Postgraduate Course: Developmental Language Disorders (LASC11134)

Course Outline
School	School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	This course introduces students to developmental language disorders in children with also some reference to acquired language disorders in adults. This will highlight experimental and practical applications of linguistics and language acquisition theories.
Course description	We will be examining the phonological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic characteristics of developmental language disorders, such as Specific Language Impairment, dyslexia and autism. Students will also be familiarised with acquired language disorders in adults, such as aphasia, and will be introduced to the interplay between the breakdown of cognitive (memory/attention) and linguistic abilities due to brain damage. As part of this course, we will also be comparing children with developmental language disorders to monolingual and bilingual children with and without such disorders. 1. Introduction to language impairment 2. Specific Language Impairment (I) 3. Specific Language Impairment (II) 4. Assessing language impairment in bilingual children 5. Language impairment in children with autism 6. Dyslexia 7. Executive functions in children with typical and atypical language development 8. Acquired language disorders and the organisation of the brain - Aphasia 9. Comparing developmental and acquired language disorders

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 2
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 27, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 69 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Data analysis (1,500 words) (30%): In this task, students will be asked to analyse and interpret data from typically developing and language impaired children, to seek similarities and differences and explain the different patterns following theories of language acquisition and impairment.Ťbr /ť Ťbr /ť Research proposal (3,000 words) (70%) (PG): Students will be asked to write a research proposal pertaining to a study involving children with language impairment and to consider methodological and theoretical issues.
Feedback	Formative feedback will be given during the tutorial sessions where students will be directed to respond to the various tasks following the assessment criteria that will be applied in the case of the summative assessments. The tutorial sessions will be structured in a way that they prepare students for the summative assessments
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: identify, explain and critically compare major types of speech and language impairments in adults and children identify and evaluate the linguistic characteristics of each of these types and explain how these findings relate to linguistic theory critically appraise the causes of these impairments and the conditions associated with them describe, analyse and critically compare competing accounts and theories concerning atypical language acquisition and acquired language disorders