Language disorders in childhood and adolescence: implications for learning and socialization.

Children and adolescents with language disorders encounter disruption in the fluency of social interaction. Because of the chronic nature of language disabilities, problems in academic achievement and success become the hallmark of the disorders during the school years. Since adolescence represents a time of experimentation and definition of the self, individuals with language disorders are at high risk for the development of fragmented and inappropriate perspectives about themselves. Treatment must address, in a functionally coordinated manner, the acquisition of essential linguistic and basic academic skills, the learning of curriculum content, and the development of appropriate perspectives of the self and the environment.