Social Deprivation: Language and Learning

Social Deprivation: Language and Learning Disorders SOCIAL DEPRIVATION: LEARNING and LANGUAGE DISORDERS The objective of this work is to research and report social deprivation as it relates to learning and language disorders. Social deprivation has been linked to many negative factors in the lives of individuals who are socially deprived ranging from factors such as learning and language disabilities, as well as other negative factors and particularly when combined with racial and ethnic prejudices.

(Transcultural Healthcare Practice: Core Practice Module, Chapter Four, Ethnicity and Learning Disabilities, 2007) Review of the Literature In 1965 Harlow, Dodsworth and Harlow conducted studies with rhesus monkeys relating to isolation and the long-term effects of social isolation or deprivation.

In the work entitled: "Total Social Isolation in Monkeys" published in the Psychology Journal these authors state findings relating to the "various total-isolation and semi-isolation studies...[that]...sufficiently severe and enduring early isolation reduces these animals to a social-emotional level in which the primary social responsiveness is fear." (1965) the work of Alan G.

Kamhi entitled: Problem Solving in Child Language Disorders" published in the Language, Speech and Hearing Services in School Journal states that problems exist "in the way in which children with language disorders are classified, diagnosed, and treated." (Kamhi, 1984) the resolution to these problems requires that the clinician function as clinical scientists in the process of diagnosis and therapy. Social deprivation may result in language disorders that are not genetically-based disorders but are due to social-conditioning, or in the case of social deprivation, the lack of social conditioning or experiential interaction.

The work of Dr. Ronald S. Federici entitled: "Neuropsychological Evaluation and Rehabilitation of the Post-Institutionalized Child" relates that children who are placed in institutions awaiting adoption often experience 'social deprivation'. (1999) According to Federici, institutionalism often results in social deprivation and other negative experiences that hinder the child's cognition, may cause autism, and impacts all levels of the development of a child. The work of Julia Ann Scherba de Valenzuela, Ph.D.

entitled: "The Social Construction of Language Competence: Language Socialization in Three Bilingual Kindergarten Classrooms" states that: "Language socialization is the process through which children are taught the socially appropriate ways to speak and use language in different social contexts, such as at home, with strangers, at school or with respected elders." (1999) the work of Dimitrios Thanasoulas entitled; "Language and Disadvantage" examines the 'environmental deficit' in which the children are developmentally delayed due to: "inadequate aspects of early socialization practices {which are stated to] lead to cognitive and emotional defects in children - defects which show up most clearly in the early school years." (1999) Work released by the National Child Development Study on Children...shows clearly the coordination between educational failure/difficulties and 'social deprivations'.

(SEBDA 2006 Business Plan) the work of Kandel entitled: "Psychotherapy and the Single Synapse" published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry Clinical Neuroscience (2001) states that in experiments conducted on human infants that ranged from complex to simple experiments involving laboratory animals it has been documented that there exists a "...set of critical stages for normal psychologic development." (2001) Kandel relates that prior to formal studies being conducted on material deprivation: "...a few anecdotal examples of social isolation were collected by anthropologists and clinicians.

From time to time children had been discovered living in an attic or a cellar, with minimal social contact, perhaps spending only a few minutes a day with a caretaker, a nurse or a parent.

Children so deprived in early childhood are often later found to be speechless and lacking in social responsiveness." (Kandel, 2001) According to the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities in the work entitled: "Issues in Learning Disabilities: Assessment and Diagnosis": Diagnosis, assessment and treatment must be in the nature of 'differential diagnosis' in making identification between varying disorders, syndromes and other factors that impact the acquisition of the skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing reasoning or mathematical abilities." (National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 1994) the individual who has been the subject of social deprivation may or may not have an accompanying learning disability.

(National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 1994) Summary and Conclusion Previous studies have shown that social deprivation does indeed impact the learning and language development of a child and in fact, that social deprivation impacts many areas of a child's development. In the initiative of diagnosis and assessment of a child's ability, differential diagnosis is necessary.