SLP - Speech-Language Pathology Receptive and Expressive Language Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A 4-year-old child is evaluated and found to understand complex directions (e.g., "Go get the big truck from your room and put it in the blue box"), identify hundreds of vocabulary words receptively, and comprehend short stories. However, the child's verbal output is limited to one- or two-word phrases such as "more juice" and "car go." This clinical profile most strongly suggests:
- A global language delay
- An isolated expressive language disorder (Correct answer)
- Childhood apraxia of speech
- An isolated receptive language disorder
Correct answer: An isolated expressive language disorder
The child demonstrates age-appropriate or advanced receptive language skills (understanding complex directions and vocabulary) but has a significant delay in language production (expressive language). This discrepancy between strong comprehension and weak verbal output points specifically to an isolated expressive language disorder.
Question 2: Which of the following clinical tasks is most specifically designed to assess a patient's receptive syntax?
- Asking the patient to describe a picture scene in detail.
- Having the patient repeat a series of increasingly long and complex sentences.
- Requiring the patient to point to the picture that matches a sentence like, "The girl is being chased by the dog." (Correct answer)
- Requesting the patient to name as many animals as they can in 60 seconds.
Correct answer: Requiring the patient to point to the picture that matches a sentence like, "The girl is being chased by the dog."
This task directly tests the patient's ability to understand a specific, and more complex, grammatical structure (the passive voice). The patient only needs to point, removing the demand on expressive language and isolating the skill of comprehending syntax. Describing a picture and verbal fluency tasks assess expressive language, while sentence repetition assesses auditory memory and expressive skills.
Question 3: A 70-year-old client who has had a left-hemisphere stroke presents with speech that is non-fluent, telegraphic, and effortful. He primarily uses content words and omits many function words. While he shows significant frustration, he is able to follow most commands and understands yes/no questions accurately. This pattern of deficits is most consistent with a primary impairment in:
- Auditory processing
- Pragmatic language
- Receptive language
- Expressive language (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Expressive language
This clinical picture is characteristic of Broca's aphasia, which is predominantly an expressive language disorder. The core deficits are in producing fluent, grammatically correct speech, while comprehension (receptive language) remains a relative strength.
Question 4: A school-aged child demonstrates difficulty understanding idioms (e.g., "it's raining cats and dogs"), grasping multiple-meaning words, and identifying the main idea of a passage read aloud. These challenges are indicative of a deficit in which specific area of language?
- Receptive semantics (Correct answer)
- Expressive syntax
- Receptive phonology
- Expressive morphology
Correct answer: Receptive semantics
Receptive semantics involves the understanding of word and language meaning. This includes not only literal vocabulary but also higher-level concepts like figurative language, humor, and abstracting main ideas, all of which relate to comprehending the meaning of a message.
Question 5: An SLP is assessing a 5-year-old who frequently provides tangentially related or irrelevant answers to questions. To differentiate between a primary receptive language deficit (not understanding the question) and an expressive language deficit (unable to formulate a response), which of the following actions is most informative?
- Calculating the child's Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) from a spontaneous language sample.
- Asking the child to follow a series of multi-step commands without requiring a verbal response. (Correct answer)
- Administering a standardized articulation test to assess speech sound production.
- Requesting that the child tell a story based on a wordless picture book.
Correct answer: Asking the child to follow a series of multi-step commands without requiring a verbal response.
Asking the child to follow commands isolates the receptive language component. If the child can successfully follow complex directions, it suggests they understand the language being presented. This helps rule out a receptive deficit as the primary cause of the irrelevant verbal responses. The other options heavily rely on assessing expressive language skills.
Question 6: An SLP is writing an Individualized Education Program (IEP) goal for a student with an expressive language disorder. Which of the following goals best targets expressive syntax?
- The student will follow three-step, related directions with 80% accuracy.
- The student will identify 20 new vocabulary words by pointing to pictures.
- The student will use conjunctions (e.g., 'and', 'but', 'because') to combine two simple sentences in 8 out of 10 opportunities. (Correct answer)
- The student will correctly answer 'wh-' questions about a short story with 90% accuracy.
Correct answer: The student will use conjunctions (e.g., 'and', 'but', 'because') to combine two simple sentences in 8 out of 10 opportunities.
Expressive syntax concerns the rules for combining words into grammatically correct sentences. Using conjunctions to create complex sentences is a direct and measurable goal for improving this skill. The other options target receptive language skills (following directions, identifying vocabulary, answering comprehension questions).
SLP - Speech-Language Pathology Receptive and Expressive Language Questions and Answers
A 4-year-old child is evaluated and found to understand complex directions (e.g., "Go get the big truck from your room and put it in the blue box"), identify hundreds of vocabulary words receptively, and comprehend short stories.
However, the child's verbal output is limited to one- or two-word phrases such as "more juice" and "car go." This clinical profile most strongly suggests: