Here you will find universally designed resources so that students with developmental language disorders can participate equally with other students in mainstream education.
According to Monica Melby-Lervåg, professor at the Department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo, around two students in every classroom have significant language disorders, and these often go unnoticed. Many students develop psychosocial difficulties as a consequence of language disorders. Often, interventions and accommodations are directed at the behavioral problems, rather than addressing the real challenge. That means we treat the observable symptoms instead of adapting the education in ways that allow these students to experience mastery in their everyday school life.
Some students with developmental language disorders struggle with the content of language, such as word comprehension and word retrieval. Others struggle with the form of language, such as grammar and speech sounds. Many also have difficulties with the use of language, such as conversational skills. A student must have difficulties in at least two of these areas for it to be considered a language disorder. This group of students often also faces challenges with memory and verbal learning, and language disorders frequently co-occur with ADHD and dyslexia.
The teaching material consists of multimodal texts and assignments, designed to help teachers adapt a standard whole-class resource for students with developmental language disorders in a way that allows them to contribute meaningfully to the whole class. Technology enables teachers to use artificial intelligence in real time to ensure that students with developmental language disorders receive:
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subject texts adapted to their language level,
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suggested questions adapted to their language level,
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the teacher’s summary adapted to their language level,
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opportunities to contribute adapted to their language level,
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a summary of other students’ input adapted to their language level,
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the ongoing class discussion adapted to their language level.