Language Screening in the Schools

Abstract

When one considers the plight of the speech-language professional in the schools who is attempting to provide appropriate services to identify language disorders, it would seem that this article would be appropriately entitled, "Too Late, Too Early, Did Not Test the Right Things Anyway." However, the need for study of this topic is apparent. Study of the interrelationship among conceptual, linguistic, and communicative competence received considerable attention through the 1960s and 1970s. The current emphasis upon semantic and pragmatic aspects of language development has broadened the concept of language proficiency. The system (language) and the event (communication) are better understood. As knowledge has advanced, researchers and clinicians alike have become increasingly aware of the role of language in learning and the effect of early language disorders upon academic success. Indeed, language is seen as both a tool of intelligence for representing ongoing cognitive development and a problem area for children in its own right (Karmiloff-Smith, 1977). The interrelationships among cognitive-linguistic-communicative systems are further highlighted by Dore (1979), who recognizes the three systems as intersecting, yet distinct, types of knowledge. Sensorimotor intelligence derives from perceiving and manipulating; linguistic competence involves syntacticsemantic-phonologic representations; and communicative competence involves the many uses of language in context, available reference, and communicative intentions (Dore, 1979). Similarly, Bloom and Lahey (1978) stress the integration of language form (the system of linguistic signals—phonology, morphology, syntax), language content (ideas talked about, for example, object relations, event relationships, and so forth), and language use (the functions of language and the influence of different contexts). Thus , the study of language includes more than the