2024

Communication, Language, Reading and Writing Disorders

Name: Communication, Language, Reading and Writing Disorders
Code: PSI14120M
6 ECTS
Duration: 15 weeks/156 hours
Scientific Area: Educação Especial, Psychology

Teaching languages: Portuguese
Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese

Presentation

This CU has the general objective of knowing the mental processes involved in linguistic development and learning to read / write, as well as the factors and disorders that compromise their development / learning and the most effective approaches to overcome difficulties.

Sustainable Development Goals

Learning Goals

- Understand the processes and factors involved in language acquisition and development.
- Acquire knowledge and develop the necessary skills for the identification and assessment of communication and language disorders.
- Understand the theoretical concept of reading and acquire knowledge on the cognitive processes involved in reading and writing
- Acquire knowledge and develop the necessary skills for the identification and assessment of specific learning disorders in reading and writing
- Acquire knowledge in order to be able to analyze and elaborate educational plans to support children with difficulties in learning to read and write
- Develop skills for working in collaborative teams
- Develop research skills necessary to develop a project for a small empirical study.

Contents

1. Communication and Language
a. Describing language
b. Language acquisition and development
c. Developmental language disorders
i. Classification, diagnosis and intervention
2. Reading and writing
a. Writing systems and orthography
b. Psycholinguistic processes involved in expert reading
c. Reading and writing acquisition
i. Phonic methods
ii. The development of the ability to decode and write written words
iii. Reading comprehension and writing abilities
d. Learning disabilities in reading and writing
i. The incidence of learning disabilities
ii. Factors that influence success in learning to read and write
iii. Early detection, assessment and diagnosis
iv. Educational intervention

Teaching Methods

Teaching combines expository methodologies with dialogue/discussion moments with students, in order to ensure a close link between the theoretical content and its implications for research and practice.
The evaluation can be continuous or final. Continuous assessment combines a practical work involving the application of acquired knowledge and skills (eg. in the preparation of a research project, in the elaboration of teaching materials, in the analysis of student performance profiles in reading and writing activities), with a written test to assess theoretical knowledge. The result of the practical work and the written test each have a weighting of 50% in the UC grade. Students are considered approved if they obtain a final grade equal to or greater than 10 (ten) in the two components. The final evaluation implies a written test (100%) with questions that evaluate all the syllabus contents and the student's ability to apply knowledge in examples of concrete pedagogical situations.

Teaching Staff (2023/2024 )