LESSON Learners with Difficulty in Communicating

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OBJECTIVES:
 Identify the importance of speech and language.
 Determine the external causes of the speech and language delay/difficulty.
 Enumerate the parts of the human mouth and brain responsible for speech
acquisition.
 Explain the function of parts of the mouth and brain responsible for language
acquisition.
 Differentiate the types of learners with exceptionalities with difficulty in
communication.
 Transcribe words using phonetic alphabet to teach proper pronunciation of
words.
 Create a learning plan with application of Universal Design for learning.

Introduction

“Feeling gratitude, and not expressing it, is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
~William Arthur Ward
Speech and language are basic categories that might be drawn in issues of
communication that involves hearing, speech, language and fluency. When a child
doesn’t have an ability to talk or express ideas verbally, it could affect the development
of communication and social skills that may cause a child to feel isolation. After reading
this chapter, teachers are expected to have basic knowledge of speech and language
impairment and how to keep students from suffering such impairment to succeed in
school.

Instruction: Let’s test your accuracy. These are ten tongue

twisters gathered for you. Read them aloud and underline the word
you are having difficulty to pronounce.
1. I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish
the wish the witch wishes, I won’t wish the wish you wish
to wish.
2. Rory the warrior and Roger the worrier were reared
wrongly in a rural brewery.
3. If you must cross a course cross cow across a crowded cow crossing, cross the cross coarse
cow across the crowded cow crossing carefully.
4. Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.
5. How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?
6. Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager managing an imaginary menagerie.
7. Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks.
8. Send toast to ten tense stout saints’ ten tall tents.
9. Brisk brave brigadiers brandished broad bright blades, blunderbusses, and bludgeons
balancing them badly.
10. The thirty-three thieves thought that they thrilled the throne throughout Thursday.

Analysis

After reading the ten tongue twisters, retrospect and answer these following
questions:
 Have you had a hard time reading each item? What do you think is the
reason?
 Are there any similarities between your mistakes? If so, what are those?
 Which particular item have you felt too much tiredness? What helped you
to keep going?

Abstraction

Speech and Language is however, the most powerful and dexterous form of communication for
humans. Speech is multimodal and is produced with the mouth, the tongue, the vocal tract, the
hands and the entire body and perceived not only with our ears but also with our eyes.
Communication is the exchange of information, ideas and desires between two or more person.
It is considered interactive when there is (1) an intention to send and express a message, (2) a
receiver who decodes and responds to the message, and (3) shared means of communication. The
model below shows the interactive communication model by Adler and Rodman (2017).
It is helpful for you as a teacher to learn about the milestone language development of a child to
know how they acquire language from infancy to elementary years. The following are the child’s
milestones in their language development.
Birth to 6 months
 First form of communication is crying
 Babies make sounds of comfort, such as coos and gurgles
 Babbling soon follows as a form of communication
 Vowels are produced
 No meaning is attached to the words heard from others
6-12 months
 The baby’s voice begins to rise and fall while making sounds
 Child begins to understand certain words
 Child may respond appropriately to the word “no”
 Child may perform an action when asked
 Child may repeat words said by others
12-18 months
 Child has learned to say several words with appropriate meaning
 Child is able to tell what he or she wants by pointing
 Child responds to simple command
18-24 months
 There is a great spurt in the acquisition and use of speech
 Begins to combine words
 Forming words to simple sentences
2-3 years
 The child talks
 Ask questions
 Vocabulary for about 900 words
 Participates conversation
 Child can identify colors
 Use plurals
 Tell simple stories
 Use consonant sounds
3-4 years
 Speaks rapidly
 Ask questions to obtain information
 Sentences are longer and varied
 Can do simple analogies
4-5 years
 Average vocabulary of over 1,500 words
 Sentences average 5 words in length
 Can modify speech
 Define words
 Use conjunctions
 Recites poems and sing songs from memory
There are many parts of the body that helps us to produce speech and the brain coordinates it all.
Broca’s and Wernicke’s area are cortical areas of the brain specialized for production and
comprehension respectively, of human language. Wernickes’s area (discovered by Carl
Wernicke, a German physician) is responsible for the comprehension of speech while the
Broca’s area (discovered by Paul Broca, a French neurologist) is related to the production of
speech. Speaking begins with a person’s thought and results in the formation of words and
sentences. Speaking occurs by air coming from the lungs, through vocal folds and out in the
mouth. We shape sounds using our tongue (tip, blade, front and back), upper and lower lips,
upper and lower teeth and the roof of our mouth (alveolar ridge, palate and velum) in order to say
specific sound of words. There are 44 sounds or English phonemes represented by 26 letters of
the English alphabet individually and in combination. With the use of this phonetic alphabet
chart, we can understand how each consonant sound is produced with the mouth and tongue
position.

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Children can have communication problems for a variety of reasons. In many cases, a
communication problem is the result of another disability, such as intellectual disability, severe
learning difficulties, physical disability (cerebral palsy, cleft lip or palate), autism spectrum
disorder, deafness and hearing loss, and emotional and psychological disorder. Children
with these conditions may have comorbidity of learning, understanding and/or expressing speech
and language. There are three types of communication problems:

Expressive Problems
Expressive problems are the most obvious communication problem. Children may be unable to
sequence sentences properly so they use incorrect word order or grammar, or just speak in one-
word sentences. Children may have articulation problems, where they cannot physically produce
certain sounds or words, or where they stutter. Some children speak too softly or too loudly and
others speak in a monotone, without using expression. Some speech and language expressive
problems are associated with Broca’s Aphasia where there is a problem in Broca’s area of the
brain responsible for speech acquisition, Apraxia, Speech Delay and Stuttering.
Problems with Interaction
Some children lack good social and conversational skills. They don’t know how to take turns
when talking, or knowing when to begin and end conversation. Some fails to make eye-contact
or use appropriate body language and cannot pick up subtle expressions and emphasis on
language. Such conditions are associated with emotional and behavioral disorders and
psychological disorders. Receptive Problems
Difficulties with the comprehension and understanding spoken language – ‘receptive’ problems
are less obvious compared to the expressive problems. It can have serious consequences for
children’s learning and development. Children with receptive problems struggle with the
meanings of words and sentences. They often have difficulty with the subtleties of language and
abstract concepts, making predictions and inferences. Sometimes they appear to have appropriate
expressive skills but is often just a meaningless chatter. Such condition is sometimes associated
with Wernick’s Aphasia whre there is a problem in Werknicke’s are of the brain responsible for
comprehension and language decoding, Central Auditory Processing Disorder, Deafness and
Hearing loss, Hyperlexia and Dyslexia.
Children without speech at all or those who are unintelligible may need to use sign language or
Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). Others may have to admit for speech and
language therapy program designed by a Speech Language Pathologist. Teachers should
also seek assistance from special education resource center. Children suffering with such
condition needs teaching approaches that are responsive to their needs. Teachers are most
effective in teaching students with communication problems when they:
 Provide individual assistance in a kindly way;
 Check students’ understanding regularly;
 Provide all students memory games, rhyming games, communication games and other
word games frequently;

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 Encourage students to observe each other making sounds and ask students to feel their
own mouths as they make letter sounds;
 Encourage mouth and tongue exercises, such as blowing bubbles, blowing paper balls,
coughing, yawning and opening the mouth very wide, moving the tongue about and
sticking it in and out;
 Never make fun of or mimic’s a student’s speech;
 Encourage and praise all attempts at speech improvements;
 Never force a child with speech problem to speak in front of the class;
 Always respect the child’s dignity;
 Provide as many communication activity as possible;
 Do not correct students’ speech all the time but instead, target one sound or skills to work
on over a period of time; and
 Encourage speech practice and exercises at home.
 Gain the child’s attention before giving directions
 Speak slowly and clearly but do not exaggerate speech
 Use simple and brief instructions
 Give directions in a logical, time-ordered sequence. Use words that make the sequence
clear (first, second, third and finally)
 Use visual aids and write instructions to supplement spoken information
 Emphasize key words when speaking or writing, especially presenting new information.
Preliminary instructions with emphasis on main ideas to be presented may be effective
 Use gestures for clarity
 Vary loudness to increase attention
 Check comprehension by asking the child questions or asking for a brief summary after
key ideas
 Paraphrase instructions and information to shorter and simpler sentences rather than just
repeating them
 Encourage the child to ask questions
 Make instructional transitions clear
 Review previous lesson
 Give breaks and recognize periods of fatigue
 Avoid frustrations when the child can’t understand the message
 Avoid asking the child to listen and write at the same time.

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Application

Practical Skills 1: Create a learning plan with application of universal design

for learning. Read the given level of performance to set properly the
condition. After creating the learning plan, make a simple classroom structure
along with its rationale,
and an outline of instructional materials you will be using in the actual delivery of such
learning plan. Use separate sheets if needed.
Present Level of Performance:
 The class is composed of 38 regular students with 1 learner with
autism spectrum disorder non-verbal and 1 learner suffering from
stuttering.
 The classroom is well-lighted and there are 2 students in each desk.

READ AND RESPOND

Find out how much you have learned about the learners with difficulty in communicating
by answering these following questions.
1. Define speech and language.
2. Differentiate expressive from receptive language.
3. Describe one communication disorder.
4. Cite 3 development milestone in language for each stage of child’s development.
5. How is language different from speech?

RETROSPECTION
1. Think of people you know who have difficulty in communication. Try to
explain their communication problems by referring to the parts of the lesson.
2. Recall the times you abused your voice. What were the results? What lesson did
you learn from that experience?

Well done. You just finished your journey through learners with difficulty in
communicating. Now you are ready to build up your knowledge with Learners with
difficulty in walking and moving.