The connectionist paradigm applied to language researches

The study deals with the Connectionist Theory and its branches, and how this theoretical model can contribute to the speech and language practice. This was aimed to collect and discuss several studies on the Connectionist Theory applied to language acquisition aiming at promoting the reflection on the contributions that this theory may bring out to speech and language therapy. It was found that the studies based on the connectionist theory related to speech and language therapy are prevalent in the area of language acquisition and language therapy, auditory and reading processing. However, they are scarce and little applied. Moreover, there is no direct relation between this theory and the techniques that can be used, but yes, with the analysis of therapeutic outcome, especially with the interpretation of how the process concerning learning the spoken and written language is carried out.

Speech; Language and Hearing Sciences; Cognition; Child Language; Reading; Speech