Key domains of language assessed and their importance to the client

Discuss About The Optimism And Positive And Negative Feelings.

Alexander et al., (2014) stated that there are five different domains in language. Different domains help a language to set rules of communication in society for various situations. The five domains of language are Semantics, Syntax, phonology, morphology and pragmatic. The first domain, which is semantics, is a branch of linguistics that deals with the meaning of any word. It is the study and interpretation of any word that helps a learner to understand the meaning of any sentence properly (Cantwell et al., 2014). With the help of this domain, one can relate the words with the concepts. In the domain syntax, the main concern is basically, on the pattern and the way of making sentences. It follows some specific rules like subject, verb, and object format in English. Using the proper syntax, the words in the sentences are placed together appropriately to make it understandable to readers. The next domain is phonology and it deals with the sequencing of words. With the help of this domain, it is possible to understand which word will be there after any particular word to make a sentence error-free and understandable to others. This is the smallest unit of language that refers to the shape of syllables and an improper use of phonology, the meaning of a sentence can be changed also. Phonology is very important in forming any sentence perfectly. The fourth domain is morphology. This focuses on the structure of the words and the grammar of any sentence. With the help of this domain, it is possible to improve and modify the word meanings. The fifth domain which is the last one is, pragmatic. This domain is very much important for children when they learn to speak. A child learns to speak by looking at the face of the speaker and observing how they are pronouncing any word. This domain helps any children to learn how to speak different words.

The client Billy, who is 2 years and 8 months old, is suffering from the difficulty in speaking the English language with the family members and others. His parents are concerned as he is unable to speak properly as his other siblings did in his years. So, some language domain is helpful for the child. As he is unable to speak a whole sentence, syntax and morphology domain will not work for him. But the domain, semantics, phonology and pragmatic will help him to learn new words and speak properly after listening to it (Coenen et al., 2016).

1.    Interpretation of referral and discussion with reference to Stackhouse and Wells’ model:

Stackhouse and Wells model for language assessment

From the case, it has been found that Billy’s parents were concerned regarding his speaking ability as he was unable to speak properly whereas, at his age, his siblings could speak better. However, it is common that parents take the example of siblings as a reference while comparing. But, the speaking ability always differs between boys and girls during the first 30 months of life (Kurtz?Nelson & McIntyre, 2017). Their language development skill also varies accordingly.  The child was having difficulty speaking and in this issue, Stackhouse and Wells model will work in the assessment session. This model is developed considering the role of sound in the speech therapy and it works in three different steps. For Billy, the steps can be integrated in the following way.

Input

•    Peripheral auditory processing- In this stage, Billy’s ear will identify or notice a sound from the environment.
•    Speech discrimination- In this stage, Billy will recognize if the sound heard, is a speech or non-speech sound (Stackhouse, 2014).
•     Phonological recognition- Now, Billy will relate the sound or language to his familiar languages and then try to understand it. With the help of it, it is possible to identify a particular speech order.
•    Phonetic discrimination- This will help Billy to recognize and distinguish between different types of sounds.

•    Phonological and semantic representation- Billy will be able to store the words according to their sound and according to their meaning also. This will help him to understand the word and its meaning properly (Krahn et al., 2015).

This model will effectively help Billy to identify different kinds of sounds and their meaning. It will help him in learning and understanding new words which will assist him in overcoming his weaknesses. In this case, Billy was using few single words and gestures to communicate with others. He uses very few verbs while communicating. His action and difficulties in speaking develop a hypothesis that he is not completely able to develop semantic representation and he is unable to understand the meaning of all the words (McConnell et al., 2014). This approach will help Billy in developing his speech and literacy.

1.    Integration of WHO ICF into the assessment plan:

The WHO ICF model focuses on four factors and these are, body structures and function, activities and participation, environmental factors, and lastly personal factors (Schiariti et al., 2015). ICF works efficiently in developing a standard framework of language to assist individuals who suffer from the difficulties in speaking and understanding word meanings. It is basically a classification of the health-related domain and it is used to evaluate the needs of any child with any health disability (Geytenbeek et al., 2015). In order to analyze and check the health-related disability to improve the speech and language developing the skill of Billy, the ICF framework can be used. To collect in-depth information from the parents of Billy, the ICF checklist can be used appropriately. The impact of various contextual factors in the language developing the skill of Billy can be recognized and identified with the use of the ICF framework which is provided by the WHO (World Health Organization, 2015). So, ICF assists with some additional measure in the treatment process of Billy’s disability in speaking and expressing thoughts. It will help in the progress of the treatment procedure of Billy.

Using the WHO ICF model in language assessment

Billy was 2years and 8 months old. So, his playing context will be functional in order to explore and manipulate several toys and objects. The play context will be specifically designed according to his age to collect data accordingly which will help to understand the specific problem of Billy. He was 32 months old and so his play context will include others and it will be a single scheme pretends (Pears et al., 2015). So he will be given a doll to drink with a toy cup. He will pretend to drink and will try to feed the doll with the toy-cup in the symbolic combination playing context. After that, there will be the context with hierarchical pretend in which he will take out a spoon and other dishes to feed his doll. It will indicate if he is getting the meaning and capable of distinguishing different objects and its functions. These activities can be performed in playgroups where children can enjoy and interact with others. So, to assess his language skill, the playing context will functional as per his age and he will be provided with some toy cups, spoons, false burger, doll, dishes and others. The practitioner will also pretend to drink and will notice the child how he is acting with those object and also record that for saving the data. This method will help in recording the data for future analysis about how the child is using the objects according to their functions and it will also provide the information that if the child is growing its semantic skill. The data will be recorded as per his interaction, responding and social function. His pre-verbal skills and expressions like eye contact, attention, types of word, vocalization and semantic roles will also be considered while recoding the data. When Billy will pretend to drink or feed the doll, his oral skills like eating, swallowing and phonological systems will also be checked and recorded for further analysis. 

Recording of data is very much essential for any further analysis and research. Conducting an interview is very challenging as it requires to build a product as well as a comfortable relationship and to maintain that also during the whole interview process (Saito et al., 2016). So, in the case of Billy, the data should be recorded through ethnographic interviews where the strategy will be “asking the right question in the right ways”. There will be a series of friendly conversation with Billy, in order to understand his semantic skills and way of responding (Høffding & Martiny, 2016). When he will be provided external objects the data will be recorded by asking what he is going to do with the objects like dolls and toy cups in the ethnographic interview. The interview of Billy’s parents will also be taken in order to get in-depth information about Billy. The data recorded in the interview round of playing context will be analyzed using some statistical techniques which will help in getting a more accurate result. Selection of method of analyzing data is very much critical as the inappropriate method will be responsible for the wrong result. Again, the questions in the interview should be asked slowly so that the interview would not turn into a formal interrogative process which will be uncomfortable. In the analysis of the data which will be collected in the interview round and playing context should be analyzed with some practical technique in order to avoid getting any wrong information from the result. 

References

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Cantwell, J., Muldoon, O. T., & Gallagher, S. (2014). Social support and mastery influence the association between stress and poor physical health in parents caring for children with developmental disabilities. Research in developmental disabilities, 35(9), 2215-2223.

Coenen, M., Bickenbach, J., Cieza, A., Hollenweger, J., Sabariego, C., Scheel-Sailer, A., & Prodinger, B. (2016). Comparability of health information: Paper Series in Disability & Rehabilitation on the ICF Linking Rules and their application.

Geytenbeek, J. J., Vermeulen, R. J., Becher, J. G., & Oostrom, K. J. (2015). Comprehension of spoken language in non?speaking children with severe cerebral palsy: an explorative study on associations with motor type and disabilities. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 57(3), 294-300.

Høffding, S., & Martiny, K. (2016). Framing a phenomenological interview: what, why and how. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 15(4), 539-564.

Krahn, G. L., Walker, D. K., & Correa-De-Araujo, R. (2015). Persons with disabilities as an unrecognized health disparity population. American journal of public health, 105(S2), S198-S206.

Kurtz?Nelson, E., & McIntyre, L. L. (2017). Optimism and positive and negative feelings in parents of young children with developmental delay. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 61(7), 719-725.

McConnell, D., Savage, A., & Breitkreuz, R. (2014). Resilience in families raising children with disabilities and behavior problems. Research in developmental disabilities, 35(4), 833-848.

Pears, K. C., Kim, H. K., Healey, C. V., Yoerger, K., & Fisher, P. A. (2015). Improving child self-regulation and parenting in families of pre-kindergarten children with developmental disabilities and behavioral difficulties. Prevention Science, 16(2), 222-232.

Saito, K., Trofimovich, P., & Isaacs, T. (2016). Second language speech production: Investigating linguistic correlates of comprehensibility and accentedness for learners at different ability levels. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37(2), 217-240.

Schiariti, V., Selb, M., Cieza, A., & O’donnell, M. (2015). International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Core Sets for children and youth with CP: contributions to clinical practice. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 57(2), 203-204.

Stackhouse, Joy. “Barriers to literacy development in children with speech and language difficulties.” In Speech and language impairments in children, pp. 87-112. Psychology Press, 2014.

World Health Organization. (2015). World report on ageing and health. World Health Organization.