Dose Schedule and Enhanced Conversational Recast Treatment for Children With Specific Language Impairment

Purpose

Dosage has been identified as an important element of treatment that may affect treatment efficacy. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of dose schedule for treatment of grammatical morphology deficits in children with specific language impairment (SLI).

Method

Sixteen 4-to-5-year-old children with SLI participated in a 5-week intervention consisting of equivalent daily Enhanced Conversational Recast treatment (Plante et al., 2014) targeting grammatical morphology. Half of the children received treatment in one 30-min session (massed condition). Half received treatment in three 10-min sessions (spaced condition) within one 4-hr period. Progress was assessed 3 times weekly by probing a child's use of his or her treatment morpheme and untreated morpheme (a maturational control) in untreated contexts.

Results

Pre- to posttreatment morpheme usage differed significantly for children regardless of dosage condition, and pre to post usage of an untreated morpheme was unchanged, demonstrating overall treatment efficacy. There were no differences in treatment effects for the massed and spaced conditions.

Conclusions

The study adds to evidence that Enhanced Conversational Recast can produce positive results in a short period of time for children with SLI. Furthermore, clinicians may have some flexibility in terms of the dose schedule they use to deliver this treatment in an evidence-based manner.

from #Audiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2eOPDLp
via IFTTT

The Role of Socioeconomic Status in the Narrative Story Retells of School-Aged English Language Learners

Purpose

We examined the relationship between maternal level of education as an index of socioeconomic status (SES) on the narrative story retells of school-aged children who are English language learners (ELLs) to guide interpretation of results.

Method

Using data available from the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts database (Miller & Iglesias, 2012), we were able to compare the language samples of 907 ELL students in kindergarten and 2nd grade whose parents had different levels of education. We used a simple linear regression to see if maternal level of education was predictive of measures of vocabulary, syntax, and narrative structure in Spanish and English narrative story retells.

Results

There were no differences in language measures between children from different SES backgrounds for the Spanish language samples. There were differences with the English language samples in four of the five measures for the kindergarten sample and only three of five measures for the older children, with a smaller percentage of the variance explained.

Conclusion

Despite common knowledge that SES has a negative influence on language, the actual influence on the narrative productions of school-aged ELLs was less than anticipated for English and absent for Spanish. The implications for assessment are discussed and concluded.

from #Audiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/29Nyzqq
via IFTTT

Telling Tales: Personal Event Narratives and Life Stories

Purpose

Speech-language pathologists know much more about children's development of fictional narratives than they do about children's development of personal narratives and the role these personal narratives play in academic success, social–emotional development, and self-regulation. The purpose of this tutorial is to provide clinicians with strategies for assessing and developing children's and adolescents' personal narratives.

Method

This tutorial reviews the literature on (a) the development of autobiographical event narratives and life stories, (b) factors that contribute to development of these genres, (c) the importance of these genres for the development of sense of self-identity and self-regulation, (d) deficits in personal narrative genres, and (e) strategies for eliciting and assessing event narratives and life stories.

Implications

To promote development of personal event narratives and life stories, speech-language pathologists can help clients retrieve information about interesting events, provide experiences worthy of narrating, and draw upon published narratives to serve as model texts. Clinicians can also address four interrelated processes in intervention: reminiscing, reflecting, making coherent connections, and signaling the plot structure. Furthermore, they can activate metacognitive awareness of how evaluations of experiences, coherence, and plot structure are signaled in well-formed personal event narratives and life stories.

from #Audiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2dUoqJE
via IFTTT

Exciting Changes Coming to LSHSS ! You Are Invited to Participate!

Purpose

In this editorial, the Editor of Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (LSHSS) describes important changes coming to LSHSS and all ASHA journals and calls for readers to voice their opinion regarding important topics and formats they would like to see included in future LSHSS volumes.

from #Audiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2eOS5kK
via IFTTT

Strategies for Teachers to Manage Stuttering in the Classroom: A Call for Research

Purpose

This clinical focus article highlights the need for future research involving ways to assist children who stutter in the classroom.

Method

The 4 most commonly recommended strategies for teachers were found via searches of electronic databases and personal libraries of the authors. The peer-reviewed evidence for each recommendation was subsequently located and detailed.

Results

There are varying amounts of evidence for the 4 recommended teacher strategies outside of the classroom, but there are no data for 2 of the strategies, and minimal data for the others, in a classroom setting. That is, there is virtually no evidence regarding whether or not the actions put forth influence, for example, stuttering frequency, stuttering severity, participation, or the social, emotional, and cognitive components of stuttering in the classroom.

Conclusion

There is a need for researchers and speech-language pathologists in the schools to study the outcomes of teacher strategies in the classroom for children who stutter.

from #Audiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/29JCEZf
via IFTTT

Do Adolescents With Specific Language Impairment Understand Driving Terminology?

Purpose

This study examined if adolescents with specific language impairment (SLI) understand driving vocabulary as well as their typically developing (TD) peers.

Method

A total of 16 adolescents with SLI and 16 TD comparison adolescents completed a receptive vocabulary task focused on driving terminology derived from statewide driver's manuals.

Results

The SLI group understood fewer driving-related terms when compared with the TD comparison group. Although both groups performed comparably in understanding simple noun driving terminology, the SLI group had greater difficulty comprehending compound noun and verb driving terms.

Discussion

The decreased understanding of terms found in driver's manuals for adolescents with SLI has implications for how they access necessary information for learning the driving rules, regulations, and procedures important for securing a driver's license.

from #Audiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2cCKjdT
via IFTTT

Assessing the Reliability and Use of the Expository Scoring Scheme as a Measure of Developmental Change in Monolingual English and Bilingual French/English Children

Purpose

The Expository Scoring Scheme (ESS) is designed to analyze the macrostructure of descriptions of a favorite game or sport. This pilot study examined inter- and intrarater reliability of the ESS and use of the scale to capture developmental change in elementary school children.

Method

Twenty-four children in 2 language groups (monolingual English and bilingual French/English) and 2 age groups (7–8 years, 11–12 years) participated (6 in each subgroup). Participants orally explained how to play their favorite game or sport in English. Expository discourse samples were rated for 10 macrostructure components using the ESS. Ratings were summed for a total score.

Results

Inter- and intrarater reliability was high for the total ESS score and for some but not all ESS components. In addition, the total score and ratings for many ESS components increased with age. Few differences were found in use of macrostructure components across language groups.

Conclusions

The ESS captures developmental change in the use of expository macrostructure in spoken discourse samples. It may be beneficial to take into account the lower reliability found for ratings of some ESS components in clinical practice. Due to the small sample size, these results should be considered preliminary and interpreted with caution.

from #Audiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/29GSFEz
via IFTTT