Project Prospectus

How can parents know if their child is a late-talker or has a developmental language delay?

1. What defines a late-talker?
2. What defines a developmental language disorder?
3. What are some characteristics of late-talkers?
4. What are some characteristics of developmental language disorders?
5. At what age is it apparent that a child is a late-talker or if he/she has a language disorder?
6. At what age should a parent seek therapy?

The point that I plan to make is that not all late-talkers are disordered. I plan to show some distinguished differences between the two. Through my research, I plan to help others learn those differences.

The genres that I plan to use include:
· Webliography—Clinician Voice
· PowerPoint Presentation—Clinician Voice
· Poem—Clinician Voice
· Journal Entry—Parent Voice
· Letter to Parent—Client Voice
· Interview Transcript—Clinician Voice
· E-mail Exchange-- Parent Voice and Friends

I plan to use my e-mail exchange as my unifying genre. It will contain bits and pieces from everyone of my other genres.

Tentative Resources:
1) Collins, J., Cooper, L., & Parenti M. (2001). Information on late-talkers and deviant
speech. Can You Tell the Difference Between Delayed Speech and Deviant Speech? [Online]. Available http://www.geocities.com/latetalkers/page2.htm
2) Patterson, J. Late-talkers are at risk for language impairment. Expressive Vocabulary of Bilingual Toddlers: Preliminary Findings [Online]. Available http://www.asha.ucf.edu/patterson.html

Abbye's Webliography

Fun Stuff

* Do you think that you know me? I developed a quiz for my friends to see who knows me best? You can take the quiz by clicking on DO YOU KNOW ABBYE QUIZ!

* I absolutely love to shop!!! One of my favorite
places to shop is at Old Navy because they have cute and cheap clothes.

* I also like to go to the movies. My boyfriend and
I usually go to Marquee Cinemas in Charleston.

Speech Pathology Sites

* If I ever need to find out some information related
to speech pathology, I can just visit ASHA. This is a site geared towards anyone who wants to learn more about communication disorders. It has information for clinicians who are interested in reading more about their field. It has information for people with communication disorders or parents of children with communication disorders. It also provides information for students studying communication disorders.

* I found a really interesting site for speech pathologists to visit. It is the National Center for Voice and Speech. It has information about how to take care of the voice. It has links for singers, speech pathologists, students, and lifelong learners. It lists voice hygeine techniques that are useful to everyone.

Every speech pathologist and student studying communication disorders needs to know the ASHA Code of Ethics. This is a set of priciples that govern speech pathology and audiology. If you break these principles, you will be in big trouble! Therefore, it would benefit you greatly to read and keep up on the code of ethics.

Research Resources

For my research, I decided to study late-talkers vs. language delayed children. Here is some some of the sources that i used when conducting my research:

One of the books that I used was my CD 425 book. It is called Language and Communication Disorders in Children. This book has lots of information for late-talkers, as well as information on other communication disorders that deal with children. The authors of the book are Deena K. Bernstein and Ellenmorris Tiegerman-Farber.

I also looked at Is Your Child A Late-Talker?. This website was composed by C. Collins, L. Cooper, and L. Parenti. It has many charts and data related to the developmental milestones that children go through. It has a chart for when they should be saying certain phonemes, as well as charts of when they should be performing certain receptive and expressive skills.

Another site that has good information on late-talkers was Expressive Vocabulary of Bilingual Toddlers: Preliminary Findings. This site discusses research that was done on late-talking children. The author of the article is J. Patterson. He discusses some outcomes of late-talkers.

Personal Interests

* I love to read! My favorite author is James Patterson

* I am a huge fan of Friends. I have to be home every Thursday at 8:00 so that I can watch it.

* I am also a fanatic of Days of our Lives. I have watched it most of my life. I try to catch it everyday, but if I miss an episode, I don't freak out over it. I figure I can catch up the next day.
________________________________________________________________________________________

Go to TABLE OF CONTENTS