Unit 3 Assignment

This exercise is actually the beginning of your Final Assignment, where you will use the information you gather from an interviewee. First, choose a profession that interests you from the professions listed below in the field of speech and language development. You might decide to interview someone who is working in the field you hope to work in the future so you can learn more about the position you might have. Another option is to choose a professional in a position that you might come in contact with. This will give you insight into a position you will work closely with as a professional in the field. For example, classroom teachers work closely with counselors, so if you want to work in a classroom, you might interview a counselor.

Some examples of professions in the field are the following. Please do not let this list limit you. There are many aspects to the field of speech and language development in children.

• Speech/language pathologist
• Audiologist
• Otorhinolaryngologist (medical practitioner trained in diseases of ear, nose, and throat)
• Neurologist
• Psychologist (school, clinic, or private practice)
• Child development specialist
• Teacher
• Speech/language therapist (school, clinic, or private practice)
• Reading specialist (school, clinic, or private practice)
• Tutor
• Diagnostician (school, clinic)
• Counselor (school, clinic, or private practice)

It may be helpful to consider a specific disorder such as mental retardation, autism, brain injury, learning disabilities, hearing loss, deafness, voice disorders, stuttering, or cluttering that involves language impairment. For example, if you are interested in working with children with autism, you might contact the teacher of a classroom in a private school in your area that specializes in teaching children with autism. If you are not sure what these disorders are, you can do a quick search on the Internet for a definition or consult your textbook. If you want to interview someone who works with children who have a different disorder than what is on this list, contact your instructor for approval. The purpose of contacting your interviewee now is to develop a relationship with that person with the understanding that you will be contacting the person again as you move through each unit and learn about the issues related to the questions you will be asking for the final. Please see the list of questions in Course Documents. Please note that you can do your interview via email, phone, fax, or in person.

After you make contact with the interviewee, please answer the following questions and submit this document to your instructor in the Dropbox.

• Who did you decide to interview?
• What is the person’s profession?
• Why did you choose this person to interview?

Assignment 2

In this unit, you will revisit two renowned theorists in the field of psychology: Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Each of these innovative thinkers has put forth ideas about how children learn language in relation to their views on learning and intelligences. Piaget is a cognitive stage theorist whose work is strongly grounded in the biological frame of reference for language development. Piaget’s work acknowledges the influence of social factors on a child’s thinking and reasoning, but the emphasis is on the child as an independent operator in cognitive development. Vygotsky’s primary interest was in language development related to thought. According to Vygotsky, language and thought play a dual role; they are psychological tools that inform other mental functions and are at the same time mental functions that undergo cultural development (Vygotsky, 2000).

In a 3–4-page paper (not including the cover page or reference page) that follows APA formatting, compare and contrast Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories of language development and cognition. Highlighting the similarities and differences between these theories, discuss what makes Vygotsky’s ideas the theory of choice to explain the relationship between thinking and language development.

Please follow all the directions and this is the book we are using Language Development: Foundations, Processes, and Clinical Applications Edition: 2nd (2014) Author: Nina Capone Singleton and Brian B. Shulman