Language Intervention for Children with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

Language is a great mediator between cognitive and emotional development. In providing the child with a means to put his or her feelings into words, language enhances the child's mastery over feelings and allows greater energy for cognitive growth. Conversely, the cognitive leaps reflected in language development promote the mastery of emotions necessary for healthy growth and adaptation. (Lewis, 1977, p. 659)The development of emotional or behavioral disorders (EB/D) can be secondary to several other types of problems, including (a) child maltreatment, which includes various forms of abuse and neglect (e.g., Gresham, MacMillan, & Bocian, 1996; Kelley, Thornberry, and Smith, 1997); (b) environmental Stressors such as poverty and parental substance abuse (e.g., Barnett, Vondra, & Shonk, 1996; Chiancone, 1997); (c) prenatal exposure to alcohol or other substances, (e.g., Astley & Clarren, 2000; Chasnoff, 2000; Chasnoff, Anson, & Laukea, 1998; Streissguth & O'Malley, 2001); (d) pervasive developmental disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1994); (e) attention deficit disorders; and (f) psychiatric difficulties such as oppositional defiant disorder, mood, and/or anxiety disorders such as depression or manic behaviors (Rogers-Adkinson, 1999). Often children with these difficulties also exhibit numerous coexisting problems, including problems with communicating in social contexts.This article describes a prevention-focused intervention study with preschool children who are at risk for EB/D and communication difficulties. First, a review of the types of communication and language difficulties that may be exhibited by children with EB/D is provided to emphasize the importance of the speech-language pathologist's involvement in service to this population. Second, semiqualitative descriptions of two case studies are used to characterize the collaborative, classroom-based intervention services provided to preschool children who exhibited challenging behaviors as well as social communication and pragmatic language difficulties. Data used to describe the children's behaviors are based on narrative reconstructions of events that occurred in the preschool classroom. Finally, an inventory is provided of quantitative questions generated from the case studies that, when answered, will provide evidence of the effectiveness of this intervention process.Communication and Language Difficulties Faced by Children with E/BDChildren with EB/D exhibit language problems (Baltaxe & Simmons, 1988), many of which can be categorized as pragmatic language disorders (Coggins, Freit, & Morgan, 1998; Ishii-Jordon & Maag, 1998; Westby, 1999). Pragmatic language includes the ability to use one's knowledge of language meaning and structure in socially appropriate ways in various contexts. To use language skills that are suitable for various social situations, a person has to be able to engage various skills at the same time, including* Determining what type of information is needed and appropriate for particular contexts.* Knowing how to establish and sustain topics.* Making correct judgments about the age, social status, language abilities, and shared knowledge of communication partners.* Accessing pertinent information from memory while being as specific or nonspecific as situations and/or communication partners require.* Understanding the purposes of communicative acts taking place.* Knowing how much information is needed to make information comprehensible to one's listeners (Norris, 1995).Pragmatic language refers to rules of language use within a communicative context (Owens, 2001; Paul, 2001) and is a component of social communication. Individuals with competent social communication skills are able to express their own needs, desires, and perspectives and to interpret and understand the needs, desires, and perspectives of others (Coggins et al. …