New Ideas and Techniques in Intervention with Children With Essay

New Ideas and Techniques in Intervention with Children With Communication Disorders in Early Language Development - Essay Example In other words the developing brain is best able to absorb any language, during the initial three years of their life. Some of the main reasons of speech and language disorders include hearing loss, neurological disorders, brain injury, mental retardation, drug abuse, physical impairments such as cleft lip or palate, and vocal abuse or misuse. However, in many cases the real cause is unknown (National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, 2004). As the years pass by the ability to learn a language will be more difficult, and perhaps less efficient or effective, if these critical periods pass without early exposure to a language (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 2001). This research paper focuses mainly on the new ideas and techniques in intervention with children with communication disorders in early language development. Communication disorder is a common term that encompasses various problems in language, speech, and hearing. To be more specific, speech and language problems comprise expression or verbalization problems, voice disorders, fluency problems which include stuttering, aphasia which is generally caused because of brain injury, and hearing problems. Today there are several interventions designed particularly for each of the above mentioned problems and the best treatment is prevention and early intervention (Sanchez, 1991). There are also several other communication disorders that result from other conditions such as learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, or cleft lip or cleft palate. Therefore, it becomes very important to understand the need of each and every child before the treatment begins. Speech and language disorders in general can have an impact on the way a child talk, understand, analyze or process information. Speech disorders include the clarity, voice quality, and fluency of a child's spoken words. Language disorders include a child's ability to hold meaningful conversations, understand others, problem solve, read and comprehend, and express thoughts through spoken or written words (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2005). Early intervention for the treatment of apraxia is intended to teach effective communication strategies and improve volitional control of the oral musculature. During the course of the treatment exercises mainly focuses on teaching sound s equencing, programming sound patterns, and improving rhythm in speech. It is only with the advent of computed tomography (CT) scan and MRI several medical conditions can be detected easily including the ability to identify small subcortical lesions as causes of aphasia. Successful treatment of aphasia depends on the knowledge of a child's cognitive and linguistic strengths and weaknesses obtained from the formal testing batteries. While the traditional treatment strategies focused on syndrome-specific approaches, where treatment is based upon the diagnosed aphasia syndrome, recent strategies promote getting a message across by any means, through language, gestures, drawing, or any other expressive method (Melfi, 2006). A child with speech or language delays may exhibit a number of characteristics including the inability to follow directions, slow and incomprehensible speech, and