Syntax Device and Unit Disorder in Children with Mental Retardation: A Neurolinguistic Perpspective on Language Learning Innovations and Progressive Education

Abstract

This study aimed at obtaining information from neurolinguistic perspective about how children with mental retardation experience language learning by focusing on syntax device and unit disorder. With a qualitative paradigm, this study involved three children with mental retardation aged 17, 12, and 13 years at a special school in East Jakarta. Data in the form of utterances from three children with mental retardation through communication interactions were collected and produced 12 recordings which were then analyzed by apply-ing content analysis technique. The results of this study indicated that there were 151 errors in the form of syntax unit disorder, and the most errors were in the form of the phrase unit, amounting to 61 errors. In terms of syntax device disorder, 37 errors were found, of which the most errors were in intonation defects, amounting to 12 errors. The conclusion of the study is that children with mental retardation experience language disorders in the form of syntax defects because they are influenced by neurological disorders. How-ever, we see that these findings should not be standard benchmarks for mental and neurological disorders, so we argue that the defects in the syntax devices and units exhibited by children with mental retardation should be seen as a componential model of language issue on which their language development should be more focused on the meaning they get from information. In other words, we cannot just stick to the results which state that children with mental retardation have language difficulties but we must focus more on what they can understand as meaningful language to them. Therefore, we recommend trying to approach it with the concept of componential model of language that may be applicable with some technologies as innovative teaching and learning for teachers as well as progressive education for the children with mental retardation for their language learning experiences.

An Analysis on the Recent Techniques involved in Neurolinguistics

“…Implementation of neurolinguistics have been observed in various systematic research works related to various aspects of understanding generation in terms of language learning on part of various individuals hailing from diversified backgrounds and dealing with various physical and mental conditions. For instance, information from neurolinguistics perspective has been utilised for studying the process and experience of language learning by children who are found to be suffering with mental retardation conditions [3]. Apart from the physical structure of the brain, the aspect of emotions is found to be a very significant factor while analysing its impacts on neurolinguistics.…”

Language Development of Autistic Children on Syntactic Acquisition in Indonesia through Story Stimulus

“…synthesizing the mental object of the monkey and the mental object of the lion into a novel picture (hence the name Prefrontal Synthesis or PFS) (Murthado, Arung, Boeriswati, & Rahman, 2021). Association of language with Wernicke's and Broca's areas is well-known.…”

“…Language development after being given a story stimulus to the three subjects 12 times, and based on the results of calculating the Mean Length of Utterance from Brown's theory shows that the language development of the three subjects is different from the language development of the three subjects before being given the story stimulus (Murthado et al, 2021). This difference is that the development of language after being given a story stimulus has increased stably, although some of the 12 calculations show a decrease in the results of calculating syntactic production.…”