A Therapeutic Model for Communicative Disorders Among Children Who Speak Black English Vernacular

Abstract

A therapeutic model of communicative pathology is proposed for children who speak black English vernacular. The model establishes a conceptual framework in which normal communicative behavior encompasses linguistic features that characterize black English vernacular. The model accounts for children’s linguistic utterances as being either variant or invariant with Standard English and black English vernacular. Variant linguistic features are classified as either developmental or pathological deviations. Both Standard English and black English vernacular constitute normative referents against which pathological deviations are assessed.