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Eide
Neurolearning Store
Receptive Language
Expressive Language
& Late Talkers
Language & Auditory
Processing
Language & Social Skills
Oral Apraxia
Outside Links
AmericanAccent.com
Apraxia-Kids Library
Caroline Bowen's
Speech Site
Happy Note
(free game to train pitch)
Phonetics Site
Randall's
Cyber-Listening
Lab
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Language and speech difficulties can be some of the most personally challenging problems to have because they affect understanding, sharing, problem solving, and virtually all aspects of formal education.
Children, teens, and adults with speech and language difficulties are frequently underestimated and misdiagnosed. Most of our ways of assessing intellectual ability or school achievement are language-dependent, so students with significant language problems may score poorly on standardized tests like I.Q., although they may have strengths in non-language-dependent domains like visual-spatial ability, problem solving, or nonverbal social interactions.
We need to think of more language-impaired students like visitors to a foreign country where they don't know the language. Language impairment doesn't mean a child isn't bright. It does mean parents and teachers may have to work harder, though, to figure out optimal teaching strategies and alternative ways to test knowledge and understand meaning.
It is particularly important that children with language difficulties be searched carefully for individual strengths and gifts- it's these abilities that can tell us how best to overcome speech and language challenges, and how to foster opportunities for friendships, more personal satisfaction and enjoyment, and school and career achievement.
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