Language Disorder

This post starts the next part of the series of neurodevelopmental disorder, communication disorders. These are disorders that show difficulties the facets of speech, language and communication. The first disorder within this series that I will provide the DSM-5 breakdown of will be for Language Disorder.

(Text in italics are pulled directly from the DSM-5 followed by my explanation of the information)

Criterion A

Persistent difficulties in the acquisition and use of language across modalities (i.e., spoken, written, sign language, or other) due to deficits in comprehension or production that include the following:

• This first criterion states that there is a difficulty in learning and using language across spoken word, written word, sign language or other forms of language use due to issues with understanding and learning new words. After this criterion there are three sub criteria that are need to be met within this criterion. Each of these have included explanations and would be redundant for me to explain them further.

  1. Reduced vocabulary (word knowledge and use).

  2. Limited sentence structure (ability to put words and word endings together to form sentences based on the rules of grammar and morphology).

  3. Impairments in discourse (ability to use vocabulary and connect sentences to explain or describe a topic or series of events or have a conversation).

Criterion B

 Language abilities are substantially and quantifiably below those expected for age, resulting in functional limitations in effective communication, social participation, academic achievement, or occupational performance, individually or in any combination.

• For this criterion to be met the individual would have to show that their capabilities in reference to language are lower than what is expected for their age range and that this deficit in ability makes their day to day lives more difficult across various aspects of their life (i.e., talking with friends, in school, at work, etc.).

Criterion C

Onset of symptoms is in the early developmental period.

• For the symptoms identified in the first and second criterion, they would have to be identified earlier in their childhood. I would argue that there would have to have been an understanding that a young child may have had difficulties with language at a young age and it would have continued throughout their life if, for example, an adult were to be diagnosed with this disorder.

Criterion D

The difficulties are not attributable to hearing or other sensory impairment, motor dysfunction, or another medical or neurological condition and are not better explained by intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder) or global developmental delay).

• In plain terms this criterion is stating that the difficulties that can be attributed to language disorder is not better explained by hearing issues, issues with controlling the body, medical or neurological issues and any other disorders such as intellectual developmental disorder or global developmental delay.

Pic sourced from We Are Teachers, which provides more context for teachers on how to spot language disorders in their classroom.