A TASK ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE PROCESSES

What is a Task Analysis of Language Processes?

� We have talked about the many processes that occur in the language bridge.

� We are still talking about these processes but now we would like to stress their overall arrangement in the bridge.

� These processes may be part of the Receptive, Inner, or Expressive Language skills.

� It is important to analyze these skills when we are concerned about the language abilities of a child, or an adult.

� There is a strong tendency for us to naturally consider language as a single entity. In some instances, however, this can lead to tragic consequences.

Language must be analyzed in terms of Receptive, Inner and Expressive Language Processes.

� I am reminded of the case of Julia, a young woman in her late twenties, who was afflicted with a stroke which left her almost totally paralyzed from head to toe.

� She could make a kind of a guttural sound, but no speech.

� The doctors, nurses and family assumed she had no language, and hence everyone talked in front of her.

� Frequently they referred to her as a vegetable, and made jokes or other unkind statements, assuming she could not understand.

� In truth, Julia had considerable language capacity.

� Only her expressive language was impaired. In terms of receptive and inner language, she was quite normal.

� Hence, she understood and endured with anguish all that was being said.

A person with no speech may still have normal Receptive and Inner Language Skills but be mistakenly diagnosed as a "vegetable," with no communication ability.

� In addition, she suffered from the terrible isolation that occurs when the language bridge is broken.

� It was six years before someone became suspicious that she was not a "vegetable," and began to explore her actual language abilities.

� Finally she was freed from her body prison through the use of computers and other alternative forms of expressive language.

� Had some one analyzed her language processes more thoroughly in the beginning, she would not have had to suffer so severely so long!

� History is full of such cases. The term "deaf and dumb" is testimony to the old notion that deaf individuals, who typically lack receptive language, have little language capacity. To the contrary, they are lacking in only one small area of language processing.

NOTES: See article on Julia.

Language exists in several channels in the brain: The Auditory, Visual and Haptic Modalities

� Helen Keller, of course, who was not only deaf, but blind shattered that notion by acquiring not only language, but also speech!

� In addition to analyzing language in terms of receptive, inner and expressive skills, we must remember that language can exist in more than one neurological channel (modality) within the brain.

� Ignoring for the moment the olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) modalities, which are used by children to explore their environment, the channels we typically test, when analyzing language, are the Auditory, Visual and Haptic modalities.

� The Auditory Modality consists of those neural networks that extend between the receptive (ear) and expressive transducers: the mechanisms for speech, Sign Language or pantomime.

NOTES: See the life and some thoughts of Helen Keller.


See also a precious short movie on Hellen Keller and her Teacher.

The Auditory modality consists of those neural networks that extend between the receptive (ear) and expressive transducers

� Speech sounds are the medium for language in this modality.

� In the history of human development, there was a time (before writing) when the Auditory modality was the only channel supporting language.

� All of the cultural amenities for society (religion, mores, government and history etc.) had to be transmitted over generations by means of speech, in stories and song.

� Because language is one of the few human skills that improves with age, these important functions were typically left to the older members of the society.

� The Visual Modality includes those neural circuits between the receptive transducer (the eye) and the expressive transducers: the mechanisms for writing, Sign Language and Pantomime.

� For most of us, graphemes (written letters) are the the medium for this channel of language.

The Visual Modality includes those neural circuits between the receptive transducer (the eye) and the expressive transducers.

� This modality has particular importance to humanity because it is through this channel that we are able to join central nervous systems with the geniuses of the past.

� It is through the medium of reading and writing that knowledge in awesome quantity and detail is handed down from one generation to the next.

� Writing, however, has its limitations for social interaction.

� It is slow and laborious. However, another, more transient form of visual language, is highly suitable for social interaction. That is Sign Language.

� There is at least one culture today that uses this modality of language exclusively--that is, of course, the Deaf Community.

� They have the advantage of using a modality which includes both transient and permanent language signals.

NOTES: Get some more information on Visual Language.

The Haptic modality is a composite of two modalities: The Tactile and Proprioceptive modalities.

� This affords the deaf community with a communication bridge that is capable of both rapid social intercourse and cumulative learning.

� I might add, that in the case of Sign Language, the expressive transducer for the Visual Modality includes more than just the hand.

� It incorporates both hands, the upper torso and the face and head.

� The Haptic Modality is yet another channel within the brain that can support the processes of language.

� This modality, however, is a composite of two more basic modalities--the Tactile and the Proprioceptive Modalities.

� The Tactile Modality is the sense of touch and, of course, is very familiar to us. Its receptive transducer is the the system of nerve endings just under the skin.

The role of the Tactile Modality in our cognitive development may be underestimated by most of us.

� These tactile nerve cells are enervated when the skin is distended.

� The role of touch in our cognitive development may be underestimated by most of us.

� We have already seen, in the development of the Rumanian orphans, how the mere practice of touching babies can induce brain growth! This is an opportunity which we can(tm)t afford to miss!

� We will see later, when we look at the perspectives of Kephart, how the Tactile modality plays a major role in the child(tm)s exploration of the environment.

� As you observe a baby now, you may notice that they spend much time touching and rubbing against things with their hands, feet, legs, lips and tongue.

� This is as much a process of serious study and exploration to the baby as is the busy bustling of a scientist about his laboratory.

NOTES: Get more information on the tactile modality than you can use in lifetime.

The sense of touch is an important player in the development of self concept.

� From Piaget we will learn how the development of self concept is an important prerequisite to language.

� The sense of touch is an important player in the development of self concept.

� It helps to develop an awareness of the body's limits, of which the new born baby is unaware.

� It helps us to keep tabs of where we are in space.

� We can gage much about our body position from what we feel through our feet on the floor and from our seat and back against a chair.

� Knowing where we are in space is paramount to the development of many language concepts (eg. prepositional phrases) and language skills (eg. discriminating "b" from "d" from "q" from "p."

NOTES: Get some more information on touch-learning.

The sense of touch also plays an important role in speech production

� The sense of touch also plays an important role in speech production.

� For one thing, it informs us where the tongue is in the mouth (which helps to keep it out of harms way as the teeth do their chopping and tearing thing).

� The sense of touch helps to let the brain know how the rapid, precise and ballistic movements of speech are progressing. This keeps the movements flowing.

� Most of us have experienced the impact of the loss of the sense of touch on speech. After a few shots of novocaine from a friendly dentist, one may have noticed that speech becomes rather slushy and labored.

� On a phenomenological note, I can't help noticing the special role that touch has for us when we really want connect with another human- being. It's the ultimate choice.

The Proprioceptive Modality is two sub modalities experienced as one: The Kinesthetic and Vestibular Modalities

� How strong, for example, the urge is, when one sees a really cute baby, to just touch it. Somehow, simply looking isn't enough.

� The Proprioceptive Modality is also, two sub modalities experienced as one. These are the Kinesthetic and Vestibular Modalities.

� The transducer for the Kinesthetic modality is the system of nerve endings in the joints of the body, and in the muscles.

� Like the sense of touch, it is very important to the development of body awareness. In fact in cases where this process fails, a person can totally loose the consciousness of a body part!

� Dr. Sacks tells of a patient who violently threw himself out of bed one morning because someone had slipped a "cadaver's leg" in his bed.

� In reality, it was his own leg but he had lost any awareness of its presence.

NOTES: Get some more infomation on Dr. Sacks.

The Kinesthetic sense is our "eyes" inward to our own body

� The Kinesthetic Sense is our "eyes" into our own body, and the impact of it's loss is almost incomprehensible to those of us who have never lost it.

� To the baby, the kinesthetic sense is also a basic ruler for exploring the environment.

� Visual (or auditory) images provide no real information to the baby, about referent properties such as angles, sizes, shapes, distances or mass.

� This is information is obtained first hand as the baby comes into physical contact with, and manipulates referents from the environment.

� The baby's hands, feet or mouth are constantly probing objects that are within their grasp--rattles, blocks, rails on the crib, balls, table legs, fingers, etc.

� Objects' properties are measured by the kinesthetic channel, which reports body angle, tension and fatigue.

The story of Montessori is in great part the story of the the Kinesthetic modality.

� Even when babies put an object in their mouth, the angle of the jaw and the tension required to hold the object contribute to this basic information pool.

� On the one hand, we want to provide babies with as many opportunities as possible to examine many different referents.

� On the other, the parent (or caretaker) has to be constantly alert to the dangers to the child that objects can bring.

� Like a referee, they most constantly hover over the baby as he/she explores the objects of the new world. It's an intensively grueling and fatiguing task for the parent, but the rewards are great!

� The story of Montessori is in great part the story of the the Kinesthetic modality. The Montessori approach stresses hands-on exploration at an early age.

NOTES: Get some more information on Montessori.

The Vestibular Modality gives us our sense of position in space (relative to gravity

� The Vestibular Modality gives us our sense of position in space (relative to gravity), and an awareness of change in body momentum.

� It's the modality we indulge when we go to modern amusement parks which have those devilish machines that spin you, drop you, rotate you and move you in three directions almost at once!

� The transducer is composed of the three semi circular canals.

� A set of each is located in the temporal bone on each side of the head. They are actually connected to the inner ear so that the fluid that runs in one also runs in the other.

� This connection is somewhat responsible for the high incidence of balance problems for people having a hearing loss.

� When this transducer is disrupted, the result can be hopeless vertigo.

NOTES: Get some more information on balance.

The Vestibular system has some interesting connections with the neurological centers for arousal

� In extreme vertigo, (such as may be experienced in Menier's disease) the normal coordinates of space implode and the person(tm)s world seems to swirl into what can almost be described as a black hole with only one direction--down!

� On the up side, a well functioning Vestibular system provides valuable information about our position in space.

� This is critical for the development of the self- concept.

� In addition the Vestibular system has some interesting connections with the centers for sensory integration.

� In classes for learning disabled children, who have attention deficits, you will often find swings, tops (for spinning), large balls (for rolling over).

NOTES: Get some more information on sensory integration.

NOTES: Get some more information on Meniers Disease.

The key to developing neurological channels is to stimulate them early in life when the growth rate is at its highest.

� These are all devices for stimulating the vestibular sense. And children attend better when they are subjected to this kind of stimulation.

� In the case of babies, we have seen that the key to developing neurological channels is to stimulate them early in life when the growth rate is highest.

� This translates down to a need to pick the baby up frequently; to move them around; to swing them;

� To roll them on your knee; massage them; and whatever else one can think to do within the realm of safety.

� Fortunately it is an inexpensive activity...you don't have to be rich to afford it!

� But it does require that someone with this philosophy and high degree of motivation BE THERE constantly to implement this important practice.

NOTES: Get some more information on congition and the vestibular modality.

A slogan for parents to hold to as they plan for their baby's early life: "BE THERE!"

� Day care Centers, which are businesses, rarely have the personnel available to do this to the most favorable extent.

� Baby sitters, likewise, are typically not as motivated as parents to provide the maximum stimulation. Only informed parents will have the dedication.

� There was an old TV show called the "The A Team," which popularized the slogan, "BE THERE!"

� This is an extraordinarily salient slogan for parents to hold to as they plan for their baby's early life.

� To summarize...the Haptic Modality includes the following modalities:

o Tactile

o Proprioceptive (which itself includes:)

� Kinesthetic

� Vestibular

� We want to provide maximum opportunity to stimulate these neural tracts in the baby.

An IDEAL MODEL of a Task Analysis evaluates every language process.

� To totally evaluate the language capability of a child (or an adult) it is necessary to individually test each process for each modality.

� Testing should begin with the receptive processes (specifically the transducer for the auditory modality i.e., a hearing test) You might wish to switch to the graphic view here to see the chart on task analysis showing the various processes we've been discussing.

Each modality is tested on two levels: Conceptual and Symbolic.

� Because language involves words (symbols) and their meanings (concepts), each process in each modality is tested on two levels--conceptual and symbolic.

� A Conceptual level test uses no words, just real items, replicas, or pictures of things, which are treated by the brain as real objects.

� The Symbolic level test always includes a word in the task.

� The following examples are ideal descriptions of how these tests should proceed,

Examples of Receptive, Inner and Expressive Conceptual and Symbolic tasks in the Auditory modality.

� Starting with the Receptive, Inner and Expressive processes in the Auditory modality, the CONCEPTUAL tasks are as follows:

o Receptive: To demonstrate (by raising a finger) the ability to recognize a particular sound when it is heard again.

Notes: Hear an example of an Auditory Receptive Task at the Conceptual level.

o Inner: To demonstrate (by raising a finger) the ability to associate a sound with another sound which belongs in the same category; and...

o Expressive: To demonstrate an expressive ability by pantomiming the meaning of a sound.

� The above three examples were tasks at the Conceptual (thing) level.

� To make these SYMBOLIC tests, words would have to be injected into the task, as in the following tasks:

o Receptive: To demonstrate (by raising a finger) the ability to recognize a particular sound that corresponds to a given word.

NOTES: Hear an example of an Auditory Receptive Symbolic Task.

NOTES: Hear an example of an Auditory Inner Conceptual Task.

NOTES: Hear an example of an Auditory Inner task at the Symbolic Level.

NOTES: Hear an example of an Auditory Expressive task at the Symbolic Level.

o Inner: To demonstrate (by raising a finger) the ability to associate a word with a sound which belongs in the same category; and.

o Expressive: To demonstrate an expressive ability by providing a verbal description of the meaning of a sound.

� For the Visual modality, in the Receptive, Inner and Expressive processes, the Conceptual tasks are as follows:

o Receptive: To demonstrate (by pointing a finger) the ability to recognize a particular object (picture) when it is seen again.

NOTES: See an example of a Visual Receptive task at the Conceptual Level.

o Inner: To demonstrate (by pointing a finger) the ability to associate an object (picture) with another object which belongs in the same category; and...

o Expressive: To demonstrate an expressive ability by pantomiming the meaning of an object or picture.

� Those visual tasks were at the Conceptual level.

Examples of Receptive, Inner and Expressive Symbolic tasks in the Visual modality.

� To make them Symbolic tasks, words would have to be involved as follows:

o Receptive: To demonstrate (by pointing a finger) the ability to recognize a particular object (picture) that corresponds to a given word. This is tantamount to the Look-Say approach to reading.

o Inner: To demonstrate (by pointing a finger) the ability to associate an object (picture) with a word which belongs in the same category; and...

NOTES: See an example of a Visual Inner Task at the Conceptual Level.

o Expressive: To demonstrate an expressive ability by describing in writing or Sign Language, the meaning of an object or picture.

Examples of Receptive, Inner and Expressive Conceptual and Symbolic tasks in the Haptic modality.

� For the Receptive, Inner and Expressive processes in the Haptic modality, the Conceptual tasks are as follows:

o Receptive: To demonstrate (by pointing a finger) the ability to recognize a particular object (held in the hand) when it is held again.

o Inner: To demonstrate (by pointing a finger) the ability to associate an object (held in the hand) with another object (held in the hand) which belongs in the same category; and...

o Expressive: To demonstrate an expressive ability by pantomiming the meaning of an object held in the hand.

� Those haptic tasks were at the Conceptual level. To make them Symbolic tasks, words would have to be involved.

To make the Haptic tasks symbolic, words are interjected through touch-signs, Braille, or typing.

� Many of us do not typically think of the Haptic modality as supporting symbols, but it does.

� Touch typing, of course, is one common example.

� Another, which incorporates a receptive process, is Touch-Signing and Braille.

� Individuals who are deaf and blind find the Haptic modality very satisfactory for carrying on casual or intense conversations.

� To make the haptic tasks symbolic, words are expressed through touch- signs, Braille or typing as in the following tasks:

o Receptive: To demonstrate (by pointing a finger) the ability to recognize a particular object (held in the hand) which corresponds to a word that was presented through touch sign.

o Inner: To demonstrate (by pointing a finger) the ability to associate an object (held in the hand) with a word (presented through touch signs) which belongs in the same category.

NOTES: See an example of someone using Touch Signs.

o Expressive: To demonstrate an expressive ability by using touch signs (or by typing) to describe the meaning of an object being held in the hand.

One test which evaluates and compares the Auditory & Visual modalities is the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Ability (ITPA).

� Actual published tests that are typically used in the field vary in many ways from the ideal model we have just presented above, depending upon the goals of the test developers.

� In addition, no single test covers all the processes that we have described here.

� What teachers or special educators will do to assess language ability is collect a battery of tests that they feel will cover the most salient processes for their purposes.

� One test in particular comes closest to our ideal model. That is the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Ability (ITPA).

� It tests two modalities (Auditory and Visual) and provides normative data on each.

The ITPA differs in many ways from the IDEAL MODEL.

� From the results of the test a teacher can determine the integrity of the modalities for learning, or the processes that may be significantly at fault.

� Hence, academically, new information can be provided to the child through the modality that is functioning; and remedial work can be provided to strengthen the faulty language processes of the weak modality.

� Still, there are many differences in the structure of the ITPA from our ideal model. For example, there are only two modalities tested instead of three.

� The Visual Modality is tested only at the conceptual level; while the auditory modality is tested only at the symbolic level.

� The responses of the pupil to the stimuli in the auditory receptive and inner tasks are more complex than would be allowed in our ideal model.

NOTES: A reference for the ITPA

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary test is a cross modality task.

� For example, to the stimulus phrase in the Receptive test, "Do cup cakes wink?" the child is to respond by saying Yes or No.

� This is a more complex response than raising a finger or pointing, and hence involves a bit more processing on the expressive side.

� But in the eyes of the test developers, This is not a significant problem.

� In our ideal model, the tasks were all single modality tasks, but in many tests, the tasks cross modalities.

� In the Peabody Picture Vocabulary test, for example, the child hears the word and selects a corresponding picture in a book. This is a task which spans the auditory and visual modalities.

NOTES: A reference for the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT).

Learning to read can involve various combinations of modalities.

� That is not necessarily a problem, but we need to be aware that an extra process is involved.

� That is, the translation from one modality to another, which can in itself sometimes be a problem.

� Single and cross modality tasks occur in many instances outside of testing situations.

� They are major considerations, for example, in the initial steps to teach reading, which is a critical language skill.

� Three teaching methods in particular, exemplify nicely different modality roles.

� The first is the Look-See (Say) method which basically involves the task of associating a picture with a word. This is strictly a visual modality process. No attempt is made to sound out a word.

� This is a Whole Language approach and some parents place cards around the house that name the common objects in the house.

The Look-See method involves a single (Visual) modality.

� It is their theory that the children will learn to understand the written words in a natural manner similar, to how they learn the spoken language.

� Children who are deaf can be taught to read through this approach.

� Problems can become significant, however, if a child has a visual processing (perceptual) problem.

� For example, some children have a poor awareness of position in space and/or spatial relation. In these instances, serious confusions in the reading process can occur.

� The child may not, for example, be able to differentiate between the letters -n..., "c" and "u"; or "d", "p", "q" and "b"; or "m" and "w", etc. etc. Or, between words like "was" or "saw".

NOTES: Explore some more information on the Whole Language Approach.

NOTES: Still more information on the Whole Language Approach.

The Phonetic approach involves two (Auditory& Visual) modalities.

� How confusing the sentence, "My dad paid uncle a penny," could be to a child like that. It could look like, "Wy paq daip cunle a deuuy," or fifty or more other possible combinations.

� The second is the Phonetic Approach to reading. This is commonly called Phonics, and uses two modalities in the reading task--the Visual and the Auditory modalities.

� It is a process that involves decoding a symbol system of a symbol system.

� The second symbol system is the grapheme (letter) on a page. This requires the processes of the Visual modality.

� The first symbol system is the phoneme (a sound unit of the language). This activates the Auditory processes as the letters are sounded out.

� The Phonetic approach has some advantages. Unfamiliar words can often be sounded out. Letters associated with a sound may be more easily distinguished.

Each modality combination has weaknesses and strengths.

� A major disadvantage of the Auditory modality is the poor correspondence, particularly in English, between the grapheme and its sound.

� To make this point more emphatic, Bernard Shaw gave us this example... "GHOTI," which can be sounded out to be "FISH."

� The "GH" is "F" as in "ENOUGH," The "O" is "I" as in "WOMEN," and the "TI" is"SH" as in "NATION."

� For children who have auditory processing problems, the Phonetic Approach can be a major hurdle.

� Take for example the auditory process of Sound Blending. When letters are sounded out, they often are processed as a string of individual sounds.

� The reader must pull these pieces together to recognize the word. For example combine "S" (as in "Sally"), "U" (as in "Up"), "P" (as in "Peter") and "R" (as in "Her") and you get the word...

NOTES: Here is a neat comment of the poor grapheme/phoneme correspondence in English.

NOTES: Here are two examples of Sound Blending.

Reading through Phonics involves a symbol system of a symbol system.

� I have encountered many non readers in junior high who have poor (no) sound blending capabilities.

� Because phonics operates as a double symbol system, it is a particularly complicated cognitive process.

� Generally, it is not overburdening for most children, who by natures gift, have endowed skills for language processing.

� But for children with a history language delay, learning to read can be a problem.

� Often the evidences of the language delay have past (i.e., poor vocabulary, and faulty syntax and sound pronunciation).

� But the language processing problems persist and are still evident in a resistive lack of progress in developing reading skills.

� The third reading approach is The Writing Road to Reading. It utilizes all three modalities: Visual, Auditory and Haptic.

NOTES: Explore some more information on the Haptic Modality and learning styles.

The Writing Road to Reading can involve three (Visual, Auditory and Haptic) modalities.

� In the Haptic approach, the word is said, seen and felt because the reader writes the word as he reads it.

� The feedback from the nerve endings under the skin and in the joints and muscles provide the sensory data a for this third modality.

� This can be a tracing on the blackboard, in a sandbox, on sandpaper, or as one teacher described it, in a large vat of jello, to mention a few.

� In terms of the applications of the modalities, there is no right or wrong combination. Whatever works is right! The modalities can be manipulated to be three, two or one.

� This can be done, for example, in the Writing Road to Reading by having the reader wear a blindfold while he is tracing the letters, and/or refrain from saying the words out loud while he writes the letters.

NOTES: Here is more information on the Writing Road to Reading

Receptive, Inner and Expressive language analyses should include the sub- processes of the Language Bridge.

� Just a final reminder about these Receptive, Inner and Expressive language processes.

� They incorporate all of the sub processes we have discussed so far as part of the Language Bridge.

Receptive Language includes Transduction, Perception, Symbolization and Conceptualization processes.

� For Receptive Language we still must take into account within each modality, those processes we have been discussing:

o Transduction, and

o Perception, and

o Symbolization, and

o Conceptualization.

� Let me summarize, and review briefly, the impact of these processes when they fail.

� For the Auditory Modality, problems with the transduction process is referred to as hard of hearing or deaf. Perceptual problems are often referred to in the literature as Auditory, Visual or Haptic processing disorders.

� The impact of a failure in these processes is to cause various degrees of confusion and inefficiency in decoding (understanding) stimuli.

Dyslexia is a form of Receptive Aphasia

� Problems in recognizing words (heard, seen or felt) is called receptive aphasia.

� In the visual modality, receptive aphasia has another name--dyslexia. An inability to retrieve the meaning of written symbols.

� Dyslexia is often accompanied with a visual perceptual processing problem. This is an inability to organize visual stimuli.

� It is possible to have, however, a perceptual disability without the accompanying dyslexia.

� An inability to retrieve concepts results in agnosia. The impact of this process failure may be as follows:

o In the auditory modality we may not recognize familiar sounds we hear;

o In the visual modality, we may not recognize ordinary things we see;

o And in the haptic modality, we may not recognize familiar items we touch or grasp.

Inner Language includes Discrimination, Analysis, Synthesis and Generalization processes.

� For Inner Language the processes involved include, but are not limited to, the following mental activities:

o Discrimination

o Analysis

o Synthesis

o Generalization

� These processes pertain to both the conceptual (thing) level, and symbolic (word) level. It's the same for each modality except the units of thought change qualitatively.

� For the auditory modality, sounds or spoken words are the units to be associated and categorized.

� For the Visual modality, the units are observed items or written or signed words.

� For the Haptic modality, the units are touched items or touch-signed words. Typing by touch would also fall into this category.

� Failure of these processes may result in a weak or a lack of associations for these things or for their symbols.

Expressive Language includes Conceptualization, Symbolization, Mixer and Transduction processes.

� For Expressive Language we still must take into account within each modality, those expressive processes we have been discussing:

o Conceptualization, and

o Symbolization, and

o Mixer, and

o Transduction.

� The inability to bring to mind a Concept (idea) we would like to express is experienced by most of us under conditions of increased stress.

� In the Auditory modality, when we confront a sea of faces in an audience, the lines we have memorized for a play, or the speech we have planned for the occasion may all vanish into thin air.

� Instead we look out with a blank stare helplessly unable to draw a single thought to our mind which could open the floodgates of communication. It is referred to as "Stage Fright."

NOTES: Here is a cute story about stage fright by Mark Twain

Expressive Aphasia involves only an inability in using symbols to express thoughts.

� In the Visual modality, a common experience we may have in pulling up concepts is when we are trying to write a paper or a report.

� Often we find ourselves sitting for a long period of time looking blankly at the paper, wishing something would come into our mind to write.

� When these experiences become the rule (under pathological conditions), rather than the exception, communication becomes a trickle.

� Expressive Aphasia is a problem, not in developing ideas, but in finding the symbols to express them.

� For the Auditory modality its impact would be an inordinate degree of difficulty in word finding, grammatical formulation, or remembering the pronunciation of words.

� In the visual modality, one would likewise have problems in recalling the written word, the written grammar or the way the word was written.

Apraxia and Dysarthria are disabilities that affect both symbolic and non symbolic movements.

� For those who use Sign Language, word finding, grammar and signing movement problems would be in evidence.

� Making purposeful movements when one has Apraxia is also an elusive task.

� In the auditory modality speech could be affected, or simply the ability to imitate sounds.

� In the visual modality, writing, signing, drawing or pantomime would all be at risk.

� Similar problems could be experienced in the Haptic modality.

� Transducer problems in the Auditory modality relate to the speech mechanism.

� If speech function is disabled due to a total or partial paralysis (weakness), the person is said to have a dysarthria.

� In the visual modality, a person with a limb paralysis would have problems doing anything like writing, signing or pantomiming.

The impact of a disability on language varies with the process.

� So for speech, how can you tell the difference between dysarthria, apraxia and aphasia?

� It's not always easy, but here is a major clue.

� It has to do with consistency. (You may wish to switch here to the grahic version to view the chart of process disorders.)

A Dysarthria is always evident in both reflexive and voluntary motor responses.

� A Dysarthria is a condition due to paralysis (either flaccid or spastic) of the muscles of speech, Hence, for any motor movements, whether reflexive or voluntary, the disability will always be evident.

� Speech, which is voluntary will be effected, but so will relatively involuntary movements like eating.

� An Apraxia is a condition arising from an inability to retrieve the correct motor patterns for a movement.

� It can involve various parts of the body, such as the speech mechanism, the arms and/or the legs.

� The movements can typically be made correctly if they are reflexive, but become mired in errors if they are voluntary. For example, if I have an arm apraxia and someone placed a realistic plastic spider on my shoulder, I would probably brush it off with my hand in an instance.

Apraxia involves only voluntary motor acts; and Aphasia is evident only in symbolic motor acts.

� But if someone then reqested that I place my hand on my shoulder, I might make every movement with my arm except that.

� I once worked with a stroke patient who had oral apraxia. She could not imitate my movement of putting my tongue between my teeth.

� She would open her jaw, or protrude her tongue, but she could not find the right movement.

� Expressive Aphasia is a problem which occurs only when a person is trying to talk (i.e., using symbols).

� Although they could imitate movements like putting their tongue between their teeth, they might have problems saying, "thimble."

� We are at last finished with the notion of Task Analysis. There is one more process that needs to be introduced, and we will do that next in the discussion of Mysak's Model.


CONTINUE ON TO MYSAKS MODEL	RETURN TO TOPIC 2	GETTING BACK TO THE TABLE OF CONTENTS