Usage and context in pediatric speech and language therapy

Parallel to the rise of usage-based, emergentist, and constructivist theories on language acquisition over the last decades, context and usage have also come into focus in the area of speech-language therapy (SLT), where the traditional medical model of a “specialist fixing the patient’s speech and language system” is increasingly called into question. Focusing on oral language disorders in monolingual and bilingual children, in particular developmental language disorder (DLD), I will detail the role of the cognitive underpinnings and of the linguistic and socio-interactional context, both for more theoretical research on the nature of these disorders and for applied research on SLT assessment, intervention, and prevention.