Speech-Language Pathology in Time: A snapshot from, "Language Disorders from Infancy through Adolescence," by Rhea Paul and Courtenay F. Norbury
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Gall (1825)
Gall makes a distinction between individuals having difficulties with speech and those with an ID. -
Broca
Neurologist, Paul Broca, makes significant discoveries about the connection between the brain and language behavior. -
Wernicke
German physician, anatomist, psychiatrist and neuropatholgist, Carl Wernicke, also makes significant discoveries detailing the brain's connection to language. -
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Educators of the deaf step in
Ewing (1930); McGinnish, Kleffner, and Goldstein (1956); and Myklebust (1954, 1971) had all developed techniques for teaching language to children that could not speak or hear. All of them noticed a particular challenge for deaf children in learning language and therefore concentrated their energies on the language impairments itself. This, in reself, created more effective strategies for teaching language to other children with hearing impairments. -
Orton
Neurologist, Samuel T. Orton, emphasizes the importance not only neurological but also behvioral descriptions of child language disorders. He also highlighted connections between language difficulties and dificulties in reading and writing. -
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Other Medical Professionals Get Involved
During the 40's and 50's other professionals (i.e. psychiatrists and pediatricians) start taking an interest in children that seem to have trouble learning language but do not otherwise have intellectual disabilities. -
"Infantile Aphasia"
Dr. Arnold Gesell and Dr. Catharine S. Amatruda become pioneers in developmental pediatrics and come up with innovative techniques for evaluating language development. They also name the condition "infantile aphasia." -
Myklebust
Helmer Myklebust goes the furthest in establishing the new, distinct field of study which he dubbs, "language pathology." He was also instrumental in pointing out the connections between difficulties producing and comprehending oral language and the use of written forms of language. -
Chomsky's theory of transformational grammar
Dr. Noam Chomsky's theory of transformational grammer led to an explosion in research on child language acquisition. -
Morley
Morley was one of the first individuals from a speech pathology background to push languag eand its disorders into the pruview of the "speech therapist." She was also important in providing definitions that allowed clinicians to distinguish language disorders from articulations disorders. -
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Benton
Arthur L. Benton expands descriptions of "infantile aphasia" and gets credit for excluding other syndromes in his description, such as: autism, deafness, and intellectual disorders. -
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The expansion of child language research
In the 60's and 70's child language research expanded in focus from syntax to semantics to pragmatics and phonology. This timespan was also critical for compiling information on normal development on a variety of forms and functions which would later become critical in providing blueprints for planning interventions. -
McGinnis
Mildred Agatha McGinnis develops the "association method" for teaching language to aphasic children. This was one of the first highly structured, comprehencsive approaches to language intervention. -
End of the 20th century to today
The research and discoveries of human language acquisition continues. It seems as of late that there is no actual "gene for language" but instead multiple genes of small effects that alter the way the brain develps.
