Language Assessment

A language disorder is a significant delay in the use or understanding of spoken or written language.    Language disorders can be classified according to the aspect of language that is impaired, the severity (mild, moderate, severe), and if it affects comprehension and/or production.

A language disorder may involve impairment in any of the following areas:

• Phonology – the aspect of language that governs the structure, distribution and sequencing of speech sounds
• Syntax – the rule system that governs how words are combined into phrases, clauses and sentences
• Morphology – the aspect of language that governs word structure and includes grammatical word inflections (word tense)
• Semantics – governs the meaning of words and word combinations
• Pragmatics – the social use of language 

Language assessments are performed on children and adults by speech – language pathologists. The assessment determines whether the individual has a language learning problem, the specific area of deficit, possible cause of the problem and specific goals in the development of a management plan.

Registered speech-language pathologists will provide language assessments and arrange for individual therapy, parent training for home programs, and resources for parent groups and community agencies.