Language Learning Impairment

Abstract

Early reports of children who failed to learn language at or near the expected age, but with no history or evidence of acquired brain lesions, began to emerge only in the mid 1960s. Such children were first diagnosed as ‘developmentally aphasic.’ The diagnosis of ‘developmental aphasia’ emphasized the congenital or developmental, rather than the acquired, nature of the language learning impairment. Similarly, it was emphasized that the specificity of the deficit must lie in the linguistic domain. Language learning problems secondary to other developmental disabilities such as hearing loss or deafness, mental retardation, evidence of frank neurological problems (such as seizure disorder or hemiplegia), or structural or motor deficits effecting the oral musculature (such as cleft palate or cerebral palsy), were traditionally excluded from the classification of developmental aphasia. One exception to this diagnosis by exclusion was notable deficits, not only in speech and language, but also in higher order central auditory processing. Over the years the term ‘developmental aphasia’ has been replaced by other terms such as ‘congenital aphasia,’ ‘specific language impairment,’ and, most recently, ‘language learning impairment.’ The most recent classification, ‘language learning impairment,’ acknowledges the frequent continuum between oral and written language learning impairments in children. More recently, research has moved away from a focus on exclusionary definitions of specific language impairments to a broader perspective that focuses on better elucidating the linguistic, cognitive, and neurobiological concomitants of developmental language learning impairments.