Students who are good listeners and speakers tend to become strong readers and writers. Language has a major role in all subjects including reading, math, history, geography, and even art. The early school years emphasize language development, social-emotional growth and readiness skills. The middle grades emphasize specific subjects. Mastery of language is assumed.
Emphasis is placed on written skills.
The later grades involve more complex use of language by students, including an increased vocabulary, more advanced sentence structure, and different kinds of language for different kinds of situations. The importance of early identification and remediation of language delays or disorders in young children is well known. Less commonly known is the importance of identifying language disorders in the adolescent. Such disorders may lead to feelings of failure, low self-esteem, poor academic and social success, and often a higher than normal drop out rate. A student's understanding and use of language, hearing, thinking abilities, emotional and social skills, desire to interact and communicate with others, central and peripheral nervous system functioning, and type of language models are assessed in order to identify exactly any kind of language disorder that exists and to rule out other causes of the behaviors.