struggle

behavior (blocks), eye blinks, facial movements, or other body movements while

communicating.

Created by Tamara Anderson, M.S., Ed.S., CCC-SLP

What are language disorders?

Language disorders can involve one of more of the following areas: • Receptive Language - difficulty understanding language • Expressive Language - difficulty using oral language • Pragmatic Language - difficulty with social communication;

interpretation of non-verbal/verbal language

Children and adolescents who have impaired comprehension and/or use of oral

language may also have difficulty with written language. Their language disorder

may hinder their ability to be successful in the classroom. Therefore, these

individuals need specialized instruction to provide them greater opportunity to

achieve academic and social success. These interventions should address:

Language Form:

Phonology- sound system of language (e.g. identifying words with

the same beginning or ending sounds, learning to blend sounds to

form words during phonological awareness activities)

Morphology-structure of words (e.g. grammatical tenses-plurals)

Syntax- structure of sentences (e.g. communicating simple, compound, and complex sentences) Language Content:

Semantics- meaning of words and sentences (e.g. direct

vocabulary instruction)

Language Use:

Pragmatics- use of language to participate appropriately in social

interactions (e.g. initiating conversations, interpreting non-verbal

cues, turn-taking in conversations, maintaining topic).

Created by Tamara Anderson, M.S., Ed.S., CCC-SLP

Helpful Hints to Improve Receptive and

Expressive Language Skills

Receptive language is listening and language comprehension.

Have your child repeat and explain directions that are given at home

to make sure he or she heard and understood you.

Have your child complete simple and multi-step verbal directions.

Have your child remember 3-5 items in a list when going shopping.

This will also help improve his or her memory skills.

Provide your child practice with vocabulary games such as “Hedbanz”

and “Blurt” to improve his or her comprehension of word meanings.

Expressive language is also known as oral language or verbal

communication. Children need to be able to verbally express

their ideas about everyday events and academic information

with ease.

Here are some ways that you can encourage your child to practice

improving these skills:

Have your child describe what he or she did during recent family

events (e.g. going to the park, going to a birthday party, etc.). This will

help your child explain the sequence of events.

Have your child retell information about a fiction story by answering

5 WH questions: 1) Who was in the story? 2) What did the characters

do in the story? 3) Where did the story take place? 4) When did the

story happen? 5) Why did the main events happen?

Have your child retell 5 facts from a non-fiction academic short

passage.

Provide your child an opportunity to verbally define curriculum

language arts vocabulary. For example, he or she should be able to

explain the meanings of story elements vocabulary such as character,

setting, introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion,

problem, and solution.

Provide your child an opportunity to practice common word

relationships or associations by naming synonyms, antonyms, and

completing verbal analogies.

Created by: Tamara Anderson, M.S., Ed.S., CCC-SLP (www.bslspeechlanguage.blogspot.com)

Interactive Websites to Improve Receptive and

Expressive Language Skills

Basic Concepts

What are basic concepts?

http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/52_Teaching_Basic_Conce

pts.pdf

do2learn.com

http://do2learn.com/games/whatsdifferent/main_thingtoridein.htm

(What Doesn’t Belong?)

http://do2learn.com/games/wordpairs/index.htm (spatial concepts)

http://do2learn.com/games/whatcolor/pages/index.html (colors)

jacobslesson.com

http://jacobslessons.com/cm/categorymatching.htm

http://jacobslessons.com/matchcolor1.htm

http://jacobslessons.com/iobf/function.htm

http://jacobslessons.com/prepositions/prepositions.htm

pbskids.org

Following Directions

http://pbskids.org/clifford/games/buried-treasure.html

Spatial (Location) Concepts

http://pbskids.org/clifford/games/whichclifford-game.html

cookie.com

http://www.cookie.com/kids/games/go-together.html

(What Goes Together?)

Misc. worksheets http://www.kidslearningstation.com/preschool/basic-

concepts.asp

Created by Tamara Anderson, M.S., Ed.S., CCC-SLP

Vocabulary Comprehension

jacobslesson.com (basic labeling)

http://jacobslessons.com/touch/touch_bas.htm

cookie.com (basic labeling)

http://www.cookie.com/kids/games/labeling.html

spellingcity.com

Homophones & homonyms video lessons and games

https://www.spellingcity.com/homophones-and-homonyms.html

Antonyms & synonyms video lessons and games

https://www.spellingcity.com/antonyms.html

https://www.spellingcity.com/synonyms.html

Analogies video lessons and games

https://www.spellingcity.com/analogies.html

Figurative language video lessons and games

https://www.spellingcity.com/figurative-language.html

henryanker.com

Homophones, synonyms, antonyms, analogies

Click on grade level, then different vocabulary tabs

jacobslessons.com

http://jacobslessons.com/opposites/oppositesPreSet1.htm

Pragmatics

myeverydayspeech.com

http://myeverydayspeech.com/free-social-skills-videos-6-videos-for-

elementary-through-high-school-students/

Created by Tamara Anderson, M.S., Ed.S., CCC-SLP

Grammar Comprehension

Pronouns

http://jacobslessons.com/heshe/heshe.htm

http://jacobslessons.com/boygirl/givehimher.htm

http://jacobslessons.com/boygirl/hishers.htm

Parts of speech

https://www.spellingcity.com/parts-of-speech.html

http://www.henryanker.com/Language/Language_Skills/Possessive_Nou

ns/Possessive_Nouns_Set_01.swf

http://www.cookie.com/kids/games/simple-sentences.html

http://www.cookie.com/kids/games/describing-words.html (adjectives)

http://www.cookie.com/kids/games/opposite-adjectives.html

Story Sequencing, Comprehension & Retell

http://www.jacobslessons.com/sequencing/seqBegSet2.htm

http://www.quia.com/pages/sequencingfun.html

http://www.kidslearningstation.com/sequencing/

(worksheets)

newsela.com (online articles)

readworks.org (worksheets)

henryanker.com (2nd-7th grade text)

click on grade level, then reading comprehension tab

Critical Thinking

Basic Inferences (Use clues to name objects and make

predictions)

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/in_the_bag/bag.swf

http://www.pspb.org/blueribbon/games/detective/DetectiveGame.html

http://www.quia.com/rr/332704.html

Created by Tamara Anderson, M.S., Ed.S., CCC-SLP