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