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In the last article, we talked about adapting materials for students with special needs in general. This
article will focus on adapting materials for students with language delays.
What is a language delay?
A language delay occurs when a student has a reduced vocabulary, below normal skills at putting
words together in ways that make sense to others, and/or reduced understanding of socially
appropriate ways to use words in a variety of settings. The cause of a language delay can be varied:
speaking a different language in the home, a severe speech impairment that has delayed onset of
speech, a hearing impairment, or a variety of other disability labels.
When we think about words, we can think about them in 2 ways: the ideas represented by words,
and the sounds that make up words. Both of these ways of looking at words have to work together
in order for us to understand language completely: the combination of sounds (or the letters
that represent sounds) and ideas behind them. Students who have language delays struggle to
make meaning of both of these ways of looking at words at once. For example, some students
understand the ideas behind words in a very visual, concrete way. They may struggle to find the
sounds that represent the ideas they picture in their heads. Other students may be great at sounding
out words when they see the letters, but may struggle to know what those words mean.
When students have language delays, they may not have the foundation of basic words most students
do; in fact, they may also not even understand what some of these basic words mean when someone
else says them. So an assignment that is easily understood by most students may be incomprehensible,
simply because they don't understand the words used. Words such as under, over and inside may need to
be explained or "acted out" in order for directions to make sense.
No longer is a student's language delay just a problem for the speech pathologist, language arts
or ESL (English as a second language) teacher to work on. Language standards are to be applied
across the curriculum, and each teacher, no matter what their subject area, must support the
language development of the diverse students in his or her classroom. The specialized teachers
mentioned above are available to provide ideas and support to the other classroom teachers, but
there are also some simple, basic things a teacher can do to make their classroom "user friendly" for
students with language delays.
Here are some of the adaptations we will talk about further in this article:
- choosing simple words;
- providing a limited set of words to work with;
- providing practice using the same words in a variety of settings;
- showing the locations of the words on an AAC system for students who use
AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication);
- providing visual supports along with simple organizing strategies; and
- providing opportunities to practice sorting and categorizing information.
Choosing simple words
When students have language delays, one of the skills they need to build is to gain better use of
simple, everyday words. We can help build these skills by making sure that we focus on having the
student use those simple words in the classroom setting. This can be a switch for teachers, who are
used to asking students to use "special words" that relate to their subject only. For example, when
teaching a unit on astronomy, a teacher will often expect the students to use the names of the
planets. "Which planet has a red spot?" For a student who can barely
use the everyday words, though, focusing on the names of the planets will not improve everyday
function in the classroom setting. All it will do is demonstrate that the student knows those
"special words". With a little care, the teacher can have the student demonstrate that he knows
those "special words" by asking him to describe them using everyday words.
"Tell me about Jupiter." "It is big and has a red spot". Choosing simple
words requires some forethought in choosing the words to focus on. Choosing simple words may also
be combined with some of the strategies mentioned below to be an even more effective way of building
the needed language skills.
Limit words to work with
At times, students with language delays will struggle because, though they understand the concepts
being taught, they have difficulty putting words together to communicate what they know. This
skill can be learned through practice. It can also be made easier by offering a limited choice of
words to select from when putting together an explanation. Often, a word bank can serve this
purpose. For example: if the student is to answer this question: "What are
some landforms in our area?" A word bank like this one may be helpful:
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We
have do
lakes
and
houses rivers
near
here
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The student now has a limited choice of words to choose from, and yet has correct as well as incorrect
choices to make, so she can demonstrate her knowledge of the content while practicing putting
words together.
Provide practice using the same words in a variety of settings
It would also be helpful to give the student practice beforehand building sentences using the same
format as the one modeled in science class. In the example word bank shown above, the student is
asked to use the "we have" phrase to build a sentence. This student can be using the same pronoun
phrase (we have) in many other ways in other classes and in speech therapy to become familiar with
it even before having to use it to demonstrate knowledge in science class. The only adaptation this
requires is planning ahead and choosing important language skills for the whole team to focus on.
Show the locations of the words on an AAC system for students who use AAC.
Here is another example of the kinds of support that might help a student who uses AAC. If you
want students to compare two things, you might give the students two sentence starters to choose
from, "they are the same because…" and "They
are different because…" If the students with language delays uses an AAC system to
communicate, you may wish to post the locations of these words on the AAC system, along with the
words themselves.
Other students may benefit from less support, but still need some help to organize their response. A
word wall of key words to choose from may be enough to help these students. This combination of
visual supports plus the word may also help verbal students who are struggling to combine the
idea represented by a word and the word itself.
Provide visual supports along with simple organizing strategies.
We rely on our language skills to help us organize our thoughts and group ideas together. Students
with language delays may have trouble doing this, and may seem disorganized or unable to pick the
important information out of a bunch of facts. We can provide support for this, as well. Many
teachers use graphic organizers or word webs to help their students group ideas together. If a
student has a language or a reading delay, choosing a picture to use on the graphic organizer
along with words may help the student to make the best possible use of the organizational strategy.
Provide opportunities to practice sorting and categorizing information
Students with language delays may struggle when asked to group items into categories. We can
improve this skill by practicing it regularly, on worksheets and in games when the stakes are not
high. Grouping things is a language skill that we all use to help us make sense of our world. We
can make it easier for students to build this skill by providing plenty of practice. We can also
make it easier by beginning the process for them at first. We can provide the categories:
"things that are round" "things that are not round". We can also put
an object in each category, if needed.
Adapting for students with language delays is necessary for their success in school, but it
doesn't have to be difficult. These few simple ideas can get you started on the path to building
better language skills and increasing interaction for the students you work with who have language delays.
ABOUT THIS COLUMN
SERCH is excited to bring you a new monthly column that focuses on children with disabilities and the
math/science curriculum. Children are all different; children with disabilities may have learning
differences that require a re-thinking of the usual methods of teaching science and math. But children
with disabilities can grow up to get higher education and hold jobs in science in science and math fields.
This column is dedicated to the proposition that success in science and math is possible, and is dedicated to
making that success possible by helping parents and school staff learn about the many ways to achieve learning
for students with disabilities.
This column is written by Robin Hurd, who is a mother of 4 boys, ages 13, 11 and 8 year old twins. The
combination of disabilities at her house includes non-verbal physical impairments, sensory issues, Autistic
spectrum disorder, Tourettes syndrome, auditory processing disorder, anxiety disorder as well as talented and
gifted. In spite of this list, Robin, David and the boys enjoy life and learning to the fullest! Robin serves
as parent support liaison for the AAC Institute, a non-profit organization supporting people who communicate
using alternatives to speech. She writes a monthly column for parents at the AAC Institute, moderates a
parents' on-line group, and is available for support to individual parents. If you would like to contact
Robin about this column, you may e-mail her at
parents@aacinstitute.org.
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