CHILDREN WITH MULTIPLE DISORDERS AND THEIR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Keywords:
Children’s language development, diagnosis, language disorders and multiple disordersAbstract
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes difficulties or problems in understanding and expressing speech, a fact which hinders children's language development, making the learning process difficult and appears with various clinical pictures. DLD is associated with a high risk of developing special educational needs and causes disorders in the emotional and social adaptation of children. Early identification of difficulties and early speech therapy intervention is the most effective way to support these children.
The present primary research focuses on the language development of children to which multiple disorders appear, and was conducted through a structured questionnaire, which had a total of 54 close-ended Likert scale questions, divided into 3 sections. This was distributed to teachers of special and general education, working in primary and secondary education of the Region of Central Macedonia, while the responses were collected on the “Google Forms” platform. In the main survey participated 365 teachers (173 - 47.40% men and 192 - 52.60% women), while 45 teachers participated in the pilot research (20 - 44.44% men and 25 - 55.56% women).
In conclusion, the responses of the 365 teachers who participated in this research confirm the 3 research hypotheses while the answers to the 3 research questions are as follows:
1st R.Q: Students with multiple disorders and learning difficulties face difficulties mainly in reading, writing, spelling and understanding concepts but also social and behavioral challenges.
2nd R.Q: There is a need for a holistic approach to supporting students with learning difficulties, which should include the cooperation of all those involved and the provision of specialized services.
3rd R.Q.: Younger teachers have more positive views on all dimensions, which vary depending on age, years of experience, type of education, school level and their professional position.
Therefore, regarding the recommendations for the successful and effective language development of children with multiple disorders and learning difficulties, as they arise from this study, the following could be said:
- Cooperation and strengthening of relationships between all professionals, teachers and parents.
- Apropriate school infrastructure.
- Training and professional development of all teachers regarding the education of these children.
- Acquisition of basic teaching skills by teachers to address the difficulties related to the subject.
- Targeted interventions based on documented scientific findings.
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