Problem Solving in Child Language Disorders: The Clinician as Clinical Scientist

Some problems exist in the way in which children with language disorders are classified, diagnosed, and treated. To help resolve these problems, clinicians need to function as clinical scientists in the diagnostic and therapeutic process. The classification, diagnosis, and treatment of children with language disorders should reflect hypotheses about the different levels of cause-effect relationships that exist among the structures, processes, and behaviors involved in language. Specifically, hypotheses about the primary and secondary deficits that characterize language disorders need to be made. That is, symptoms that reflect the underlying deficit must be differentiated from symptoms that reflect secondary and compensatory deficits. Clinical examples are presented to illustrate the way in which classification, diagnosis, and treatment of language-disordered children would proceed using these notions.