Language disorders in children

Seminars: 1 session / week; 2.5 hours / session

There are no prerequisites for this course.

By focusing on a select set of papers, I hope to provide the class with an in-depth appreciation and understanding of the issues, problems puzzles and questions involved in the study of language disorders in young children. These include, although not limited to:

I also hope to provide an appreciation and understanding of experimental designs. What constitutes a good design? How does one control for certain factors? What are possible confounds? How does one evaluate empirical results? How does one translate a theoretical claim into an experimental hypothesis?

In addition, I would like to have the class develop an understanding of the manner in which different types of experimental methodologies evaluate developing linguistic competence in distinct but complementary ways.

Finally, I hope that by the end of the class, students will not only have developed a critical understanding of the issue in language acquisition and disorders but will also be able to apply these critical skills to the study of other domains of linguistics and cognitive science.

I would like to have the class, as much as possible, be conducted as a seminar. Please read the assigned readings. I encourage everyone to participate by asking questions, sharing their own experiences and observations, objecting to interpretations, formulating new hypotheses, making predictions, etc., etc. All input is welcomed!!!

Class assignments are detailed in the Assignments section.

For each class, one student will prepare a summary of the day's readings. In addition, where appropriate, the student will prepare a proposal for an experimental study related to the topic at hand. During class, we will discuss the readings and the proposed experiment. This discussion will be co-led by me along with the student moderator.

Class readings are detailed in the Readings section.

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