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Specific Language and Speech Disorder: Purifying the Concept

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Perspectives on the Classification of Specific Developmental Disorders

Part of the book series: Neuropsychology and Cognition ((NPCO,volume 13))

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Abstract

Children with language or speech impairments are often easily recognized in clinical practice. Cases that show these impairments, but have no mental retardation, pervasive developmental disorder, a physical handicap or a depriving environment, almost intuitively give the idea that some specific disorder exists. From this perspective, the concept of Specific Developmental Disorders of Language and Speech (SDD-LS) is appealing (see also Rispens & Van Yperen, this volume). From a scientific point of view, however, the evidence for the validity of a category must be based on more than intuition. The category must be analyzed theoretically and empirically in detail, purifying it from invalid connotations and illogical elements. The preceding chapters by Amorosa and Bishop showed that the validity of the ICD and DSM categories for SDD-LS are, at least, questionable. Amorosa argued that there are no qualitative differences between children with the specific developmental disorder of language or speech, normal children, children with mental retardation, or autistic children. The differences appear to be quantitative only. Bishop argued that the distinction between Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and global cognitive impairment is invalid. She found that there are no fundamental differences between SLI discrepants and non-discrepants.

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Authors
  1. Tom A. Van Yperen
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Educational Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Jan Rispens

  2. Netherlands Institute of Care and Welfare, P.O. Box 19152, 3501 DD, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Tom A. van Yperen

  3. University of London, UK

    William Yule

  4. Dept. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, SE5 8AF, London, UK

    William Yule

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Van Yperen, T.A. (1998). Specific Language and Speech Disorder: Purifying the Concept. In: Rispens, J., van Yperen, T.A., Yule, W. (eds) Perspectives on the Classification of Specific Developmental Disorders. Neuropsychology and Cognition, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2581-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2581-1_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4961-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-2581-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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