Adult People With Language Impairment and Their Life Situation

Abstract

Psychosocial outcome of language impairment (LI) was explored in interviews with three adults with LI (as children attended specialized boarding school) and four of their parents. The informants with LI expressed acceptance of LI and described themselves as independent. With driving education with adjusted pedagogy and initial governmental support, the informants with LI acquired driving licenses, developed work skills, and were paid salary by employers. Academic success was accredited to the specialized boarding school, though this limited development of social skills for social community participation. The adults with LI socialized nearly exclusively with family or peers with LI; described obvious angst for communicatively demanding situations, such as shopping in crowded stores; and described symptoms typical of attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder, social anxiety, and lower intellectual levels. Governmental support may facilitate accomplishment of life skill goals, increasing self-esteem in that realm. Negative social experiences, commonly without support outside family, reinforce behavioral trajectories toward further social isolation.