Instructor Insights

Instructor Insights pages are part of the OCW Educator initiative, which seeks to enhance the value of OCW for educators.

Course Overview

This page focuses on the course 24.947 Language Disorders in Children as it was taught by Professor Suzanne Flynn in Spring 2013.

This course focused on reading and discussion of current linguistic theory, first language acquisition and language disorders in young children. It also focused on development of a principled understanding of language disorders at the phonological, morphological and syntactic levels, examining ways in which these disorders confront theories of language and acquisition.

Course Outcomes

Course Goals for Students

  • To provide an in-depth appreciation and understanding of the issues, problem puzzles, and questions involved in the study of language disorders in young children.
  • To provide an appreciation and understanding of experimental designs.
  • To develop an understanding of the manner in which different types of experimental methodologies evaluate developing linguistic competence in distinct but complementary ways.
  • To be able to apply these critical skills to the study of other domains of linguistics and cognitive science.
 

Curriculum Information

Prerequisites

None

Requirements Satisfied

None

The Classroom

  • A small classroom with five rows of tables, each seating four.

    Room 1 of 1

    Seminar

    This course was taught in a small classroom equipped with a chalkboard and a projector.

 

How Student Time Was Spent

During an average week, students were expected to spend 12 hours on the course, roughly divided as follows:

Seminar

2.5 hours per week
  • Met once a week for 2.5 hours per session; 10 sessions total; mandatory attendance.
  • All students were expected to participate in class, and to complete the readings.
  • One student per week was asked to prepare a summary of the day’s readings. In addition, where appropriate, the student would prepare a proposal for an experimental study related to the topic at hand.
 

Out of Class

9.5 hours per week
  • Readings in preparation for class sessions.
  • Assignments include work on a study focusing on some aspect of language disorders.
 

Semester Breakdown

WEEK M T W Th F
1 No classes throughout MIT. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No classes throughout MIT.
2 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
3 No classes throughout MIT. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
4 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Seminar session. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
5 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
6 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Seminar session. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
7 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Seminar session. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
8 No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT.
9 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Seminar session. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
10 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Seminar session. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
11 No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. Seminar session. No session scheduled. No classes throughout MIT.
12 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Seminar session. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
13 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Seminar session. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
14 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Seminar session. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
15 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. Student presentations. No session scheduled. No classes throughout MIT.
16 No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT. No classes throughout MIT.
Displays the color and pattern used on the preceding table to indicate dates when classes are not held at MIT. No classes throughout MIT
Displays the color used on the preceding table to indicate dates when seminar sessions are held. Seminar session
Displays the color used on the preceding table to indicate dates when no class session is scheduled. No class session scheduled
Displays the color used on the preceding table to indicate dates when student presentations are held. Student Presentations